It’s a season of vibrant colors and cozy vibes, but beyond that, it also holds mysteries and marvels that intrigue us every year.
If you’ve ever wondered why leaves change color or how fall got its name, we’ve got you covered!
From celestial events to natural phenomena, here are 15 fun facts about fall that will amaze you.
Fall is season.
Fall is time for farmers because many crops, such as, squash, apples, and grapes, are ripe and ready to be gathered.
Everything has been growing big and healthy throughout spring and summer, and they’re ready for the picking.
Interestingly, before “fall” and “autumn,” this season was simply known as the harvest season.
“Harvest” itself traces back to the Old English word hærfest, which refers to gathering crops, though the specific origin remains unknown.
People who travel to see the vibrant leaf colors of fall are called “leaf peepers.”
Leaf peepers, as they’re known in the US and Canada, will often travel great distances to capture photos and videos of fall’s splendor.
Popular destinations for these types of tourists include Lake Placid, New York, Taos, New Mexico, and Aspen, Colorado.
The appreciation of fall colors isn’t restricted to North America, of course. This activity in Japan is known as Momijigari, from the words momiji (red leaves or maple tree) and kari (hunting).
Trees drop their leaves in the fall to protect themselves from the cold.
If their leaves remained on the tree, they would freeze and rupture, rendering them useless for growing food and susceptible to damage from wind and snow.
The process begins when the tree stops producing chlorophyll, the green photosynthesizing pigment in leaves.
As chlorophyll production ceases, the green color fades, revealing the vibrant fall colors we all admire.
Subsequently, each leaf’s stem is severed by theitself, and the leaf gently falls to the ground.
Learn more about this fascinating process
The term “fall” traces back to the 1500s.
In the late 1300s, though, nobody referred to this season as fall. They only called it “autumn,” which itself came from France’s autompne and the Latin autumnus.
It wasn’t until the 1500s that people in England began calling it fall, from the phrase “the fall of the leaf.”
By the 1600s, “autumn” reigned supreme in England, and “fall” went to North America.
The color of fall leaves depends on their sugar content.
Leaves generate a lot of during sunny days. But in the fall, when temperatures drop, the veins of leaves get clogged, trapping the sugars inside the leaves.
Anthocyanin pigments form when leaves have high sugar levels, and this causes them to turn red, purple, or crimson.
On the other hand, leaves turn or gold when they produce carotenoid pigments, which are always present in the leaves and are less dependent on the amount of sugar trapped in them.
