I was taught that the position of the earth relative to the sun marked the change in seasons. Thus, fall starts on the autumnal equinox (on or around the 21st of September) and ends at the winter solstice (on or around the 21st of December). In recent decades, however, I've noticed that more and more people tie the seasons to whole months. Thus, fall starts today, September 1st, and ends on November 30. Winter begins on December 1st, and so on.
The seasons change as the earth's tilt moves toward and away from the sun. The equinoxes occur when the sun is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. It's the astronomic definition of the seasons, tied to a natural cosmic cycle. The calendar-based meteorological definition seems more or less arbitrary to me, although I've read that it is tied to the earth's average temperature cycle. It looks to me, however, that it's tied simply to the calendar.
So, if you go by the meteorological definition of the seasons, happy fall! If you follow the astronomic definition, you've still got three more weeks of summer ahead.
No fall here yet! That market photo is so inviting. The last market in France I was lucky enough to visit was in Boulogne-sur-Mer more than 20 years ago. I miss that.
ReplyDeleteI've always gone by the astronomic calendar, but I can see why some people don't.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that it's just cultural, if people are calling all of September as fall, and all of June as summer, for example... in the U.S., anyway, because it's so tied to school. But, I'll tell you this... my students, at least in level-1 French and Spanish, were very unclear when the seasons were. We'd do activities to practice numbers, months, and how to write the date, and the words for seasons, by me giving them dates, and they had to say what season it was. I learned early on that I had to pre-teach for that, to give them a rough idea of when the seasons change. So many of them were flabbergasted that November isn't winter, and that the beginning of June isn't summer :)
ReplyDeleteWe need more teachers like you, Judy!
DeleteBettyAnn
mitch, you must have markets in Spain, no?
ReplyDeleteevelyn, it's the reason for the seasons! ;)
judy, very interesting! I've always associated November with fall. Never winter. Thanksgiving, harvests, falling leaves, frost on the pumpkin! All very fall things in my mind.