Uthurahalha.

Uthurahalha runs from 24 December – 5 January, the third of the nine nakaiy of Iruvai and the third of twenty-seven. The nakaiy are the traditional Maldivian almanac, about thirteen days each and named for the stars; fishermen still read the weather by them. The almanac reads it as bright and breezy, with the north-east wind well established and little rain. The sea is generally calm inside the atolls.

Iruvai is the dry season: mostly clear days, a north-east wind and calm lagoons, and December to March is the busiest stretch on the resort islands. Planning is about heat and wind rather than rain: shade and water for guests, florals kept cool until the last hour, anything tall weighted against the breeze. Seaplanes fly in daylight only, so arrivals and set-up are scheduled around the light. We still hold a covered venue, rarely used in Iruvai; how we plan for rain explains what we hold.

Big skies and crisp evenings. Expect a breeze on the beach at sunset, which falls between 17:50 and 18:20; a ceremony an hour before it sits in the best of the light. Set-up is dry, and dinner on the sand rarely needs a cover. At four degrees north the length of the day barely changes and the golden hour is short, 30 to 40 minutes rather than sixty. We time the ceremony to it, and Golden hour in the Maldives explains how.