How many Boishakhs?

It's time to welcome another new year. But what exactly does that mean: "new year"? Almost every culture has, at some point, developed a calendar.

- KOLI MITRA

Humans seem to have a deep need to mark the passing of time in days, months, years. The cycles of nature, apparent in the seasons, the tides, and our own bodies' circadian rhythms, make it obvious and intuitive that there's something that keeps periodically repeating and renewing life and the world. Like spring, nature's own "new year," which grows new leaves and blossoms on seemingly lifeless trees, coming out of hibernation after a long winter. I was thinking about this as I passed a solitary tree, sporting a burst of bright white blossoms in full bloom in the early April chill, all other trees around it still leafless and stark, still reminiscent of the dead of winter.

I like to think of it as nature having a "memory" of sorts. It doesn't reset things in full. Nor does it fully shed anything. It retains something of the old as it renews. It just keeps renewing and keeps propelling itself forward. I think this is also what we try to do as we mark, and catalogue, time.

Probably the human practice of keeping track of natural cycles began for practical reasons. Our ancestors had to figure out when the best berries would grow, when the hunting ground would be richest with grazing animals, when the tides would be most conducive to catching the best fish. Eventually they started needing to keep track of planting and harvesting cycles, tallying account books of debts and credits, train and ship schedules, stock market cycles, etc.