September always felt like this month I had to trudge through to get to the beauty that is October. “Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul,” writes Peggy Toney Horton.
A month whose thirty days were often warmer than I was wanting, whose trees were still pretty green while all I wished for was a view of reds, yellows, and oranges, and whose essence was neither fully summer nor fully autumn.
That gray area which marks September is precisely why it has now become a month which I find so very dear.
This month isn’t about doing all the fall things. Not about trying to soak up every single autumnal feeling while it lasts. It’s about making the soft passage to October and the months beyond.
In whatever way it feels is best.
Here’s your September Ever Diaries.
P.S. If you are new here, welcome! At the start of the month, I send these little overviews out about the time of the year we are greeting—and don’t tell the other posts, but these are some of my favorite ones to write! From astrology to history to what’s happening in our skies above, you’ll find a hodgepodge. Every Ever Diaries also includes photos from the place I am dreaming of visiting that month. I always save the location for the sign-off, so see if you can guess the spot as you peruse the post. Wishing you an ever joyfilled time, Claire
Once Upon a September…
September starts not only the -ber months, but also the months which take their names from numerals.
After months largely named after people and gods/goddesses (looking at you March through August!), September gets its name root from Latin to mean seventh, as in the seventh month.
But wait, you may be saying… isn’t September the ninth month of the calendar year? To which I say, correct indeed.
Far back in history, when the early Roman calendar was the fashionable calendar of use… there was no January or February. The year began in March and contained 304 days. Which, as one can imagine, due to Earth’s roughly ~365.25 solar rotation, made the years start to get quite wonky. And to add to that wonkiness, the days which are now contained in January and February still physically happened, but they simply just didn’t exist/count as actual days happening in the calendar.
Roman King Numa Pompilius in 731 BCE decided to take a whack at fixing this by adding 51 more days to the year and officially adding our beloved months of January and February to the calendar party. Although this only brought the calendar to 355 days per year, and it still didn’t address the problem fully.
Long story, somewhat long, when the early Roman calendar skipped over January and February, September was the seventh month and was accurately named so. Now, we find ourselves with a month meaning seven, but it is actually ninth in the year.
Can you imagine reorganizing a calendar? It sounds astronomically hard—literally.
Sources: https://www.almanac.com/how-did-months-get-their-names, https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/whats-name-months-year, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240227-how-julius-caesar-made-the-longest-year-in-history-and-brought-us-leap-years
Worth a Revisit This Month
September, in Nine Words
Nine words to describe this ninth month…
Shifting: From summer to autumn, from vacation to routine.
Peaceful: There is this serene quality of September before the rush of autumn and the holidays start.
Patient: There’s no rush, no hurry. Just presence this month.
Waning: Those long days are not so long anymore.
Honeyed: Honeybee season as well as honeyed light season.
Settling: Into our non-summer routines once more.
Overripe: Produce turning into jams and jellies.
Pleasant: The weather, the company, the moods.
Retreat: A moment of quiet once again in our days.
September, Written in the Stars
What’s happening in the skies above this month.
September 10/11: New Moon in the sign of Virgo
September 23: Fall Equinox, first day of autumn
September 26: Full Harvest Moon in the sign of Aries
Notes of September
Flowers on the Counter: Zinnias
Tunes on Repeat: Instrumental
Currently Watching: Ted Lasso
Book Dog-Eared: Northanger Abbey
Farmers Market Finds: Pears & Elderberries
“I love September, especially when we’re in it.” -Willie Stargell
I’m dreaming of the beautifully wild state of Alaska this month! How about you?
Talk to you soon,
Claire
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