In order to preserve the heritage of rural Bengali culture through a massive event, a traditional stick game was organized at Kurighar High School ground on the initiative of Kurighar villagers of Natghar Union, Nabinagar Upazila in Brahmanbaria on Wednesday.
In the change of time, many people have forgotten entertainments tied to the cultural root of rural part. That is why this stick game fair has been organized to give pleasure to the common people and to attract the visitors.
The stick fighters also known as ‘lathiyal’ show their gestures by playing sticks while dancing to the beat of musical instruments. Players engage in stick fights with each other. They use a stick to prevent another partner from attacking. The main attraction of playing sticks was the friendly match between teenager stick fight players. Crowds of spectators were seen applauding the players.
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Rafiqul Islam Ratan, a young social worker, said, ‘The tradition of Bangladeshi rural area is to play stick fight. In our village, stick fight used to be played regularly. People got a lot of entertainment by playing stick fights. With the extinction of the game of stick, people have forgotten these entertainments in the evolution of time.’
‘We have re-organized the stick game to preserve the heritage of rural Bengal and to entertain the people’, he added.
One of the visitors, Dr Mohiuddin Ahmed said that every year at this time people come to watch the stick game. However, due to lack of playing environment, children now a day are leaning towards video games. This stick game can play an important role to remind the youth that Bangladesh has many traditional beautiful games.
