When Does Autumn Start 2018: Autumn, also known as fall in the US, is the season falling between the summer and winter seasons. It is usually observed starting from September and ends in the month of December in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere it starts in and comes to an end in June.
When Does Autumn Start 2018
What is meant by Autumn?
The word ‘Autumn’ is derived from the Etruscan (an ancient language) word-root ‘autu-‘. The Romans then borrowed it and later on it became a Latin word ‘autumnus’. When the Roman era came to an end, the word was used as ‘autompne’ (Old French), and then was again normalized to Latin. It was from the 16th Century when the word was modified to ‘autumn’ in Middle English language and was then never again altered.
Season of Autumn
The season basically embarks the transition of summer season to winter. The days in the autumn season become shorter and nights become longer as compared to the summer season. In this season, it is observed that the deciduous trees shed their leaves largely when their color starts fading to yellow, red or brown.
In autumn, the new school-year starts in most of the countries. In the United Kingdom, this period of the autumn season is known as the ‘Autumn Term’. In the Southern Hemisphere if its autumn season, spring season starts in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. At the Equator, the autumn and spring season are the same with considerable temperature differences.
In the autumn, animals go hunting for food so that they can save some for the winter season as they won’t get out in search in the winters due to utmost cold and windy weather all around. In some regions it even rains moderately. In the North America, as autumn starts in September, the first Monday of this month is Labor Day and is a popular culture in the autumns.
In the summers, people here prefer wearing white or light or bright colored clothes, which is then not followed by people when the autumn starts. As the temperatures in the day and night fall down, trees start shedding their leaves, and this is the specialty of autumn.
In the East Asia, autumn generally begins at the starting of August and ends in the month of November. In Ireland, the season is observed in the months September, October, and November every year. In Australia and New Zealand, autumn is seen to be going on from March until the ending of May.
Autumn as the season of harvest
In many countries, Autumn is known as the season of harvest. They even observe some harvest festivals which are one of the most important ones in their yearly calendars. In the US and Canada, the Thanksgiving holiday is observed for the Autumn harvest festival celebrations.
The Jewish people have been observing celebrations on the Sukkot holiday, i.e. full-moon harvest festival of ‘tabernacles’. Tabernacles means staying in the huts built outdoor at the times of harvest.
When it is celebrated?
In the US, there are many festivals celebrated at the time of the harvesting in autumn season. The same is in other countries like India, China, the UK and many more. In India, Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Dussehra are the important autumn festivals.
In China, the Moon Festival is the one which falls in autumn season. In the Northern Hemisphere, Halloween id associated with Autumn, where as in the Southern Hemisphere it is the Thanksgiving Day in the US and Canada, Oktoberfest in the Germany.
Important autumn festive occasions in India
Durga Puja is one of the most important autumn festive occasions in India where the Hindus express their gratitude towards the Goddess Durga for her triumphant victory over the devil Mahishasura. So the people celebrate the victory of the good over evil.
In the Northern and Eastern Indian sub-continents, the festival is called Durga Puja and in the Western states it is known as Navratri, the rituals and customs followed for celebrating the festive occasion remaining the same all over the nation
At the end of the Durga Puja/Navratri festival comes Dussehra, which is observed on the 10th day (after the ninth day of Navratri). The day is celebrated commemorating again the victory of good over evil. The story behind this is related to the Ramayana in which Lord Rama had defeated the Lankan devil Ravana. On the day of Dussehra, people worship Lord Rama with immense devotion.
A common custom followed by the Northern and Western sub-continents of India are burning of the large replicable statue of the Devil Ravana. The statue is made up of fireworks and covered with cloth or paper giving it a look of Ravana by painting on the cloth/paper. The statue is burn in the community area or some open lands in the nearby localities when the sun starts getting down.
The season also has a great commercial importance in India when the tailors, clay modelers, decorators, textile dealers, etc. await the season in order to have a brisk business. This season is especially an event of utmost bonuses for the ones who perform pujas.
In India, from the beginning of October, monsoon begins to recede from this country and consequently rainfall becomes frequent. So this period is also called the season of return Monsoon. Though the rainy season is no longer there, yet, due to the cyclone coming from the Bay of Bengal, occasionally violent storms and rainfall are observed. When Does Autumn Start.