It’s autumn! Time for pumpkin spice, Halloween

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Depending on what calendar you follow, autumn already ishere, or it will arrive next weekend and with it all the things we adore about the fall season. Flannel shirts, hoodies, bonfires, hot chocolate, cooler temperatures, and the season’s two most prominent features – pumpkin spice and Halloween.

When I say autumn already is here, I learned there is a meteorological calendar based on the Gregorian calendar by which fall begins on Sept. 1 and ends Nov. 30. That sounds awfully sensible to me, since winter would begin Dec. 1, spring on March 1, and summer on June 1. It’s consistent, and you don’t have to wonder what day a season begins since it doesn’t change every year.

Then there’s astronomical autumn which begins with the autumnal equinox. This year it’s on Sept. 22 here in the northern hemisphere. It’s when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south giving day and night equal length. For trivia fans, equinox comes from Latin; aequus for equal and nox for night.There are lots of folkways to mark the equinox, including bonfires, burning candles, taking time to express gratitude, cleaning and decorating your home, cooking seasonal vegetables and drinking your favorite fall beverage, spending time in nature, or combining some of these by having your own fall celebration.

There’s a third start to autumn in the United States. It coincides with Labor Day, the first Monday of September. Intended to honor those who sacrificed to get five-day 40-hour work weeks and obtain fair treatment for all workers. Labor Daynow marks the last three-day weekend until Thanksgiving. Like astronomical autumn, Labor Day autumn’s starting date varies from year to year since the first Monday of September varies from year to year.

Whichever starting date you prefer, our contemporary signal for the start of fall is the arrival of pumpkin spice. For many people, pumpkin spice replaced apple cider and hot chocolate as the season’s beverage of choice. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice cappuccino, pumpkin spice milk, pumpkin spice tea, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin spice liquor, pumpkin spice water. If you can drink it, odds are you can find a pumpkin spice flavor version. I think I even saw a pumpkin spice beer.

It doesn’t end there, though. Nope. Pumpkin spice is everywhere. Like the mélange spice from “Dune,” it’s about as addictive as the most valuable thing in Frank Herbert’s universe. And like the Arrakis export, he who controls pumpkin spice controls the world.

Wherever you turn you will find pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice bread? Got it. Pumpkin spice cereal? Got it, too. Pumpkin spice cookies? No problem. Pumpkin spice candy? Sure. Pumpkin spice chips? Of course. If it can be eaten, chances are someone has found a way to incorporate pumpkin spice into it.One year there was a prank announcing pumpkin spice Spam, and there was so much interest Hormel made a limited edition of it.

But wait – there’s more! Pumpkin spice candles are aseasonal favorite. Pumpkin spice air freshener is popular, too.There’s pumpkin spice soap, pumpkin spice shampoo, pumpkin spice furniture polish, and I’m sure someone has pumpkin spice deodorant for pits, body, and other places.

Pumpkin spice is so pervasive it’s a wonder all our eyes haven’t turned blue from spice exposure as it does to the characters in “Dune.” 

Only one thing marks autumn more than pumpkin spice – Halloween. Sure, football season is a sure sign of fall, but for many people, it’s Halloween that’s the reason for this season. Like Christmas season, Halloween season seems to begin earlier each year. In some locations, Halloween decorations have already been on sale for a few weeks.

Ardent fans of All Hallow’s Eve are just as enthusiastic. At my part-time job, there have been several people buying things for Halloween. When one lady wearing a T-shirt featuring Elvira, Morticia Adams, Vampira, and Lily Munster approached I correctly surmised her cart contained Halloween decorations and knick-knacks.

Decorating lawns for Halloween is a somewhat new tradition that’s taken off in the last few years. When I was a boy, businesses would decorate a little for Halloween, but I don’t remember people putting out any more than jack o’ lanterns and maybe a fake skeleton or tombstone. And that was on Halloween itself. Now people decorate their houses and lawns for Halloween as much as they do for Christmas. Maybe more for some. Because interest in Halloween grew so much during the ’80s and ’90s I suspect all the decorating has Gen X roots.

For us Boomers, Halloween was fun. We looked forward to the one night of the year we could dress in costumes and wander door-to-door – sometimes with little supervision – asking for treats. Along with the store-bought candy we’d get homemade treats –such as popcorn balls, candy apples, cookies, brownies. Then one year some jerk poisoned his son with Halloween candy, which launched the frenzy of hoaxes about pins in apples, LSD in candy, and poison in other treats. Like many social frenzies of the ’80s these turned out to be urban legends.

But they changed Halloween so that nobody gets popcorn balls candy apples, cookies, and brownies as treats, and if kids do get any they’re tossed out. The treats, not the kids. No doubt those non-events led to people looking for other ways to have Halloween fun. That subsequently grew into it becoming a season, not just a night, and what’s a special season without decorations. Hence we now have 12-foot skeletons, giant animatronic ghouls and witches, skeletal rock bands, and assorted spooky automatons in yards across America.

So, with Halloween season under way, pumpkin spice showing up everywhere, and by the authority of the meteorological calendar, I hereby declare that it is now autumn. Get out there and turn your lawns into spooky displays, heat up the pumpkin spice lattes, and celebrate fall!