For Keralites the golden blooms of the ‘kanikonna’ tree are highly symbolic and have much cultural significance. The flowering of the golden shower tree generally signals the arrival of the harvest season as well as the much-awaited Vishu festival. But during the last few years the flowering takes place much - at least two to three months - earlier.
This year, the tree - Cassia fistula - in almost all the houses in the city that sport it is in full bloom.
The fully-bloomed yellow flower is a major component of the Malayalam New Year’s Day ritual of witnessing the ‘Vishu kani’. In the past, it was based on the flowering of ‘konna’ that the farmers of the state used to prepare their agricultural calendar.
Then, the tree used to start its budding during peak summer, that is in Malayalam month of ‘Meenam’ (mid-March) and come to full bloom only by ‘Medam’ (mid-April), at the time of Vishu.
But nowadays as the tree blooms almost two months ahead, by the time Vishu arrives, the trees would be standing almost bare, shedding all the flowers.
“For the past two to three years the ‘kanikonna’ tree in our house blooms by December-end. And by the time Vishu arrives there would be no flowers on the tree. So, we, unfortunately, have to go to some shop to buy the flowers during Vishu,” said Saradamma, a 75-year-old woman.
This, in fact, would be the situation in thousands of houses across the city during coming Vishu too.