Seasons
Like many other African societies, Sesotho speaking people generally recognise only 2 seasons (dihla). However, names do exist for all four of the traditional Western seasons. The year begins in approximately August or September, when the crops are planted.
- Selemo (Spring) — from the verb -lema (plant) as the crops are planted at the beginning of this period. This is also the most common name for "year."
- Lehlabula (Summer) — more often than not this name is used for both the spring and the summer.
- Lehwetla (Autumn) — from the ancient Proto-Bantu root *-ginja ("hot season"). This noun is often used without the class prefix (that is, as Hwetla).
- Mariha (Winter) — from the ancient and widespread Proto-Bantu root *-tîka ("cold weather; cold season; night"). More often than not this name is used to denote both Autumn and Winter.
Read more about this topic: Sotho Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word seasons:
“The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain! The revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)