Autumn 2019: How is the start of the season celebrated and when do the clocks change?

Several longstanding festivals mark the period of harvest and transition

Today the entire world will experience roughly an equal amount of day and night, as the autumnal equinox marks the start of a new season.

Due to the Earth’s tilt, each hemisphere spends six months facing the sun, with this crossover point known as the equinox. The biannual phenomenon is officially regarded as the moment the sun passes directly over the equator, which took place on Monday at 8:50am.

The season of harvest, autumn was historically a season of great importance and – when the weather had been kind – abundance.

As such, the autumnal equinox has long been a focus of ritual and celebration in the UK, and continues to be to this day.

Many Britons have celebrated the ancient Harvest Festival this September, which traditionally coincides with the Harvest Moon – the name given to the full moon that falls closest to the autumn equinox.

With the full moon falling on 25 September, many churches, schools and communities celebrated on Sunday by creating traditional corn dolls, attending fairs and decorating churches with autumnal colours and produce.

The word “harvest” has roots in the old English word for autumn – “haerfest”. Additionally, while the term “fall” is usually considered an Americanism, it was commonly used in seventeenth century England until the French word “automne” became more prevalent, deriving from a commonly used phrase, “fall of the leaf”, according to the Met Office.

Meanwhile, celebrants of the pagan festival of Mabon spent the morning watching the sun rise at Stonehenge on Monday to mark the event, which falls on the equinox and is named after a Welsh deity, the son of the goddess of fertility, Modron.

Traditionally, the festival marked a time of rest after a laborious harvest, and would be spent eating seasonal produce gleaned from the soil, making offerings to trees and preparing for the approach of longer nights.

While druids and Wiccans will continue this tradition in ways of their own choosing, around 100 modern pagans, tourists and onlookers gather at Stonehenge every year to mark the holiday’s passing.

For many in the UK, the most marked seasonal change will come as the clocks turn back.

However, this won’t take place until the last Sunday of October, which falls on the 27th in 2019 – giving everyone an extra hour in bed.

The same could not be said for the hundreds who took part in a charitable skinny dip in the North Sea as the sun rose on Sunday.

Raising money and awareness for mental health charities, 737 people braved a swim along the northeast England coastline at the annual event before enjoying one last summer barbecue on the beach.