Even though we’re still early in August, some leaves are starting to fall and it’s apparent that summer is coming to a close — goodbye summer, hello fall. I was thinking about seasons… most people experience four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall (or autumn.) Seasons are associated with a particular time of the year. The change of season is primarily due to the change in attitude of the Earth’s axis in relation to the position of the sun at a particular place.
In temperate latitudes, four seasons are the norm, tropical regions have two seasons — wet and dry. Monsoon areas around the Indian Ocean have mainly three seasons: cold, hot, and rainy (or monsoon.) I’ve lived in places that have four seasons and two seasons, and have visited places with three seasons. I’ve also visited a place that has six seasons. There very well may be other places that have six seasons, but the only place I’ve been that has six is… Bangladesh. Much of the area surrounding Bangladesh experience the three seasons that I mentioned — but for some reason, maybe just cultural tradition, Bangladesh divides these three seasons into six.
The six seasons, and their Bengali names are:
Summer (grisma); monsoon (basra); autumn (sharat); late autumn (hemanta); winter (shit) [maybe not a bad name for that season here in West Virginia] and spring (basanta.) Bangladesh gets about 85% of its year’s total rainfall during monsoon season (mid-June to mid-August.) Winter is the coolest season, but very tolerable — the temperature then averages 52 – 68ªF.
Bangladesh promotes itself as the land of six seasons — in Bengali, “Sadartu.” That certainly helps make it sound unique, but for practical purposes, only three seasons are distinguishable — summer, rainy, and winter. But no matter — regardless of how many seasons, they all pass.
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