Hemanta, the herald of winter, has begun. The season that comes every year in the two months of Kartik and Agrahayan is known as Hemanta. It spans the Bengali calendar months of Kartik and Agrahayan, that is, from 17 October to 15 December.

Hemanta is the fourth of the six seasons. Kartik is the seventh month of the Bengali calendar and the first month of Hemanta, which follows autumn (Sharat) and comes before winter. That is why people in this country call it the herald of winter.

Through Hemanta, mornings are veiled in a faint mist that covers the fields all around. Dewdrops gather on the tips of green grass and paddy plants, telling us Hemanta has come, and a light chill can be felt. After sunrise the fields and sky slowly clear of mist. Hemanta means an enchanting, dew-soaked morning. At this time the kash flowers of autumn bow to the ground, while the grand festival of Nabanna approaches.

Many also call it the season of varied colours and falling leaves, because at this time the leaves of almost every tree except the jhau (casuarina) begin to fall, and most trees are bare before winter arrives.

Books tell us that the two months of the season, Kartik and Agrahayan, are named after two stars, Krittika and Agra. Kartik's local name is "Karti", which villagers know as "Mora Kartik" (lean Kartik). After Mora Kartik comes Nabanna, a folk festival for all. The dictionary meaning of the word Nabanna is new food, or new rice.

It is the festival of eating pitha, payesh and other dishes made from new rice after the Hemanta harvest, a traditional celebration of West Bengal and Bangladesh and a festival dear to the heart of rural Bengalis. In essence, Nabanna is a celebration held for the first cooking of rice from newly harvested aman paddy, usually in the month of Agrahayan after the ripe aman is cut. The Nabanna festival grew around this Hemanta harvest.

Source: Bangladesh Pratidin. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.