Bengali New Year also known as Pahela Baishakh was celebrated in West Bengal and among Bengali communities in Assam, Tripura and also in Bangladesh. The festival usually falls on 14 April every year which marks the first day of the initial month of Baishakh of the Bengali solar calendar. The 7th century King Shashanka of ancient Bengal started this Bengali era which was estimated to be in 594 AD in Gregorian calendar and it was later modified by Mughal emperor Akbar for the purpose of tax collection. On this day, the Bengali business community opens new books of accounts known as Halkhata to mark the beginning of the new accounting year. In 2016, UNESCO declared this festival as "cultural heritage of humanity".
