United News of Bangladesh

Taxila Vidyalaya hosted a colourful children’s art festival in the capital on Saturday, bringing together young artists in a celebration of creativity, imagination and self-expression. The school campus came alive with the Art Festival 2026, themed “Culture Is the First Sunrise of Awakening”, organised by the social organisation 27 Dhanmondi in partnership with Tokshoshila School. Parents, teachers and invited guests gathered at Tokshoshila School in the capital on Saturday to witness young minds at work. Designed to nurture creativity, imagination and a love of the arts among children, the festival drew students from Grade One through Grade Ten, representing more than ten educational institutions across Dhaka.

A two-day Sultan Festival began in Narail on Friday marking the birth anniversary of SM Sultan, widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Indian subcontinent, with more than 200 children taking part in an art competition on the opening day. The festival has been organised by the SM Sultan Shishu Charu O Karukala Foundation on the Sultan Mancha premises of Narail Government Victoria College. Mostafizur Rahman Alek, administrator of Narail District Council, inaugurated the festival around 10:00am. More than 200 children participated in the art competition, depicting SM Sultan, natural landscapes, rural fairs, the Sultan Fair, the Liberation War and various other themes through their paintings. The organisers said the event was arranged to introduce children to Sultan’s artistic vision and works and encourage them to develop an interest in art. The festival features an exhibition of paintings by children, a discussion on Sultan’s life and works, and a cultural programme in addition to the art competition. Among others, Narail Government Victoria College Principal Prof Haider Ali Dewan, District Primary Education Officer Md Jahangir Alam, SM Sultan Charu O Karukala Foundation President Sheikh Hanif, retired professor and artist Bimanesh Biswas of the Fine Arts Department of Khulna University, lecturer of SM Sultan Charu O Karukala College Anadi Bairagi, Sultan Memorial Museum Curator Tandra Mukherjee, Assistant Curator Mehedi Hasan Rana and Sultan admirers attended the inaugural programme. The festival will conclude on Saturday. The 103rd birth anniversary of internationally acclaimed painter SM Sultan was observed on August 10.  

The 50th death anniversary of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was observed on Thursday. Nazrul, revered as Bidrohi Kobi (a rebel poet) for his activism for political and social justice, breathed his last in Dhaka on 12th Bhadro of Bangla calendar year 1383 (August 29, 1976) at the age of 77. He was buried with full state honours beside the Dhaka University (DU) Central Mosque. Nazrul produced a large volume of poetry and music with themes that included religious devotion and spiritual rebellion against all sorts of oppression. Different socio-cultural and political organisations arranged elaborate programmes on the occasion. Television channels aired special programmes on his works and life to observe the day. The programmes started with Qurankhwani after Fajr prayers at the DU Central Mosque by different organisations while a discussion was held at the campus. Later, DU teachers and students and other political and socio-cultural organisations placed wreaths at the grave of the national poet in the morning. Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy organised a two-day preogramme marking the death anniversary of the national port. Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on May 24 in 1899 at Churulia village in Asansol subdivision of Burdwan district of West Bengal, India. Following Bangladesh’s independence, Nazrul was brought to Dhaka with his family on May 24, 1972, with special permission from the government of India. He was given the status of National Poet, provided with state accommodation in Dhanmondi, awarded an honorary D. Litt. by Dhaka University in 1974, and granted Bangladeshi citizenship in 1976. The same year, he was honoured with the Ekushey Padak. Meanwhile, BNP acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed on Thursday said National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was an inspiration behind all major movements in Bangladesh from the country’s independence war to the 2024 mass uprising. He made the remarks after paying tribute to Kazi Nazrul Islam at the poet’s grave on the Dhaka University campus in the morning.

Durga Bari Stuttgart, a vibrant cultural and social organisation of the Bengali community living in Stuttgart, Germany, will host its grand Durga Puja 2026 celebration from October 2026 16 to 20 at Martin-Luther-Str. The five-day festival will feature traditional Durga Puja rituals and customary ceremonies conducted in accordance with the Hindu Panjika (almanac), alongside a colourful lineup of cultural programs, authentic Bengali cuisine and Bengali street food, said a media release on Thursday. The popularity of Durga Puja celebration is no longer confined to Stuttgart or the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Today it is regarded as one of the foremost annual gatherings for the Bengali diaspora across Germany. “Dear members, guests and friends, we extend our warmest greetings to you all. Durga Bari Stuttgart is not merely an organization - it is a true home for our culture, heritage and community. Throughout the year, we organise various festivals and cultural programs that bring people together and encourage cross-cultural exchange,” said Bimal Agarwala, President, Durga Bari Stuttgart. “Engaging the next generation is also one of our special goals - we want young people to become familiar with their cultural roots and carry that heritage forward with new-found enthusiasm. This is how we build a living bridge between the past, present and future. I warmly invite you all to join our event and celebrate the diversity of our culture together with us.” Durga Bari Stuttgart is a vibrant organisation of the Bengali community living in Stuttgart, Germany, which nurtures the heritage and culture of Bengal through religious observances, cultural events and social gatherings, and continues its efforts to pass this legacy on to the next generation.

Chinese Valentine's Day is about much more than flowers and chocolates. Known as Qixi, the ancient festival combines romance with legends, prayers and traditional cultural practices that continue to be observed today. Qixi is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Aug. 19 this year. The festival is also observed in Singapore, Vietnam and several other Asian countries.

China’s imperial cuisine, once shaped by elaborate court rituals and the dining traditions of emperors and their households, continues to survive today through restaurants and culinary traditions that preserve dishes from the country’s imperial past. One story associated with Empress Dowager Cixi dates to the final decades of imperial China. It is said that Cixi once dreamed about a pastry and was served the same treat for breakfast the following morning. Delighted, she summoned the chef and rewarded him with a silver ingot. “It was originally called ‘minced pork pancake,’ but because it had fulfilled her dream, it later became known as ‘dream pastry,’” said Zhou Tong, a chef at Fangshan Restaurant in Beijing. Fangshan specializes in imperial cuisine and preserves dishes associated with Cixi as well as other culinary traditions of China’s imperial court. The restaurant was established in 1925 by former Qing Dynasty chefs at Beihai Park, a historic garden where members of several Chinese dynasties rested, conducted government affairs and held ritual ceremonies. “The name Fangshan literally means ‘imitating the imperial cuisine,’” said assistant general manager Di Xin. Several other restaurants in Beijing also offer versions of imperial cuisine, while the Palace Museum preserves Qing Dynasty objects connected to court dining, including molds used to make pastries. Every meal had its own rituals Imperial cuisine included the food eaten daily by emperors as well as elaborate feasts held by the imperial court throughout the year. Each occasion followed specific rituals. At Qing Dynasty banquets, for example, drinking milk tea was an important opening step, said Teng Deyong, a researcher at China’s Palace Museum. During banquets, emperors would present wine or food to princes and government officials. Those receiving the offerings were expected to perform rituals and pay their respects to the emperor before eating or drinking. Sacrificial ceremonies followed a different set of rules and could include offerings of meat. “At the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity, there was the eating of sacrificial pork, which we know was one of the most important rituals of the Qing imperial court,” Teng said. The pork used in the ceremony was boiled without salt. Afterward, it was distributed among guests, and receiving the sacrificial meat was regarded as a significant honor. The practice of serving unseasoned food also has roots in earlier Chinese ritual traditions. Wandi Wang, a professor of Chinese at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, said the “Book of Rites,” a classical text on ceremonies and rituals, describes a meat broth known as “grand stew” that was served without seasoning during sacrificial ceremonies. “The absence of added flavoring was itself meaningful: the unseasoned dish evoked an earlier and simpler way of cooking and thus expressed a ritual ideal of honoring antiquity and remembering cultural origins,” Wang said. Traditional methods preserve imperial pastries Pastries played an important role in imperial cuisine, and the imperial court maintained a specialized institution dedicated to producing them. At Fangshan, Zhou prepares pastries including Cixi’s dream pastry and a small steamed corn bun, using recipes based on imperial court traditions. “When customers visit, our servers often tell them the stories behind these dishes,” Zhou said. “People enjoy them even more because they carry such meaningful history.” Zhou learned traditional pastry-making techniques from a master who had learned them from his own mentor, continuing a craft passed down through generations. Traditional imperial methods require much of the preparation to be done by hand, without blenders or food processors. Beans, for example, are pulverized using sieves, while certain types of flour are prepared in specially made copper pots. “A machine may be more convenient, but the texture is completely different,” Zhou said. “You lose the delicate graininess and sandy mouthfeel that handcrafted pastries are supposed to have.” Fangshan’s popular specialties include pea flour cake and red bean rolls. During peak periods, customers order more than 200 of the cakes each day. Preserving ancient techniques in a changing world When Fan Liangliang joined Fangshan as a kitchen apprentice, he had to relearn much of what he had been taught in culinary school. Instead of using faster techniques, he adopted slower traditional methods that were unfamiliar to him. One such technique is known as “Nizihuo,” which Fan described as mincing ingredients such as fish, shrimp or chicken into a smooth paste and then shaping it into decorative forms such as frogs, birds and flowers. “This is one of the hallmarks of imperial cuisine,” Fan said. “Every dish had to be innovative, visually beautiful, nutritious and worthy of presentation on the imperial dining table.” Some rare ingredients once used in imperial dishes, including bear paws, are no longer served. Fan said modern alternatives are used while attempting to preserve the original character and spirit of the dishes.

A museum exhibition in east China’s Anhui Province is offering visitors a different perspective on the country’s ancient civilization by highlighting its long history of astronomical observation and scientific exploration. Rather than focusing mainly on traditional treasures such as porcelain, calligraphy and ritual vessels, the exhibition features jade cosmological diagrams, ancient star charts and bronze astronomical instruments created by Chinese scholars centuries ago. Titled “Heavenly Questions: The Cosmological Vision of Chinese Civilization,” the exhibition at the Anhui Museum brings together nearly 300 artifacts from 48 institutions across China. It is one of the country’s rare exhibitions dedicated specifically to presenting ancient Chinese views of the universe through cultural relics. Since opening in July, the exhibition has attracted around 350,000 visitors, many drawn by the astronomical instruments once used to observe, measure and understand the cosmos. Among the main attractions is a jade slab dating back 5,800 to 5,300 years and roughly the size of a smartphone. Eight arrows at its center represent the eight directions, while arrows at the four corners appear to correspond with sunrise and sunset positions during the winter and summer solstices. The cosmological diagram may predate Britain’s Stonehenge. Other notable exhibits include China’s oldest equatorial astronomical instrument, a disk bearing the 28 lunar star mansions discovered in the tomb of a marquis dating to 165 BC, and a bronze water clock from the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-25 AD), the earliest dated water clock ever discovered. The exhibition also features a rubbing of a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) stone-carved astronomical chart showing more than 1,400 stars. It remains the oldest known all-sky map based on actual astronomical observations. “These ‘hardcore creations’ in ancient astronomy laid the technological foundation for studying the laws of celestial motion,” said Meng Qian, director of the museum’s research department. The exhibition concludes by connecting ancient astronomical achievements with China’s modern space program. Ancient instruments, including globes and gnomons, are displayed alongside models of modern spacecraft such as the Yutu lunar rover and lunar soil samples collected by the Chang’e-6 mission in 2024. Many of China’s major space missions also carry names rooted in ancient Chinese mythology and culture. The country’s lunar exploration program is named after Chang’e, the legendary goddess of the moon. The Mars rover Zhurong takes its name from an ancient fire god, while the space-survey telescope Mozi is named after the philosopher credited with some of China’s earliest optical experiments. The exhibition takes its title from “Tianwen,” or “Heavenly Questions,” an epic poem written more than 2,000 years ago by patriotic poet Qu Yuan. China’s Mars exploration program also carries the name Tianwen. “This exhibition lets ancient astronomy and modern space exploration illuminate and interpret each other,” said Shi Yunli, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and an adviser to the exhibition. “When visitors stand between the folded bronze gnomon and the Yutu rover, they see not just two objects on display, but they see a 5,000-year chain of quest,” Shi said. The exhibition will continue through mid-October as China’s space exploration program moves toward new milestones. “We hope this exhibition will let visitors look back at the early lights of our culture, and also see the way forward,” Meng said.

A 55.6-metre statue of the Virgin Mary, believed to be the tallest of its kind in Europe, was inaugurated Saturday in a small Polish village in the presence of former Polish President and anti-communist icon Lech Walesa. Hundreds of people attended the consecration ceremony in Konotopie, a central Polish village with fewer than 150 residents. Priests in white robes celebrated Mass as helicopters dropped small red roses over the gathering. The ceremony also featured performances of traditional Polish music and dance by the renowned Mazowsze folk ensemble. The statue rises 55.6 metres (182 feet) above the village, including a 15-metre crown-shaped pedestal. It is taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, which stands about 38 metres including its pedestal, and also exceeds Poland’s Christ the King monument in Swiebodzin, which reaches roughly 52 metres including the mound beneath it. A larger statue of the Virgin Mary, measuring about 98 metres, stands in the Philippines. However, the newly unveiled monument in Poland is believed to be Europe’s tallest statue of Mary. Walesa, 82, who led Poland’s anti-communist movement as head of the Solidarity trade union, attended the inauguration from the front row. “I started with the Virgin Mary and I end with the Virgin Mary,” Walesa told The Associated Press, reflecting on the causes he has championed throughout his life, including democracy and Catholicism. During his years leading the Solidarity movement, Walesa was known for wearing a pin depicting the Black Madonna and has frequently spoken about the role of his Catholic faith in his opposition to communist rule. Catholicism has traditionally played a major role in Polish public life. The country is home to St John Paul II, who served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. However, the influence of the Catholic Church has declined in recent years, particularly among younger people and urban residents. The Church remains especially influential in rural areas and among older generations. Bishop Wieslaw Mering, who attended the ceremony, said he was concerned about the declining influence of the Church and the growing number of people moving away from Catholicism. He said the history of Christianity has experienced both periods of strength and decline, but described the new monument as a reminder of the enduring role of the Virgin Mary in Poland. The monument was commissioned and financed by Polish entrepreneurs Roman and Grazyna Karkosik, who live in a nearby palace. Roman Karkosik built his fortune through business ventures and investments on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and became one of Poland’s wealthiest people. The couple said they built the monument as an expression of gratitude to God. Grazyna Karkosik said the statue was intended for everyone and expressed hope that visitors would use the experience to reflect on their lives as well as their faith. Local authorities hope the monument will attract pilgrims and tourists to the small village. A viewing platform has been built inside the statue’s pedestal, adding a tourist attraction to the religious site.

The scars of vandalism remain clearly visible at the ‘Swadhinata Sangram’ sculpture complex on Fuller Road at Dhaka University nearly two years after August 5, 2024, with most of the sculptures still lying broken.

Grammy-winning Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s annual fan celebration, “A Very Laufey Day,” has grown into a global event designed to bring her listeners together offline through music, art and community activities. Laufey launched the event in 2023 ahead of the release of her second album, “Bewitched.” She wanted to encourage fans to leave their homes, explore places she had enjoyed and experience what she described as her idea of a “perfect day” while connecting with other listeners. Each year, Laufey creates itineraries for participating cities, directing fans to places such as museums, bookstores, cafes and music venues. What began as a small idea has expanded significantly, with fans also embracing the event by wearing vintage outfits inspired by the singer and treating the occasion as an unofficial holiday. The fourth edition of “A Very Laufey Day” will take place on Aug. 23 and feature activities in 75 cities across 25 countries under the theme “A Celebration of the Arts.” The programme will include performances and cultural events featuring symphony orchestras, ballet, jazz, opera and theatre. Fans will also be able to take part in activities organised with libraries, bookstores, coffee shops and yogurt and ice cream stores. Laufey’s concert film, “A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl,” will be screened at selected cinemas as part of the celebration. The singer has also partnered with museums and cultural institutions around the world, including New York’s Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, London’s Tate Modern and National Gallery, Chile’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, and Seoul’s Daelim Museum. Some participating venues and businesses will offer limited-edition merchandise and special Laufey-themed drinks. Laufey said this year’s event focuses particularly on making arts and cultural institutions more accessible to her predominantly Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience. She said she wanted to reduce the barriers that can make younger people hesitant to visit museums, galleries or attend classical performances and other forms of “high culture.” “These spaces don’t have to be intimidating,” she said, adding that she wants to make such cultural experiences enjoyable and accessible for her fans. The singer described organising the event as a “fun puzzle” each year, with its international reach continuing to expand.