A day-long traditional curd fair is being held on Thursday on the occasion of the Swaraswati Puja festival in Sirajganj's Tarasha with a 250-year-old tradition. From Wednesday afternoon, various types of colorful yogurt started arriving at the fair.
On Thursday morning, in front of Tarash Zamindarbari, shopkeepers set up curd stalls at the town market Eidgah ground adjacent to Rasik Roy temple.
Various curds of local Tarash, Sherpur, Raiganj, Pabna areas take place in fairs. Apart from this, various sweets including khai, chira, muri, murki, batasa, kadma, sweets are also sold in the fair.
Talking to several local Ghos, it is known that due to the increase in the price of milk, fuel, labor cost, price of yogurt containers, the price of yogurt has also increased. However, even though the fair lasts for a day, no Ghosh curd remains unsold due to demand. Because of which, before the fair, the Ghoshes got busy making curd.
Rajat Ghosh, president of Tarash Upazila Puja Celebration Parishad, said that during the zamindari period of Tarash, the then zamindar Banwari Lal Roy Bahadur started the first curd fair. It is said that it was customary for the zamindar to give a gift to Karak Ghosh who made the best delicious curd.
However, the curd fair, which started from the Zamindar period, still has the annual custom of sitting in the festive mood on Shri Panchami Tithi of mid winter and it lasts for 1 day instead of 3 days. And since then every year in the month of Magha during the winter season, the curd fair starts on Sri Panchami Tithi, the day of Swarsati Puja. The name also varies due to the flavor of the curds of the region that come to the curd fair.