Autumn. - Countries of the World - Climate, Weather

Countries of the World - Climate, Weather
Autumn.

Autumn.
Autumn, also known colloquially as fall in North American English, is one of the four temperate seasons. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Southern Hemisphere), when the duration of daylight becomes noticeably shorter and the temperature cools considerably. Day length decreases and night length increases as the season progresses until the Winter Solstice in December (Northern Hemisphere) and June (Southern Hemisphere). One of its main features in temperate climates is the shedding of leaves from deciduous trees.

Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as "mid-autumn", while others with a longer temperature lag treat the equinox as the start of autumn. In the English-speaking world, Autumn traditionally began with Lammas Day and ended around Hallowe'en, the approximate mid-points between Midsummer, the autumnal equinox, and Midwinter. Meteorologists (and Australia) and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere) use a definition based on Gregorian calendar months, with autumn being September, October, and November in the northern hemisphere, and March, April, and May in the southern hemisphere.

Northern temperate zone
Astronomical season 22 September – 21 December
Meteorological season 1 September – 30 November
Solar (Celtic) season 1 August – 31 October
Southern temperate zone
Astronomical season 20 March – 21 June
Meteorological season 1 March – 31 May
Solar (Celtic) season 1 February – 30 April

Associations.
Association with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, often the most important on their calendars. Still extant echoes of these celebrations are found in the autumn Thanksgiving holiday of the United States and Canada, and the Jewish Sukkot holiday with its roots as a full-moon harvest festival of "tabernacles" (living in outdoor huts around the time of harvest).

Melancholia.
Autumn, especially in poetry, has often been associated with melancholia. The possibilities and opportunities of summer are gone, and the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies turn grey, the amount of usable daylight drops rapidly, and many people turn inward, both physically and mentally.[24] It has been referred to as an unhealthy season.

Halloween.
Autumn is associated with Halloween (influenced by Samhain, a Celtic autumn festival),and with it a widespread marketing campaign that promotes it. Halloween, 31 October, is in autumn in the northern hemisphere. The television, film, book, costume, home decoration, and confectionery industries use this time of year to promote products closely associated with such a holiday, with promotions going from late August or early September to 31 October, since their themes rapidly lose strength once the holiday ends, and advertising starts concentrating on Christmas.

Tourism.
Although colour change in leaves occurs wherever deciduous trees are found, coloured autumn foliage is noted in various regions of the world: most of North America, Eastern Asia (including China, Korea, and Japan), Europe, southeast, south and part of the midwest of Brazil, forest of Patagonia, eastern Australia and New Zealand's South Island
Eastern Canada and New England are famous for their autumnal foliage, and this attracts major tourism (worth billions of US dollars) for the regions.