Many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, often the most important on their calendars. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Associations Harvest Īssociation with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. The name backend, a once common name for the season in Northern England, has today been largely replaced by the name autumn. While the term fall gradually became nearly obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. ĭuring the 17th century, Englishmen began emigrating to the new North American colonies, and the settlers took the English language with them. Compare the origin of spring from 'spring of the leaf' and 'spring of the year'. The term came to denote the season in 16th-century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like ' fall of the leaf' and 'fall of the year'. 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 exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns, the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, as well as fall, began to replace it as a reference to the season. Dutch herfst, German Herbst and Scots hairst). In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.īefore the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day ( cf. Īfter the Greek era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne ( automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalised to the original Latin. Alternative etymologies include Proto-Indo-European * h₃ewǵ- ('cold') or * h₂sows- ('dry'). The word autumn ( / ˈ ɔː t ə m/) is derived from Latin autumnus, archaic auctumnus, possibly from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. Persians celebrate the beginning of the autumn as Mehregan to honor Mithra (Mehr).Īutumnal scene with yellow, orange and red leaves on trees and fallen on the ground In the Irish language, September is known as Meán Fómhair ('middle of autumn') and October as Deireadh Fómhair ('end of autumn'). However, according to the Irish Calendar, which is based on ancient Gaelic traditions, autumn lasts throughout the months of August, September and October, or possibly a few days later, depending on tradition.

In Ireland, the autumn months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are September, October and November. Under the traditional East Asian solar term system, autumn starts on or around 8 August and ends on or about 7 November. As daytime and nighttime temperatures decrease, trees change colour and then shed their leaves.

Popular culture in the United States associates Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as the end of summer and the start of autumn certain summer traditions, such as wearing white, are discouraged after that date. In the higher latitude countries in the Northern Hemisphere, autumn traditionally starts with the September equinox (21 to 24 September) and ends with the winter solstice (21 or 22 December). Meteorologists (and Australia and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere) use a definition based on Gregorian calendar months, with autumn being September, October, and November in the northern hemisphere, and March, April, and May in the southern hemisphere. In the English-speaking world of high latitude countries, autumn traditionally began with Lammas Day and ended around Hallowe'en, the approximate mid-points between midsummer, the autumnal equinox, and midwinter. While scientists, geographers and astronomers regard the autumnal equinox as 'mid-autumn', some local cultures in high latutides, with a longer temperature lag, treat the equinox as the start of autumn.

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