Fall is here. Autumn. Harvest moon. Festivals. Halloween. State Fairs. Thanksgiving. Pumpkins. Reds, oranges, yellows – colors everywhere. What a beautiful and fun time of the year!
I get inspired when I’m outdoors this time of year. This week, I have a trivia puzzle about autumn and some of the things that occur during this wonderful season. See how high you can score.
1. What’s the first day of autumn called? Autumnal equinox; autumnal solstice; fall; none of these; all of these.
2. Who wrote the famous poem, “Ode to Autumn?” William Shakespeare; Robert Frost; Lord Byron; John Keats.
3. Autumn is known for harvest festivals. In China, what is the Autumn festival called? Thanksgiving; Moon festival; Makar Sankranti; Sukkot.
4. True or false: The term “equinox” refers to the date or time when day and night are about equal in length.
5. How long does autumn last in the Northern hemisphere?
6. Which of these are the three zodiac signs of Autumn? Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius; Virgo, Libra, Scorpio; Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius; Leo, Virgo, Libra.
7. Who wrote the lyrics to the song, “Autumn Leaves,” the last two lines of which are, “But I miss you most of all my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall?” Nat King Cole; Johnny Mercer; Ed Sheeran; Frank Sinatra.
8. What’s “Indian summer?” The time when hay and cornfields are harvested; an unusually cold spell; a heat wave during the autumn; the day of the first frost.
9. How many Federal holidays are there during the fall? 2; 3; 4; 5.
10. What substance trapped in maple leaves after photosynthesis stops turns a red color in response to cooler temperatures and shorter days? Chlorophyll; glucose; sap; chloroplast.
11. What’s a harvest moon? The night when the moon is so bright in the sky, farmers are able to harvest fields; the first moon on the first day of autumn; any large full moon in the autumn; none of the above.
ANSWERS:
1. Actually, it can be all of these, but scientifically, it’s autumn equinox or autumn solstice. 2. John Keats. In a letter written September 1819, Keats says: “How beautiful the season is now - How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather - Dian skies - I never liked stubble-fields so much as now. Aye, better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm - in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday’s walk that I composed upon it.” What he composed was “Ode to Autumn.” 3. Moon Festival. During this festival, people eat traditional moon-shaped cakes. This holiday is a traditional one that celebrates a good fall harvest. 4. True. 5. From the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, or about mid-Sept to mid-December. 6. Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. 7. Johnny Mercer. 8. Heat waves that occur in the late fall. 9. Four: Columbus Day, Election Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. 10. Glucose. In the daytime, the leaves can produce lots of sugar (glucose), but the cool night temperatures prevent the sugar sap from flowing through the leaf veins and down into the branches and trunk. 11. None of the above. In traditional sky lore, the harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, and depending on the year, it can come anywhere from two weeks before to two weeks after the autumnal equinox. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2013 autumnal equinox comes on September 22, so the September 19 full moon counts as the Northern Hemisphere’s harvest moon.