As summer fades, we bid farewell to the warm days and welcome fall, transitioning us into the colder months.
It’s a season of vibrant colors and cozy vibes, but beyond that, it also holds mysteries and marvels that intrigue us every year.
If you’ve ever wondered why leaves change color or how fall got its name, we’ve got you covered!
From celestial events to natural phenomena, here are 15 fun facts about fall that will amaze you.
Fall is harvest season.
Fall is harvest time for farmers because many crops, such as pumpkins, squash, apples, and grapes, are ripe and ready to be gathered.
Everything has been growing big and healthy throughout spring and summer, and they’re ready for the picking.
Interestingly, before “fall” and “autumn,” this season was simply known as the harvest season.
“Harvest” itself traces back to the Old English word hærfest, which refers to gathering crops, though the specific origin remains unknown.
People who travel to see the vibrant leaf colors of fall are called “leaf peepers.”
Leaf peepers, as they’re known in the US and Canada, will often travel great distances to capture photos and videos of fall’s splendor.
Popular destinations for these types of tourists include Lake Placid, New York, Taos, New Mexico, and Aspen, Colorado.
The appreciation of fall colors isn’t restricted to North America, of course. This activity in Japan is known as Momijigari, from the words momiji (red leaves or maple tree) and kari (hunting).
Trees drop their leaves in the fall to protect themselves from the cold.
If their leaves remained on the tree, they would freeze and rupture, rendering them useless for growing food and susceptible to damage from wind and snow.
The process begins when the tree stops producing chlorophyll, the green photosynthesizing pigment in leaves.
As chlorophyll production ceases, the green color fades, revealing the vibrant fall colors we all admire.
Subsequently, each leaf’s stem is severed by the tree itself, and the leaf gently falls to the ground.
Whether you refer to this season as fall or autumn largely depends on where you grew up.
In the late 1300s, though, nobody referred to this season as fall. They only called it “autumn,” which itself came from France’s autompne and the Latin autumnus.
It wasn’t until the 1500s that people in England began calling it fall, from the phrase “the fall of the leaf.”
By the 1600s, “autumn” reigned supreme in England, and “fall” went to North America.
The color of fall leaves depends on their sugar content.
Leaves generate a lot of sugar during sunny days. But in the fall, when temperatures drop, the veins of leaves get clogged, trapping the sugars inside the leaves.
Anthocyanin pigments form when leaves have high sugar levels, and this causes them to turn red, purple, or crimson.
On the other hand, leaves turn yellow or gold when they produce carotenoid pigments, which are always present in the leaves and are less dependent on the amount of sugar trapped in them.
Clocks are often set back one hour during fall.
This occurs as some countries, like Canada and New Zealand, switch from Daylight Saving Time (DST) back to standard time.
The phrase often used for this practice is “spring forward, fall back.”
Daylight Saving Time is most often used in countries further from the equator. Countries near it don’t need DST as they experience minimal changes in their daylight hours throughout the year.
India’s biggest festival takes place in the fall.
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is celebrated over five days during a period between mid-September and mid-November.
This fall festival represents the triumph of light over darkness, litting up the homes and streets of India (as well as other Hindu countries) with bright candles, lanterns, and fireworks.
Diwali is particularly spectacular at night, as fall’s cooler temperature causes clearer night skies that emphasize the festival’s lights!
