Information Overload
I’ve taken up the project of redesigning this Calendar for a bunch of reasons. For starters, I want to learn more about this piece of iconic graphic design that has been around for so many years now, and still remains in print every single year and ends up in the homes of millions of Keralites everywhere around the world.
Today, the two most popular versions of the Calendars that people buy every year are made by two Newspaper publishing houses- Malayala Manorama and Mathrabhumi. At first glance, there is so much information everywhere that one may never know where to start, however every Malayalee who knows how to read it, can tell you exactly where to find anything from Train timings to when the Sun will rise on the First Saturday of next month. What they do with this information is beyond me, but I think as a Graphic Designer my job remains to make this information more accessible and easy to understand to the common man.
After having analysed a whole bunch of these Calendars by now, I’ve realised that most people are unaware of just how many things are going on simultaneously, as I’ve had a bunch of Malayalee friends come up to me and ask me what else can you do from it besides find your piranaal (birthday). Let’s get into it:
There are essentially a total of seven simultaneous Calendar cycles happening in each box.
The first is the KollaVarsham which is the Malayalam Calendar beginning and ending approximately in the middle of each month, with 12 months and each month having approximately 29-32 days, each day corresponding to one of the 27 Nakshatras.
This goes along with the Gregorian Calendar we’re all familiar with.
Each box also shows the date according to the Shaka Varsham, or the Hindu Calendar which is the official civil calendar in use by the Government of India.
Below the Shaka Varsham is the date according to the Hijri Calendar , or the Islamic Lunar Calendar.
Some Calendars also have the date according to the Tamil Calendar, which differs only slightly from the Malayalam one, but differs nonetheless.
Besides these five cycles, each day has a Tithi, which is essentially the phase of the moon that particular day, covering the entire Lunar Cycle.
Lastly, every cluster of 13.5 days is called a Njattuvela and 27 of these clusters, each named after a Nakshatra, forms another cycle used by Famers in traditional agricultural practises of Paddy cultivation.
From each of these Calendars, crucial information is calculated, which I will blog about in further articles.