Spring

Flame trees & birdsong Bangladesh's shortest, most celebrated season

Basanta, being the last season of six, lies between the seasons of winter and summer, falling on Phalgun and Chaitra months on the Bangla calendar. Spring, in effect, is brief in Bangladesh, lasting hardly a month in March when winds move from their northern cold to the southern warm of summer. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in reputation: Basanta is traditionally called the king of seasons, prized for weather so pleasant, 20–25 percent cloud cover, temperatures between 22°C and 25°C, and comfortable humidity, that it all but invites people outdoors for morning and evening walks.

The season announces itself in colour and sound. Trees like the flame-colored shimul, palash, and krishnachura, along with the yellow radhachura and purple jarul come into flower, with mango and jackfruit trees flowering before summer produces its fruit. Cuckoos, which have a traditional call during the Basanta festival of Bengali, chirp among the green leaves and the bees go about collecting nectar from mustard, wheat, and oats flowers. During the period, Hindus celebrate Basanti Puja and Dol Jatra when the festival of colors known as Dol Jatra in Bengal ends the Bangla year with colors before the start of the Grishma season cycle.