Autumn: Why does the season have this name?

Today, officially, begins autumn, the favorite season for those who do not like the heat so much, but also never get used to the harsh cold. The next few months will be to get that cardigan out of the closet and get ready for winter. But, after all, why is the station called that?

To find out, we need to go back a few centuries to Roman times. At that time, the year was divided into only two seasons: the longest period was ver or veris, originating from the Latin term vernum, which means spring time, and currently encompasses our spring, summer, and fall; After that there was a shorter period of bad weather, hiems or hibernus tempus, that is, our winter.

Putting so many months into one period didn't work out, as you can imagine. So they started dividing this big season into two smaller ones. Cousin See was the "first summer, " the beginning of what would be the good weather - later it became spring. Deveranum tempus or veranum tempus was the warmest period, later called summer.

Bye, veranum!

Still, veranum tempus was very long, so its end began to be called aestivum, which gave rise to the term estio. By dividing the hiems into two substations, tempus autumns would be the prelude to winter and hibernus tempus would be winter itself.

Autumns, as you can imagine, gave rise to our fall. In the etymology of the Latin word, it is a derivation of auctus, which means increase / growth, which in its view is derived from augere, that is, add / strengthen.

Thus, until the sixteenth century, there were five seasons: spring, summer, summer, fall and winter, with different durations. From the seventeenth century on, things changed a little; summer was joined with the summer and a new, more egalitarian division of the year was defined in four seasons. The beginning of each period would be determined by the equinoxes and the solstices.

For a few centuries, Sandy and Junior didn't have to include a fifth season in their album.

Equinox comes from the Latin term aequinoctium, ie aequi (equal) and noctium (night). It happens when the sun is aligned with the celestial equator, making day and night the exact same duration. The autumnal equinox is a slightly variable period from March 20 to 21 in the Southern Hemisphere. The spring equinox occurs around September 23rd.

Meanwhile, the solstice is the moment when the sun is farthest from the celestial equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, this happens on June 21st, starting summer there, while in the Southern Hemisphere winter begins. This distance is also maximum on December 21, reversing the seasons between the hemispheres.