Autumn

The autumn equinox officially hits on Saturday the 22^nd at 9:49 a.m. (CDT). So get ready for fall.

Now, if you told most people outside of North America to “get ready for fall,” they’d be afraid of you toppling on them – because the word “fall” is only used for autumn in this country and Canada.

This usage actually came from 16^th Century England – so, when the English settled America, it continued to be used in “the colonies.” Strangely enough, using “fall” as a synonym for “autumn” became obsolete shortly thereafter back in Great Britain - but Americans held on to it for some reason. And obviously, we still call this season “fall” to this day.

Prior to the 16^th century? The season was just basically known as “harvest” in England and other parts of the world. But that changed when more people began moving to towns from farms and harvest just began to be used to refer to the actual reaping of crops.

Whatever you want to call it, this season is worth billions in tourism dollars to both New England and Easter Canada because of the brightly-colored autumn foliage of the trees. North America has a greater variety of leaf colors because it has more than 800 arbor species – a lot more than you’ll find in Europe or other parts of the world – and is able to put on a much more vibrant show.

And by the way, “autumn” is no also-ran name. Since 1997, it’s been one of the top 100 names given to girls in the U.S. “Fall,” not so much.