Kolkata, March 1 (IANS) People in West Bengal on Thursday celebrated the spring festival, or Dol, with colours, songs, prayers and distribution of sweets.
Thousands of people from all age groups and from different corners of India and even abroad assembled at Birbhum district's Santiniketan, about 180 km from the state capital, where Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore reintroduced Dol at the Visva Bharati university founded by him.
Scenes of mirth and gaiety were witnessed at Santiniketan campus, as people jived on the streets to the tune of popular Tagore songs that exhorted everyone to mingle in joy.
The festivities began at the crack of dawn. Students of Visva Bharati, accompanied by their teachers, went around the campus singing "Ore Grihabasi, khol dwar khol, laglo je dol" (Oh dwellers! Open your doors, it is Dol".
The girls, resplendent in golden saris and garlands of fragrant flowers, and boys decked up in traditional kurtas, then took part in a song and dance routine at the football ground. The function ended with everyone smearing each other with abir.
"This year, the crowd was more in number than in recent years," said a resident of the locality.
The curtains came down on the festivities in the evening, with the rendering of Tagore's dance drama 'Chandalika' by the university students.
In the metropolis, Bengalis exchanged sweets and pleasantries.
As the morning progressed, the youngsters moved around their neighbourhoods in groups, throwing water missiles and smearing coloured powder on one another.
In parts of the state, the festival is marked by placing the idols of Krishna and Radha on a picturesquely decorated palanquin, which is carried by the devotees around the town. People dance around and sing hymns in joy, and spray coloured water and smear gulal on each other.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) observed the day at its global headquarters in Nadia district's Mayapur, about 130 km from here, as the birth anniversary of Vaishnav saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Devotional songs and cultural programmes, discourses about the life and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were organised on the occasion.
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