Autumn arrives in the Serranía de Ronda

Autumn this year began at 21.21 on Wednesday 22 September.

In the northern hemisphere, that is. In the southern half of the world, it was Spring that started at that time.

Here in the Serranía, there has been a noticeable drop in night-time temperatures in the last week, although the days remain hot if the sun is out.

The concept of autumn in European languages is connected with the harvesting of crops; in many cultures autumn, like the other seasons, has been marked by rites and festivals revolving around the season’s importance in food production. Animals gather food in autumn in preparation for the coming winter, and those with fur often grow thicker coats.

Also called fall in the USA and Canada, autumn is the season of the year between summer and winter, astronomically from the September equinox to the December solstice in the N hemisphere. Meteorologists use a definition based on Gregorian calendar months, with autumn being September, October and November in the northern hemisphere.

Autumn marks the transition from summer to winter. It is the season when the duration of daylight becomes noticeably shorter and the temperature cools considerably. Day length decreases and night length increases as the season progresses until the Winter Solstice in December. One of its main features in temperate climates is the striking change in colour for the leaves of deciduous trees as they prepare to shed.

Harvest

Association 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. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time.

Many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, often the most important on their calendars. Echoes of these celebrations are found in the autumn Thanksgiving holiday of the United States and Canada, and the Jewish Sukkot holiday. The predominant mood of these autumnal celebrations is a gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather.

Melancholia

Autumn, especially in poetry, has often been associated with melancholia. The possibilities and opportunities of summer are gone, and the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies turn grey, the amount of usable daylight drops rapidly, and many people turn inward, both physically and mentally. It has been referred to as an unhealthy season.

Other associations

In some parts of the northern hemisphere, autumn has a strong association with the end of summer holiday and the start of a new school year, particularly for children in primary and secondary education. “Back to School” advertising and preparations usually occurs in the weeks leading to the beginning of autumn.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, in the United States, in some of the Caribbean islands and in Liberia. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.

The Christian religious holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are observed in autumn in the Northern hemisphere.

Since 1997, Autumn has been one of the top 100 names for girls in the United States.

In the Serranía de Ronda

Up to now, it is only the cooler evenings, colder nights and fresher early mornings that indicate the changing of the seasons around these parts. Gardens are still colourful with flowers blooming healthily and vegetables still growing amazingly quickly as they tend to do in this climate.

Here are some early autumn images from my garden taken on Saturday. 25 September.