Points: The six seasons — Brief descriptions of the seasons — Seasonal festivals and functions.
India is a big country and her seasons are nowhere the same. Still the cycle of Indian seasons follows a certain broad pattern. It has six well-marked divisions: summer, rains, early autumn (called Sarat), late autumn (called Hemanta), winter and spring.
Summer is the most uncomfortable of seasons, when people gasp and faint in the heat. They sigh with relief when the monsoon clouds gather in the sky and the rains come. It there is too much rain, there are chances of floods. Floods will mean untold sufferings to the poor people. But if there is cool little rain, there will be failure of crops and great scarcity of food. It is, therefore, a critical season. Autumn, both early and late, is a very fine season. In Sarat, the sky becomes blue. The fields look gay and bright with gold-green crops. The greatest festival of the Hindus— Durgotsav— falls in Autumn. People celebrate it with feast, fun and cultural functions. The season is neither hot nor cold and the sky is blue but not wholly free from clouds. Hemanta is practically a continuation of Autumn. Hemanta is also the harvesting season. Winter is rather hard on the poor. But food-stuffs become cheaper and the market is full of cabbages, peas, tomatoes etc. Then comes the spring which is the loveliest of seasons.
Our festivals are bound up with the seasons, like Durga Puja or Dussera or Ramjan in Autumn, Holi in Spring. Rathajatra in the rains, and so on. It is good to welcome each season with a festival.
India is a big country and her seasons are nowhere the same. Still the cycle of Indian seasons follows a certain broad pattern. It has six well-marked divisions: summer, rains, early autumn (called Sarat), late autumn (called Hemanta), winter and spring.
Summer is the most uncomfortable of seasons, when people gasp and faint in the heat. They sigh with relief when the monsoon clouds gather in the sky and the rains come. It there is too much rain, there are chances of floods. Floods will mean untold sufferings to the poor people. But if there is cool little rain, there will be failure of crops and great scarcity of food. It is, therefore, a critical season. Autumn, both early and late, is a very fine season. In Sarat, the sky becomes blue. The fields look gay and bright with gold-green crops. The greatest festival of the Hindus— Durgotsav— falls in Autumn. People celebrate it with feast, fun and cultural functions. The season is neither hot nor cold and the sky is blue but not wholly free from clouds. Hemanta is practically a continuation of Autumn. Hemanta is also the harvesting season. Winter is rather hard on the poor. But food-stuffs become cheaper and the market is full of cabbages, peas, tomatoes etc. Then comes the spring which is the loveliest of seasons.
Our festivals are bound up with the seasons, like Durga Puja or Dussera or Ramjan in Autumn, Holi in Spring. Rathajatra in the rains, and so on. It is good to welcome each season with a festival.
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