The Waning

So it is now officially Autumn. We passed the autumnal equinox on Tuesday, and we are heading into the Dark Times. If you read this blog very often, you'll know that I whine about this event every year. You'd think I was an ancient Celt or a  follower of the old Nordic gods. No...it's just that I love summer.

 I've been enjoying this latest season of the sun. It was weirdly not scorching-hot here in the desert for most of August, but now that September is here, we've had the temperature get up to 100 degrees almost daily. However, since the sun is lower in the sky, it doesn't stay hot at night. But the pool warmed back up, and I've been enjoying splashing about at the end of the school day. I might be able to keep swimming into October this year. I'm definitely going to keep trying. One day it'll be too cold. In the meantime, I'll be out there.

I don't look forward to the dark times that approach. Yes, yes, we get to celebrate some fun traditions with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. But you know that these holidays are situated in the fall because of ancient peoples and their attempts to ward off the dimming light and bring back the sun?  Christmas --- the remembrance of Christ's birth --- would be more accurately celebrated in the Spring. Thanksgiving is just a northern hemisphere party to rejoice over the bounty of the harvest. Winter is coming and it will be a long, long time before things start to grow again. In the fall, it seemed like there was such an abundance, that people could afford to splurge a little and have a feast. Halloween, again...another celebration of the spooky darkness.

Okay, I'm sounding too cynical. I actually LOVE Christmas and Thanksgiving. I'm also a fan of Halloween as a chance to dress up and act silly and eat candy. (horror movies, devil worship, zombies, etc. not-so-much) So, I'm not bad-mouthing the fun things we do in the fall. It's really only the fading daylight that I mourn. I'm pretty sure, however, that if I lived near the equator, where the daylight remains the same throughout the year, that it would seem too weird to me and I'd miss these seasonal changes.

So, enjoy the remaining days of Indian Summer, Fall, Autumn, Harvest---so many names! Enjoy the autumn leaves--if you've got them. Enjoy the pumpkin spice latte or cider or hot cocoa around your bonfire of burning leaves. I'll enjoy the slight decrease in sweating, the opportunity to wear a light sweater in the early part of the day, and my students' enthusiasm for their Halloween costumes. There's something to cheer all of us, as we note the coming of the Darkness of Winter. The end of Summer. The earth's orbit around the sun...I'm so glad I know about science, and that, this, too, shall pass.

Here's someone loving the celebrations of Fall!