Autumn
Encyclopedia : A : AU : AUT : Autumn
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- "Fall" redirects here. For , see .
- ''For the band see Autumn.
Astronomically, it begins with the autumnal equinox (around September 23 in the Northern hemisphere, and March 21 in the southern hemisphere), and ends with the winter solstice (around December 21 in the Northern hemisphere and June 21 in the Southern hemisphere). However, meteorologists count the entire months of March, April and May in the Southern hemisphere, and September, October and November in the Northern hemisphere as autumn. An exception to these definitions is found in the Irish Calendar which still follows the Celtic cycle, where Autumn is counted as the whole months of August, September and October.
Although the days begin to shorten after the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere or after the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, it is usually in September or March where twilight becomes evidently shorter and more abrupt in comparison with the more lingering ones of summer.
Autumn is often defined as the start of the school year in most countries, since they usually begin in early September or early March (depending on the latitude).
Either definition, as with those of the seasons generally, is flawed because it assumes that the seasons are all of the same length, and begin and end at the same time throughout the temperate zone of each hemisphere.
Historic usage and recognition
Diverse nations computed the years by autumns, while the Anglo-Saxons did so by winters. Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans were acquainted with all the other seasons of the year, but had no notion of Autumn. Linwood observed of the beginning of the several seasons of the year, that- "Dat Clemens Hyemem, dat Petrus Ver Cathedratus;
- Aestuat Urbanus, Autumnat Bartholomaeus." This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [link].
Autumn in popular culture
Autumn's association with the transition from warm to cold weather in the northern hemisphere, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. In Western cultures, personifications of Autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females decked out with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Most ancient cultures featured autumnal celebrations of the harvest, often the most important on their calendars. Still extant echoes of these celebrations are found in the late-Autumn Thanksgiving holiday of the United States, the Jewish Sukkot holiday with its roots as a full moon harvest festival of "tabernacles" (huts wherein the harvest was processed and which later gained religious significance), the many North American Indian festivals tied to harvest of autumnally ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival, and many others. The predominant mood of these autumnal celebrations is a gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminence of harsh weather. Remembrance of ancestors is also a common theme.
Autumn is also associated with the Halloween season, and with it a widespread marketing campaign that promotes it. The television, film, book, costume, home decoration, and candy industries use this time of year to promote products closely associated with such holiday, with promotions going from early September to 31 October, since their themes rapidly lose strength once the holiday ends.
For the American film industry, the autumn season, which begins on the weekend following Labor Day and ends in early November, is the shortest and least profitable season of the movies. It follows the season of summer "blockbusters" and precedes the crowded end-of-year schedule of movies intended for award consideration.
Autumn and tourism
Although some autumn coloration occurrs wherever deciduous trees are found, brightly colored autumn foliage is common in only three regions of the world: most of North America; a small area of central South America; and Eastern Asia, including China and Japan.
Eastern Canada and the New England region of the United States are famous around the world for the brilliance of their "fall foliage," and a seasonal tourist industry has grown up around the few weeks in autumn when the leaves are at their peak. Some television and web-based weather forecasts even report on the status of the fall foliage throughout the season as a service to tourists. Fall foliage tourists are often referred to as "leaf peepers".
Autumn versus Fall
Fall is an alternative English word for the season of Autumn. In use now only in North American English, the word traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term only came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".
Autumn comes from the Old French autompne, and ultimately from the Latin autumnus. There are rare examples of its use as early as the 14th century, but it became common only in the 16th, around the same time as Fall, when the two words appear to have been used interchangebly.
During the 17th century immigration to the English colonies in North America was at its peak and the new settlers took their language with them. While the term Fall gradually obsolesced in Britain, it became the preferred term in North America, at least in conversation.
Before the 16th century Harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word became to refer to the actual activity of reaping, rather than the time of year, and Fall and Autumn began to replace it.
References
See also
Etymology references
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