Pohela Boishakh cards: alpana, masks, Haal Khata

A card sent for Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali new year in mid-April, in Bangladesh and West Bengal. These nine show a red and white card with the greeting inside an alpana border, a card with the folk owl and tiger masks of the Mangal Shobhajatra, and a Haal Khata ledger with a clear panel for a shop's name. Each is drawn in alpana, terracotta relief or kantha stitching. Type a different subject and the same styles carry it.

• a greeting for Pohela Boishakh
• a card for a shop's new ledger
• a card for a Bengali community event
• a printed card with a shop name

Frequently asked questions

What is Haal Khata?

Haal Khata is the new account ledger that shops open on Pohela Boishakh. The card shows it as a red cloth-bound book.

What does the alpana look like?

Alpana is a painted pattern made with rice paste. Here it is shown as flowing white curves on vermilion red.

Is the greeting in Bengali?

The cards use Shubho Noboborsho and Happy Pohela Boishakh, lettered as the design sets them. Check the lettering against your wording before printing.

What are the Shobhajatra masks?

The masks are folk owl and tiger figures of the Mangal Shobhajatra, the procession held on the morning of the new year.

About toile

This page is a showcase and a starting point: nine samples already rendered, three readings of the pack crossed with three styles, each shown at the size and ratio it was made for. Take any of them further on the wall with a few words, or ask for all nine again under your own direction; a sign-in keeps what you make, and it is free while Toile is new. The recipe behind each sample — the subject, the style, the palette, the framing — travels with the image rather than staying private to the render: it is in the alt text of every sample and in the page's own structured data, so a search engine reads the same handles a person would.