Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti or Rabindra Jayanti is celebrated on 7th May every year on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore. The day of Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti is also known as Ponchishe Boishakh because it falls on the 25th day of the Bengali month of Boishakh. Tagore was born in Kolkata in 1861 according to the Gregorian calendar and 1268 according to the Bengali calendar. He died in 1941 at the age of 80 years.

Tagore is revered worldwide for his extraordinary contributions to literature, music and art. He was a huge cultural icon who wore many hats such as poet, writer, musician, social reformer and educator, to name a few. In his memory, many cultural programmes and events are held on Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 – the first non-European to do so — for an acclaimed collection of poems called Gitanjali. The Nobel committee said Tagore won the supreme prize for his highly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verses, in which his English words expressed his poetic ideas with consummate skill.

To improve classroom education, Tagore used the cash prize from the Nobel Prize and funds from all over the world and founded his university – Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal. According to historical records, Tagore was the only person to write the National Anthem for two countries. He wrote Janaganaman, the national anthem of India, and Amarsonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh. Moreover, some historians say that he also had a profound influence on the Sri Lankan national anthem.

It was Rabindranath Tagore who conferred the title ‘Mahatma’ on Gandhi. The two were familiar figures despite disagreeing on many issues, including nationalism and the economy. The Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti celebrations include the music of Rabindra Sangeet, a collection of more than 2,230 songs composed by him, dance, theatre, calligraphy, poetry readings and much more.