We experience the seasons here in Ohio. As winter is now winding down, and the snow from February has melted, it gives many people hope that lovely spring is around the corner.
The official date for this is March 20, this year. Flowers bloom, things turn green, and such. The clocks change, annoyingly so.
But all that aside, we often refer to this as Springtime.
And the season before as Wintertime.
And the next one on the books, as Summertime.
Time, time, time.
Yet. We never refer to Fall as Falltime.
Or as Autumntime.
I don’t know why that is. It contains just as much time as the others. I think there needs to be equality, all across the board, when it comes to the season. Falltime should be officially recognized as an acceptable term.
Although, spell check has changed this to “full-time,” three times now.
There is another thing about the harvest season. People use both fall and autumn interchangeably when referring to this time of year. It is the only season with two names. We don’t call winter “winter” and “stumble.” Spring isn’t “spring” and “jump.” And on.
Fall isn’t a modern nickname that followed the more traditional autumn. The two terms are actually first recorded within a few hundred years of each other.
Before either word emerged in the time between summer and winter, everyone just knew it as “harvest.” This is a Germanic word. It means to pluck or pick or reap. We get the idea. But all of this was a long time ago.
Then, in the 1500s, the English-speaking people began referring to the seasons in a different way. They started separating the cold and warm months. They would say it was either the “fall of the leaf” or “spring of the leaf.” Of course, we can see how the shortened versions of those words emerged. Fall and spring.
Meanwhile, over in France, they were calling “fall” autompne, and the Latin people were saying autumnus. So, that’s where autumn came in.
But none of that explains the “time” on the end of only three.
I don’t wish to overshadow spring with thoughts of fall. It will begin on the Vernal Equinox. The word Vernal reminds me of someone’s nerdy cousin.
Anyway, it is coming, thanks to the design of the Earth’s rotation.
If our big ball, Earth, rotated on an axis that was perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the sun, there would be no variation in day lengths and no variation in seasons. But as it is, we are on a tilt. It measures 23.4º. And that’s enough to mix things up for us and our exposure to the sun.
Thanks to the tilt, spring approaches. We should, as always, remember to keep our heads during these times.
Every year, that same old thing comes up about it being possible to balance an egg on its end on the spring equinox. It is nothing more than a myth. Trying to balance any oval-shaped object on its tippy-toes is no easier on the spring equinox than on any other day. If you are balancing eggs, good for you. Apparently, you have more time on your hands than I. But try it again in a few weeks, and you’ll have the same results.
And finally, the early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising sun on the spring equinox.
The season is coming. Springtime. Find balance. And time. Most of all, walk like an Egyptian.
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“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
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“It is spring again. The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
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“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
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Time, season, time, season. Spring or fall.
