The first day of the Bangla calendar is Pahela Baishakh.

In both Bangladesh and West Bengal,

Pahela Baishakh is a joyous occasion. Pahela Baishakh is a national holiday in Bangladesh. The

14th or 15th of April is the date.

Pahela Baishakh or Bengali New Year celebrations began during Akbar's reign. On the last day

of Chaitra, it was customary to settle all debts. Landlords would provide sweets to their tenants

the next day, or on the first day of the new year. Fairs and other celebrations honored the event.

With time, the event became a part of domestic and social life, and it became a day of

celebration.

This celebration of Bengali new year can be explained by the theoretical strategies of

functionalism, that is, latent & manifest function.

In his 1949 book Social Hypothesis and Social Structure, American sociologist Robert K.

Merton outlined his manifest function (as well as latent function and dysfunction) theory. Merton

examined social acts and their effects as part of his functionalist perspective on society, and

discovered that manifest functions could be defined quite precisely as the good results of

conscious and deliberate behaviors. Manifest functions are the result of a variety of social

behaviors, although they are most usually described as the product of social policies, regulations,

rules, and conventions, as well as the work of social institutions such as family, church, school,

and the media.

Manifest functions are consciously and deliberately designed to achieve advantageous outcomes,

whereas latent functions are not consciously or deliberately designed to produce favorable

outcomes yet nonetheless produce benefits. In effect, they are unforeseen positive outcomes.
The problem with latent functions is that they generally go unnoticed or unappreciated, unless

they have detrimental consequences. Because they produce disorder and conflict in society,

Merton classed damaging latent functions as dysfunctions. He did, however, acknowledge that

dysfunctions can appear in nature.

So, as we see that manifest function is well designed & calligraphed to produce benefits to the

society and its people. It is a mixture of conscious or deliberate functions of the social policies

which are created for the benefit of the society. On the other hand, latent function is unintended

or unrecognized consequences of any social pattern. They are present but are not immediately

obvious.

So, following these theories, it can be said that the Bengali New Year celebration is an absolute

spitting image of manifest function.

References:

1. Pahela Baishakh. Banglapedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2021, from

https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Pahela_Baishakh.

2. How Sociology Helps Us Study Intended and Unintended Consequences. (2020, February

4). ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/manifest-function-definition-4144979

3. S. (2019, October 10). Manifest and Latent Functions – Differences and Examples.

Sociology Group: Sociology and Other Social Sciences Blog.

https://www.sociologygroup.com/latent-manifest-function-differences-examples/