Sombre touch to weekend of festivities in Mumbai – Times of India

MUMBAI: A colourful quilt of multi-religious festivals will warm the cityscape this weekend. The second round of Hindu new year festivals gets under way even as the Christian community observes Good Friday ahead of Easter Sunday.
Vaishakh new year festivities between April 14-16 occur approximately a fortnight after the Chaitra Purnima series of new year celebrations. On Thursday, the Odias celebrated Pana Sankranti, while Friday will see the Bengalis enjoy Poila Boishakh, Malayalees Vishu and Tamilians Puthandu. The Assamese will observe Rongali Bihu. Ashim Dey of the Navi Mumbai Bengali Association, Vashi, said, “As per the Bengali calendar, the (new) year is 1429. After a gap of two years people will come to take darshan of Goddess Kali. People wear colourful clothes and greet each other ‘Shubho Nobo Borsho’.”
Bombay Durga Bari Samiti will celebrate Poila Boishakh along with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s birthday at Tejpal Hall. “We will present scholarships to deserving students followed by a musical tribute to Lata Mangeshkar, Sandhya Mukherjee and Bappi Lahiri who passed away recently,” said president Susmita Mitra.
Pradip Mohapatra of the Odia Welfare Association said, “We celebrated Odia new year and Pana Sankranti on April 14, with core members’ families in a private residence only.”
Mulund has a large population of Jains, and therefore a high number of derasars as well. A representative of the Safalya Shri Adinath Shwetambar Jain mandir said they led a rathyatra at Mahavir Jayanti on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Holy Week observances will peak at Good Friday on April 16. The biggest rally that unfolds from Sacred Heart Church to Kalina will resume too. Organiser Joe Dias of the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) said, “This year, we pray for those whom we lost to the pandemic and for Covid warriors. The secondary intentions are peace in Ukraine and (battling) the persecution of Christians the world over.”