What Habagat mean in different ways and to different people.

Dr Abe V Rotor
Stormy habagat is read from the sky

Green pond frog wakes from aestivation

Abe V Rotor

Here is a continuing list of what the rainy season (habagat) means to the lives of people, coming from our radio audience on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid and visitors of this blog. I invite others to share their own impressions and experiences.

Habagat is ...
1. respite to a long hot summer, and finally putting it to rest.
2. the greening of fields and mountains.
3. new life and new cycle of living things.
4. time to plow and plant the fields.
5. children running in the rain with gay and abandon.
6. a chorus of frogs.
7. the fields are joined together into one big lake.
8. murmuring streams and roaring rivers.
9. children go to school in raincoats and umbrellas.
10. the sky is split by lighting and the earth shudders with it.
11. aestivating fish, snails and crustaceans wake up from slumber.
12. the season of flood.
13. dust turns to mud, sticky with the feet and shoes.
14. herons arrive by flock - white and gray and other kinds.
15. migrating birds return home from the south northward.
16. leaking roof, and you have to do a lot of repair.
17. being worried when the children aren't a home yet and it's raining cats and dogs.
18. gusty winds upturn umbrellas and loose skirts.
19. beach resorts are empty.
20. off season to tourism, so with many festivities.
21. season of typhoons ripping houses and trees along their path.
22. time to go fishing in rivers and lakes with hook and line.
23. angling frogs in ricefields, a pastime of old women.
24. fishing along flowing rivers with bamboo traps (bubo), salakab and cast nets (tabukol).
25. season of landslides, especially along mountain passes.
26. floating garbage line Manila Bay and shorelines near cities and towns.
27. Pasig river swells and flows freely, regurgitating garbage and waste, and breaking from summer lethargy. So with other rivers.
28. erosion of bald hills and mountains, cutbank erosion of river banks and shorelines.
29. formation of delta, mudflats, deposition of silt in mangroves, siltation of dams.
30.cooler nights and good sleep.
31. season of water-borne diseases like leptospirosis, typhoid and diarrhea
32. life emerges and multiplies in all forms - protists, plants and animals.
33. singing Planting Rice with guitar accompaniment, so with Ang Maya, Tinikling, Bahay Kubo.
34. animals have their fill on the pasture, wildlife reaches high population density and diversity.
35. a shot or two whiskey or gin or vodka to counter the cold, and soothe tired nerves and muscles.
36. double time and effort in controlling weeds in the garden.
37. sinigang na hito, pesang dalag, "jumping salad" (shrimps served fresh with calamansi and salt).
38. impassable rivers, swelling lake (remember Typhoons Ondoy and Peping one year ago?).
39. downed electric post, cut off roads, felled trees, mud flows, landslides, evacuation centers.
40. rainbows, sometimes double, sign of good weather yet herald a coming rain.
41. siyam-siyam or nep-nep (Ilk) which means nine days and another nine days of rainfall with a brief period of rest in between.
42. no kite flying, old folks warn, waiting till the end of the monsoon, otherwise harvest will be poor.
43. detecting low pressure area and plotting its development into typhoon.
44. molds grow on leather, wood and clothes.
45. rainy season fashion from waterproof boots to trendy jackets and raincoats.

And 1001 more. Why don't you share your own Habagat is ... to the list?