Welcome autumn, I want to say.
That time of year when you don't know whether to put on jeans and a big coat or shorts and a tee shirt (especially in Marseille). Well that is very much the case at the moment.
I personally find autumn INCREDIBLE: the beautiful fiery leaves, the breeze in the morning halloween, HALLOWEEN !!
So with that i've decided to make an article about that time of the year. It might seem to be a random subject…it is, but very interesting facts will follow and I just love autumn so that's a good enough reason.
First of all, like Mr. L'évêque, I'd like to give an etymology lesson or kind of to understand the roots of autumn.
Most people know that the term autumn comes from the united kingdom and fall comes from the united states or that's what you think…
First of all in the uk this season was called harvest month for the crops that were harvested these months. Then a common expression still in the uk was the fall of leaves, that expression was then shortened to fall. This term spread in America during the colonisation. Now you might ask me how autumn got included in the English language. Well it's not until the 18th century that this term slowly changed from fall to……… the FRENCH word “automne” !!! “Automne” from French comes itself from latin “autumnus” as you may have already guessed.
The English people may have followed the Latin version more though.
So autumn is a season with very many different aspects, and I'm going to speak about the holidays and traditions, the food that is very typical and finally some science because believe it or not our ideal autumn is science doing.
You all know what I mean by holiday in autumn, it's Halloween !!
One of my favorite traditions in halloween must be the pumpkin carving, sure it's really hard to get out all the grains in the pumpkin but the result is always so fun and just seeing your production in the dark is THE best feeling. Here comes a fact, pumpkin carving actually originated from Ireland only instead of pumpkin carving it's potato and turnip carving. It's only, again, until the colonisation of America that people from Ireland replaced turnips and potatoes with pumpkins, a lot more practical don't you think!!?
I also love apple bobbing. Each year me and my family put a few apples in a bucket of icing water and each year we time ourselves. I won for the very first time 3 years ago. I actually discovered such a great technique. You just have to put your whole head in the bucket (i know, it's hard but it's for a good cause) and push the apple at the bottom of the bucket, bite into it and win!!!! And rush towards a towel.
Of course other holidays exist like Thanksgiving or the bonfire in the uk but i just can't say everything that people do in autumn so i've decided to not develop these holidays too much.
Now the food. Autumn is filled with pastries, sweets, cakes.
First of all cinnamon rolls you probably know this one already. I personally don't love it ( I know sorry) but my family loves them.
There's also everything related to apples
Toffy apples that are apples covered in caramel (same i don't love these either but i've got a picky taste ) another fact they first appeared in Chicago in 1948.
Apple sauce which is a sauce eaten quite often with pork during autumn.
And finally apple cider which is an alcohol based on apples (now i can't tell you if i liked this i've never tasted it )It is served at halloween and Thanksgiving.
There's also carrot cake which sounds weird but is really very good. It really is made of carrots in case you were wondering and it often has a cream cheese on top and in between the layers.
Now the science in autumn i know you've been waiting for this.
Trees in autumn know what season they actually have their own biological clock so when the time comes they need to get rid of all the nutrients in the leaves for the plant. In these nutrients there's chlorophyll which is green and is needed for photosynthesis. The chlorophyll makes the leaf green. All that's left is the red pigments that protect the leaves while the nutrients are removed.
So there you go in a few sentences why the leaves that we all love in autumn are orange and fall on the ground. This is the science in autumn
So that's most of what you need to know about this INCREDIBLE season (not from a completely biased person…)Of course there is so much more to say but this article would then just be too long. I've mainly concentrated on Europe and the US but there's still the rest of the world's traditions to discover!!!
And with that happy season of the fall of leaves, happy harvest, fall and autumn !!!!
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