After an unusually cool summer in the Bay Area, temperatures spiked at the end of August for some blisteringly hot days. But the long Labor Day weekend still felt like the official end of summer.
As an editor, I’m thinking about all the fall events that I know will be coming up, such as Corgi Con, HERS Breast Cancer Foundation’s Walk / Run / Yoga, and Olive Hyde Art Gallery’s Holiday for the Arts Show and Sale. And of course the Fremont Ghost House and the fall Flash Fiction Contest. (This year the contest has a spooky theme as well!)
Summer feels like a break or a chance to do something more fun and frivolous. Fall feels like you’re getting back to business as usual. Many city councils are back to their regular schedule after taking a pause in August. The Jewish High Holidays signify the start of the new year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 22. In the U.S. the school year also commences in the fall, so in some ways it feels more like the beginning of a new year than Jan. 1.
It’s a little counterintuitive to see fall as the start of the year, since fall is harvest time—getting to enjoy the crops that you’ve been working hard on all spring and summer, looking at how this year’s yield turned out, and preparing the fields to lie dormant over the winter until spring weather comes around again. The vibes feel like the culmination of something rather than a new start. Cultures that celebrate New Year in spring seem to have it right to me.
Still, there’s a “now or never” sense of urgency to fall that can get us motivated. Big holidays like Christmas are coming up, and we need to get things in order. There are only a few months left in the year to fulfill resolutions started in January. Maybe the appropriate motto for fall is “the best time to start is now.”
When does the year begin for you? In midwinter, spring, fall, on your birthday, or another time?
