IT’S AUTUMN! FALL! HARVEST!

WHATEVER you call it, we call it the best time of the year!

The weather has no idea what it wants to be, you’re about to hit the season of “I’ll go to the gym tomorrow ….” and you have to spend a lot to get your car winter-ready.

Ahhhhhh, autumn …

But do you even know ANYTHING about this beautiful season!?

Here are some fun Fall facts for you!

  • Historically, Fall was called “harvest” because of the “harvest moon” that occurs close to the autumn equinox. Before cities electrified, the bright night of the harvest moon was essential for farmers harvesting their late-year crops.
  • Fall is caused by the Earth’s tilt, not our distance from the sun … when the northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, we get warmer. When it tilts away, we get colder. Fall and spring are the times of transition.
  • Remember that “gym tomorrow,” fact we said earlier? Well … weight gain around this time of year may not be from all the food. Researchers have found that lack of vitamin D reduces fat breakdown and triggers fat storage. So, the lack of sunlight has more to do with the extra gain than all the pumpkin spice lattes. Well, at least some of it.
  • Fall colors are caused by the amount of sugar in leaves. The more red in the leaf, the more sugar that leaf is storing. That is why Maple trees are so vibrant. Evergreens don’t change because their leaves have a thick wax covering that protects the chlorophyll (green) in the leaves.
  • Ancient people wore Halloween costumes to hide from ghosts. The Celtic tradition believed that ghosts roamed the earth on Halloween. Wearing a disguise would help you these spirits.
  • Well, jeez … Children born in the fall are statistically better students and live longer. According to the UK Department of education and the University of Chicago, Fall is the best time to be born.
  • WE ALMOST FORGOT! DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME!! Our bodies love to “fall back.” On November 6th, daylight savings time ends, giving us an extra hour of sleep. According to a New England Journal of Medicine report, Americans’ rate of heart attacks has been known to fall on the Monday following the end of daylight savings time in November, while the rate of both heart attacks and car accidents tends to rise on the Monday following the start of DST in Spring.
  • Dia De Muertos! One of the oldest autumn festivals is Mexico’s Dia de Muertos (November 1st and 2nd), a celebration of departed loved ones and the cycle of life that Mesoamerican cultures may have observed thousands of years before Christmas.
  • Where did Pumpkins get their name you ask?? It comes from the Greek word pepon, roughly meaning “large melon.” The word traded hands from French (pompon) to British (pumpion) before colonial Americans dubbed it  pumpkin.

Well, there you have it! You now know a bit more about the season famous for its Pumpkin-Spice-Everything! (Which actually has nothing to do with Pumpkins, by the way … )