Festival in Duisdorf Bengalis celebrate the start of the year 1424
Duisdorf · Bengalis from across Germany celebrated the start of the new year 1424 on Saturday with singing and dancing.
Wearing traditional costumes, they brought a bit of local flavour to Duisdorf in the colourfully decorated hall. Amaresh Gupta was the special guest – the native-born Indian has been living in Germany for 50 years and has worked among other things as a Professor at Bonn University. “It is great that such events take place. Of course, we miss our home country and this is a good opportunity to return to our culture for a little while”, says Gupta.
Several hundred people gather together every year to celebrate, eat and marvel at the traditional dancing. Amaresh Gupta would like to see more German guests, as he believes festivals such as this are a way of building cultural bridges. The President of the Bangladesh Academy in Bonn is pleased with the celebrations - like every year, the rush was enormous and the guests were delighted with the colourful and traditional program.
(Original text: chf, Translation: Caroline Payne)