Do you have any Autumn related festivals where you come from, be they traditional for the area, or private little rituals at home? Seasonal things related to the turn of another season? (Sorry to Spiky and others, I know that not everywhere in the world, summer is about to end, but from my window, I can see the first acorns turning red and the chestnuts are ripe. ) Well, Bavaria (the other end of the country) has the Oktoberfest (which spread all over the world, apparently), and we have Erntedank, which still has a more Christian as well as an agricultural backround over here (slightly different background from, for example, Thanksgiving). It's the first Sunday of October. Erntedankfest ? Wikipedia It's also the time of many traditional old markets, which all are part parish fair to a degree and often stem from medieval market traditions - there is, for example, the Zwiebelmarkt (Onion Market) which is helad annually for over a week in one of my former home towns... Zwiebelmarkt - a set on Flickr And at home, it's the time of the year for roasted apples, sweet chesnuts, and pumpkin soup. (Halloween still isn't traditional here -yet- even if it is used as an "excuse" for lots of partying and dressing up, and the first Christmas items are being sold, but pointedly boycotted by us... :wink: - no chocolate Santa until December, thanks!)
Yes the Christmas decorations are already sneaking into the stores this time of year. We do have Octoberfest here but I think it is happening this coming weekend or maybe it was last weekend, but since the restaurant that is/was holding the celebration is called the Brauhaus I suppose it is okay. There will be lots of Halloween festivities and there is also the long weekend for MEA (Minnesota Education Association-the teacher's union). The biggest fall events are the hunting openers though, there will be traffic almost solid up the freeways from the cities bringing hunters to the area. Then there will be Thanksgiving followed by Black Friday, the day retailer's hope will finally put them into the black for the year, the first big shopping day before Christmas. My family has the wild rice processing business which happens in the early fall, they have been working very hard already and I have an order to fill for a coworker already too. That is one of my personal rituals of fall. My sister has lefse making day with her inlaws soon, if you aren't careful you might end up at a Lutefisk dinner. And of course there is the fall Color, we are in an area where the hardwood forests meet the conifer forests and we get really cool color contrasts. Fall is my second favorite season.
There's bonfire night ( Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night ) which might count though the timing is more to do with the date than the season.
Oh yeah, there's Halloween as well, which has turned a bit hokey mostly but there are still some people doing it properly.
