Panta Bhat, or fermented rice, is often described as a simple food of poor people. But in Bengal, panta served with shutki, dried fish or ilish is also part of a traditional festive platter, especially during Pohela Boishakh.
Similar preparations are found in other parts of eastern India. In Odisha and Chhattisgarh, a related dish is known as Pakhal Bhat. In Assam, it is sometimes called Poita Bhat. There, offering Dudh Panta—milk served with stale rice soaked in water—is also connected with certain marriage rituals.
Among Hindu Bengali families, panta is traditionally eaten during Ranna Puja, the Bengali cooking festival. In Odisha and Assam, you may even find hotels serving an elaborate panta or pakhal meal during the summer months. Pakhal can be slightly different from Bengali Panta Bhat because yogurt and seasonings are sometimes added before the rice is left to ferment.
In This Story
- Halkhata and Pohela Boishakh
- Our Pohela Boishakh Food Plan
- Panta Bhat in Our Family
- How to Make Panta Bhat
- Microbiology and Food Safety
- How the English New Year Is Celebrated Around the World
- Bengali New Year Celebrations in Bangladesh
- Mangal Shobhajatra and Its Symbols
- How Panta-Ilish Became Part of Pohela Boishakh
- The Pohela Boishakh We Remember in West Bengal
- Food Memories of the Bengali New Year
- Questions People Often Ask
Halkhata and Pohela Boishakh
Halkhata has always been an important part of Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year. Before the festival, traders become busy cleaning their shops and business centres. Even during holidays, many of them continue preparing their shops for the new business year.
Pohela Boishakh is traditionally the day when traders open a new book of accounts for customers who buy goods on credit. They complete the old ledgers, settle the previous year's accounts and begin a fresh account book for the new year.
During the Bengali month of Chaitra, shops try to clear their old stock by offering special discounts. We know this familiar shopping season as Chaitra Sale in Bengal.
Once Baishakh begins, business owners start bringing in new stock. They prepare in advance for the next major festive seasons, including Eid, Durga Puja and Christmas.
Halkhata is not only a business custom. It is also connected with traditional puja rituals. Traders open a new account book, which is often wrapped in red cloth. They collect pending payments from the previous year and begin a fresh set of accounts.
On this day, traders welcome their customers and guests with sweets. It is a way of renewing old relationships, settling accounts, collecting dues and encouraging future business.
Many shops also distribute their own printed calendars and serve special sweets. Naturally, Bengali sweet shops often experience a rise in sales on Pohela Boishakh.
Our Pohela Boishakh Food Plan
For us, New Year celebrations have always been closely connected with food. From morning until night, almost every part of the day revolves around eating, cooking and planning the next meal.
Traditional or modern, the dishes may change, but food remains at the centre of our Pohela Boishakh celebration.
This year, we have planned to begin our breakfast with jober chhatu .
For lunch, we will have Panta Bhat with roasted prawn .
Our evening snacks will include fish kabab and rainbow mocktail .
Finally, we will end the festival with a dinner of prawn polao, creamy lentil sauce, stuffed parwal, steamed bhetki and mango raita.
Panta Bhat in Our Family
On holidays, we often changed our usual daytime meal and ate Panta Bhat instead.
In our family, panta was never identified only as cheap food for poor people or lower-income families. We also never considered it something to be eaten only during Pohela Boishakh.
Since childhood, we have trusted panta as a comforting summer meal. It cools the body, feels gentle on the stomach and makes a hot day easier to manage.
Because we love panta so much, I intentionally cook some extra rice on the day before a holiday. Then I soak the rice in cold water for about half a day.
Panta with roasted red chilli, salt, something sour and sliced onion always made us very happy. It became even more tempting when we had poppy-seed fritters, red lentil fritters and baked chingri beside it.
The sour accompaniment was never the same every time. Sometimes we had sour yogurt, jujube pickle or tamarind pickle. On other days, we enjoyed chargrilled mango, tomato or, of course, Gandharaj lemon and its fragrant leaves.
That simple combination of soaked rice, chilli, onion, salt and something sour can still make a summer meal feel very special.
How to Make Panta Bhat
Ingredients for One Person
- 1 cup boiled rice
- 1 cup clean drinking water
- 1 crushed lemon leaf
- Lemon juice, tamarind juice or mango pickle, as preferred
- Sliced onion, as required
- Green chilli, as required
- Roasted red chilli, as required
- Salt to taste
Method
To make Panta Bhat for one person, take one cup of boiled rice and add one cup of clean drinking water.
Add a crushed lemon leaf for its fresh aroma.
Keep the rice carefully covered in a cool place. Do not store it for more than 12 hours.
When you are ready to eat, mash the soaked rice lightly in the same water.
Add lemon juice, tamarind juice or mango pickle according to your choice. Then add sliced onion, green chilli, roasted red chilli and salt to taste.
Mix everything gently and enjoy your simple summer meal.
Serving: 1 person.
Microbiology and Food Safety
There is also an important food-safety side to soaked boiled rice.
According to a study cited as Henry et al. in the source used for the original article, Panta Bhat samples were often found to be contaminated. The report stated that almost 90% of the samples contained faecal coliforms, with a median count of 3.9 log CFU/ml.
The number of faecal coliforms reportedly increased tenfold when there was a delay of more than four hours between preparation and consumption.
The same reference stated that 90% of the samples were eaten more than 12 hours after preparation. Contamination was also reported to be higher during the rainy season.
According to another study cited as ILSI 1998, fermentation may improve the availability of minerals such as iron and zinc because phytic acid is broken down during fermentation. The reference also associated fermentation with an increase in riboflavin and vitamin B content.
Panta Bhat may also contain a small amount of alcohol as a natural result of fermentation.
The earlier reference further stated that when the traditional method of keeping rice soaked overnight in water was recreated in a laboratory, the rice was found to be inoculated with veratridine, described in that source as a steroid-derived alkaloid.
For home preparation, it is therefore important to use clean drinking water, clean utensils and freshly cooked rice. The soaked rice should be kept covered and consumed within a reasonable time.
Reference used in the original article: Archived Panta Bhat reference
How the English New Year Is Celebrated Around the World
New Year does not look the same everywhere. In some countries, people welcome it with fireworks, grapes, bells and all-night celebrations. In Bengal, the new year arrives differently—with songs, morning processions, Panta Bhat, hot kachori, Halkhata, flowers and the familiar happiness of opening a fresh page.
The English New Year is celebrated in many different ways across the world. The date is the same, but every country seems to add something of its own—some local belief, a familiar food or a special midnight custom.
In the United States, New Year’s Eve is known for large public parties where thousands of people gather to count down the final seconds of the year.
Sydney in Australia welcomes the new year with one of the most spectacular fireworks displays. As midnight approaches, the harbour and the sky light up, and people watch the fireworks together.
Mexico has a rather charming New Year custom. When the clock strikes twelve on the night of 31 December, twelve bell chimes are heard. With each chime, people eat one grape.
Each grape is connected with one month of the coming year. Many people also make a wish while eating the grapes, hoping that the new year will fulfil it.
Denmark has an even more unusual tradition. People are said to leave or throw old plates and glassware outside the doors of friends and neighbours.
The belief is simple—the more broken pieces you find near your door, the more friends and good luck you will have in the new year. It sounds like quite a commotion, but perhaps that is also part of the fun.
In Korea, there is an old belief associated with staying awake on New Year’s Eve. Some people believed that sleeping that night might cause them to lose a little of their youth.
So, while some people eat grapes and some watch fireworks, others simply refuse to go to bed!
Bangladesh also celebrates the English New Year in a modern urban style. As soon as the clock strikes twelve, fireworks, music, dancing and cheerful noise begin in many places.
People wear new clothes, arrange special meals, visit popular spots and attend cultural programmes. But even with all this excitement, the English New Year does not hold quite the same emotional place as the Bengali New Year.
Bengali New Year Celebrations in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the Bengali New Year is celebrated with much greater colour, emotion and public participation than the English New Year.
Pohela Boishakh is not only a day for wearing new clothes or eating festive food. It is a public cultural occasion where music, art, procession and traditional symbols come together.
At Ramna Batamul, the morning begins with songs by Rabindranath Tagore. At Dhanmondi Rabindra Sarobar, lamps are lit to welcome the new year with wishes for peace and wellbeing.
There is a feeling that the year should begin on a positive note—not quietly inside the home, but openly, with everyone taking part.
Mangal Shobhajatra and Its Symbols
One of the most recognisable parts of Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh is the Mangal Shobhajatra.
The word mangal carries the meaning of wellbeing, goodness and auspiciousness. The procession is taken out with the hope that the coming year will bring peace, prosperity and protection from evil.
Large colourful figures of owls, dolls, birds, animals and human faces are carried in the procession. Masks, puppets and decorative forms make the streets look like a moving world of folk art.
Some of the figures are bright and joyful. Others may look like ghosts, demons or strange creatures. But together they create a visual language of hope, warning, courage and collective celebration.
The first such procession is said to have begun in Jessore in 1986. Later, in 1988, a procession was organised from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka.
That early Dhaka procession reportedly included ten small horses made by art students, one enormous elephant and around fifty masks.
From those beginnings, Mangal Shobhajatra gradually became one of the most important cultural images of the Bengali New Year in Bangladesh.
How Panta-Ilish Became Part of Pohela Boishakh
Somewhere along the way, Panta Bhat and ilish became one of the most visible food symbols of Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh.
Today, photographs of earthen bowls filled with Panta Bhat, green chillies, onion and fried ilish appear everywhere during the Bengali New Year.
The meal looks rustic, simple and deeply connected with rural Bengal. Perhaps that is why it became so powerful as a public symbol.
Yet Panta Bhat has always been more than a festival display. For many families, it was an everyday summer food—cooling, filling and easy to prepare from leftover rice.
The festive Panta-Ilish platter may be modern in its present public form, but the rice, chilli, onion, salt and fish carry much older memories of Bengali food.
The Pohela Boishakh We Remember in West Bengal
In West Bengal, Pohela Boishakh had its own quieter neighbourhood rhythm. It was not always about a huge public event. Much of the celebration happened through local clubs, children’s cultural organisations, shops and family meals.
It is difficult to say exactly when the custom of arranging Prabhat Pheri on Pohela Boishakh began in every neighbourhood.
But I have heard from our mothers that they waited eagerly for this early-morning procession.
They were not waiting for a local religious ritual or a household puja. They were waiting for the simple pleasure of walking together in the morning, singing, meeting familiar faces and feeling that the new year had truly arrived.
The procession itself was only the beginning. After returning home, there would be hot kachori and jilipi.
Even now, the smell of fresh kachori and warm syrupy jilipi can bring back the feeling of a Bengali New Year morning.
Food Memories of the Bengali New Year
Our Pohela Boishakh food was not one grand restaurant-style menu. Different foods appeared at different times of the day, and each one had its own place in the celebration.
After the morning Prabhat Pheri came hot kachori and jilipi.
At lunchtime, there could be Panta Bhat with chingri bora. The meal was simple, but in the heat of Baishakh, it felt just right.
In the afternoon, we had jober chhatu with tal patali. It was cooling, familiar and part of the season itself.
By evening, the neighbourhood shops became busy with Halkhata.
Families visited the shops where they had shopped throughout the year. Old accounts were closed, dues were settled and a new page was opened in the account book.
The shops welcomed customers with packets of sweets and cold drinks. Sometimes there were garlands of fragrant bel flowers wrapped carefully in sal leaves.
We would return home carrying sweets, flowers and the feeling that something had begun again.
This was the wonderfully ordinary Pohela Boishakh of the twentieth century.
There were no elaborate themes and no need to make everything spectacular.
There was a morning procession, hot food from the local shop, Panta Bhat at noon, chhatu in the afternoon, Halkhata in the evening and a fresh page waiting in the new account book.
Looking back, that ordinary day now feels quite extraordinary.
Questions People Often Ask About New Year Traditions
How is the English New Year celebrated around the world?
The English New Year is celebrated through midnight countdowns, fireworks, parties, music and local customs. In Mexico, people eat twelve grapes with twelve bell chimes. In Sydney, fireworks are the main attraction, while Denmark is known for its unusual tradition involving old plates and glassware.
Why are twelve grapes eaten on New Year’s Eve?
In the Spanish-speaking New Year tradition followed in places such as Mexico, one grape is eaten with each of the twelve midnight bell chimes. The twelve grapes represent the twelve months of the coming year and are associated with wishes for good fortune.
What is Mangal Shobhajatra?
Mangal Shobhajatra is a colourful public procession held during Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh. It includes large masks, birds, animals, dolls and folk-art figures. The procession carries collective wishes for peace, wellbeing and a better year.
Why is Panta-Ilish associated with Pohela Boishakh?
Panta Bhat and ilish became a popular public symbol of Bengali identity during Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh. The simple combination of fermented rice, chilli, onion and fish appears to connect urban celebrations with the older food traditions of rural Bengal.
What is Prabhat Pheri on Pohela Boishakh?
Prabhat Pheri is an early-morning cultural procession. In many West Bengal neighbourhoods, local clubs and children’s cultural organisations arranged these processions with songs and community participation to welcome the Bengali New Year.
What did people traditionally eat on Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal?
Food differed from family to family, but memories often include hot kachori and jilipi after the morning procession, Panta Bhat with chingri bora at lunch, jober chhatu with tal patali in the afternoon and sweets received from local shops during evening Halkhata visits.
What is Halkhata?
Halkhata is the Bengali tradition of closing the old business account book and opening a new one at the beginning of the Bengali year. Shop owners invite customers, settle old accounts and welcome them with sweets, drinks and good wishes.
Was Pohela Boishakh always a grand public celebration?
Not everywhere. In many West Bengal neighbourhoods, Pohela Boishakh was a simple local celebration centred on Prabhat Pheri, family meals, visits to familiar shops and Halkhata. Its charm came from ordinary community life rather than grandeur.
