The University of Wisconsin Bangladesh Student Organization hosted the first-ever Bangladesh Night in Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall Sunday. BSO described Bangladesh Night in social media posts as “an eventful evening full of amazing performances, cultural celebrations and delicious food.”
Bangladesh Student Organization President Mahmudul Hassan said the event was held in December because it is the national“month of victory,” which commemorates Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan on December 16, 1971.
“We have two national days. One is Independence Day — that was back in March. And we have another one which is when we won the fight for freedom which was on the 16th of December, that’s called Victory Day, so the month of December is kind of like a month of victory to us,” Hassan said. “We had planned to celebrate in the theme of celebrating the month of victory, so that’s why we started with a patriotic song.”
Beyond the recognition of this moment in Bangladesh’s history, the event served to celebrate Bangladeshi culture and reinvigorate a student organization that has struggled to rebuild after COVID.
Hassan said he restarted the club this spring and hopes this event will be celebrated annually by BSO in the future.
“After COVID, the organization was kind of frozen and then I opened it up this spring semester … and we decided that we can actually shoot for a bigger program this semester,” Hassan said. “This was the first time we have had a big arrangement like this with this many people.”
Attendees said they were excited to enjoy a night of Bengladeshi culture and see what the Bangladesh Student Organization had planned for the evening.
One attendee, Manal Aditi, who is from West Bengal, said she was particularly excited to hear Bengali music, but was ready for anything from the Bangladesh Student Organization.
“I really like hearing Bengali music so I’m excited to hear some songs from there, and I’ve met some of the people here before at picnics and they’re very invested in trying to showcase culture to everybody, so whatever they put on, I’d be interested in,” Aditi said.
The night’s programming included dance and musical performances stitched together by scenes from an in-house play titled “Road to Bangladesh Night.” The play emphasized Bangladesh Night’s efforts to bring together a Bangladeshi community that is far from home.
“Unfortunately there isn’t a road from Bangladesh to Madison — however, ‘The Road to Bangladesh Night’ theater will be performed tonight,” Event co-host Labib Shahid said.
BSO members performed a number of Bangladeshi songs including “Dhono Dhanno Pushpa Vora,” “Muktira Mandira Shopanotale,” and “Kalapakhi.”
Between musical performances, Bangladesh Student Organization members danced to songs such as “Naskek Nasek,” “Mayabara Biharini,” “Komola,” and many more.
After the event, Hassan said the event was a success and will hopefully help first-semester BSO members build confidence and connections.
“For starters, I think it was really good. I just hope from here things will start going uphill and we do better each time,” Hassan said. “That way people will have more confidence in them … At least half of the crew in here have started grad school or undergrad this semester so it builds a lot of confidence in most of the people, so hopefully in the times to come they will feel like ‘yeah I can do even better than that.’”
