"Autumn" (Alphonse Mucha, source: artwallpapers.net)

Today marks the autumnal equinox, otherwise known as the first day of fall.

Fun fact:

In theory, astronomically, the equinoxes ought to be the middle of the respective seasons, but temperature lag (caused by the thermal latency of the ground and sea) means that seasons appear later than dates calculated from a purely astronomical perspective. The actual lag varies with region, so some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as “mid-autumn” whilst others treat it as the start of autumn.

Less fun fact: I always have to look up the capitalization rules for seasons.

The Wikipedia entry for Autumn (source of Fun Fact the First, by the way) goes beyond discussing the season’s meteorological aspects to address autumn’s cultural associations with both harvest and melancholy, a predominant mood of “gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather.” The article’s literary examples of this autumnal mixed bag include several poems: Chanson d’automne/Autumn Song (Verlaine), Herbsttag/Autumn Day (Rilke), To Autumn (Keats), The Wild Swans at Coole (Yeats).  Here are a couple of my seasonal favorites.

Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost)

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Sonnet 73 (William Shakespeare)

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Fun stuff, right?

Autumnal & wintry melancholy aside, there’s a lot to smile about during September, October, and November. In these parts fall brings SEC football and the ability to wear jeans and long sleeves sans risk of heatstroke. I find great joy in carving pumpkins, falling leaves, and pumpkin spice in all its forms: pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spiced pies.

Fellow fans of fall foliage may wish to explore Alabama’s Fall Color Trail, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources suggested driving tour of fall color spots. Here’s a shot from North Alabama’s Mentone.

"Already Wishing for Fall" (source: Southernpixel's Flickr photostream)

To Autumn indeed!