The weather may not be signaling fall is on the way, but the official transition from summer to fall is just around the corner. Sunday, September 22, marks the Autumn (Fall) Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, signifying the end of summer and official beginning of fall in Illinois.
Lucky for us, our planet tilts on its axis as it makes its way around the sun, which means we get to experience the four seasons. While the summer and winter solstices focus on how close (or far) the Earth tilts toward the sun, the equinoxes are just that – equal. On both the spring and autumn equinox the sun is exactly above the equator, which means our days and nights are equal in length.
This equality can create some pretty neat opportunities to experience nature that can only occur on an equinox. One of these opportunities includes finding the cardinal compass points known as due east and due west. On the day of the equinox, go outside at sunrise (to find east) or sunset (to find west) and notice where the sun is in the sky to the landmarks around your home. In the future, you can use these same landmarks to help tell which direction is east and west.
People who love fall will need no excuse to get out to an apple orchard or pumpkin patch with a pumpkin spice latte to celebrate the fall equinox. But if you’re looking for other ways to celebrate the fall equinox this year, here are some ideas:
- Take a nature walk using our Fall Nature Walk Bingo Card.
- While on the nature walk, make sure to collect some pretty leaves to make a fall leaf crown.
- Save seeds for next year. Take a walk through your native plant garden and harvest seeds for planting in the spring. We love using this handout from the National Wildlife Federation on Saving Seeds From Your Pollinator Garden.
- Check out a picture book about fall from your local library. We love this list of fall books for children from the Rock Island Public Library.
- Track the sun’s shadow. On the day of an equinox, shadow’s will follow a straight line. You can track the shadow (similar to how a sundial works) by checking out this tutorial here from EarthSky.
