Everyone feels the beginning of the North American fall. The air has a delicious chill, the trees are tinted a gorgeous auburn, and the freedom of summer is lost to school, homework, and responsibilities. With these changes comes reminiscence. As autumnal festivals roll in we celebrate our history, heritage, and family. We wrap ourselves in sweaters and wait for the holiday season to remind us of some of the best memories of our childhoods. A uniquely American experience takes us all in its hold, a patriotic nostalgia.
The art that is emblematic of the autumn season is so American. As school begins we are often reminded of the wooden schoolhouse, with an apple on the teacher’s desk, that stirs collective memories of an American past that none of us witnessed. Every Halloween, we long for the suburban dream of a Charlie Brown-esque trick-or-treating, the elaborate costumes of the Roaring Twenties. Every store is filled with fabric pumpkins, sunflower-embellished scarecrows, and jazz bringing back the crisp air of years past. As Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole usher in the slow movement of the harvest season, we settle in for winter with them. This craving for an aesthetic autumn, with a crunching carpet of orange leaves and wreaths adorning front doors, is a natural product of the emphasis placed on memory and an honoring of the American Dream that characterizes the season.
Autumn is not only a season of celebration in the sense of US recognition, for so many American families it is the primary festive season of their culture. Navratri, Diwali, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Día de Los Muertos, Mawlid, and so many others are celebrated in communities across the country. All of these have themes of reflection, resolution, giving back, and honoring the past. This is a direct contrast to our spring festivals of renewal.
Heritage is incredibly important as we celebrate these holidays, and, because of the nature of major festivals, it is a time of family togetherness. We bring family together to reflect on celebrations of the past, to eat foods made with love and tradition, to tell stories of our lives, and to reconnect with the people we love. When families gather around the Thanksgiving table they may have been separated for a long while, but the atmosphere of gratitude and forgiveness that weaves through the season can bring anyone together again. The fall is filled with celebrations of American greatness. Beginning with Labor Day and culminating in Thanksgiving. Since childhood, we were bombarded with stories of the founding of our country and our heroes; patriotism runs deep as we sit to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or travel around the state over Labor Day weekend.
This “American” nostalgia permeates the media, from your Pinterest feed to the reruns of “Gilmore Girls” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”. It definitely reaches Enloe students, who shared their adoration for fall on Instagram. Apple cider, pumpkin pie, and Starbucks’ fall menu were spotlighted as staples of the season. Students were excited about the State Fair, college football, Halloween movies, and the Thanksgiving Day parade. Billie Holiday’s “Autumn in New York” and Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10-minute version) (Taylor’s Version)” were fall listening favorites across the board.
Nostalgia could be the reason that you love the season, but it could also contribute to a weight of longing that you feel around the equinox. Some of these memories bring incredible joy from favorite childhood moments, excitement about the upcoming holiday season, contentment with the chilly air, and reunion with family. For others, this may bring a feeling of loss, especially loss of freedom from both the recently concluded summer and the free time and expression of the early years of our lives.
Either way, the season gives us a chance to reflect on change in our lives. It asks us to recognize our heritage and respect those who have come before us. It asks us to be grateful for the health, joy, and love we get to feel every day and to give to those in need. It gives us a beautiful moment of pause before we weather the long winter and begin a new year and new shifts in our lives. It tells us to settle in and feel the air biting at our flannel-clad skin. So however you’re feeling in this autumnal world, know you aren’t alone. Hug your loved ones close, pull out your sweaters, make a mug of tea, turn on Nat King Cole’s “Autumn Leaves” (an Enloe suggestion), and keep watching the wind bring down the beautiful, old leaves so their branches can sprout new ones. Perhaps you’ll get inspired. Happy Fall, y’all.
