93 Fun Facts About Seasons

Which Hindu festival celebrates the arrival of spring?

Holi's eve is marked with bonfires recalling a legend in which Holika tried to burn young Prahlad alive, only to perish herself while he was unharmed.

What is Earth's closest point to the Sun in its orbit called?

Perihelion falls in early January, during northern winter, so the Sun's distance is not what drives the seasons.

Which seabird flies from the far north to the far south and back each year, seeing two summers?

The Arctic tern meanders across the oceans instead of flying straight, so one year's round trip can cover tens of thousands of kilometres.

The word 'solstice' comes from Latin words meaning what?

Sun and stand still are the meanings of sol and sistere, because at a solstice the Sun's daily path reaches its limit and seems to pause before reversing.

'Equinox' comes from Latin words meaning what?

Equal night is only approximate, partly because refraction makes the Sun appear above the horizon while it is actually below it.

Where do most monarch butterflies from eastern North America spend the winter?

Mexico's mountain fir forests receive monarchs that fly south in a single generation, yet it takes successive generations to make the trip back north.

What mostly makes July and August hotter than June in the Northern Hemisphere?

Land and sea warming slowly delay the hottest weather, the same lag that makes a day's warmest hours come well after noon.

Which kind of spring begins on March 1 every year, instead of around March 20?

Meteorological spring uses whole calendar months because fixed start dates and steady season lengths make it far easier to compare seasonal statistics year to year.

On the traditional Celtic calendar, which festival on November 1 marked the start of the coldest season?

Samhain was thought to let fairies cross over from the Otherworld, so families left offerings outside for them.

Which Impressionist painted haystacks again and again as the seasons changed?

Claude Monet worked on several canvases at once, switching between them as the light changed, and his 1891 show of the series was a great financial success.

The ancient Egyptian year had three seasons defined by what?

The flooding of the Nile no longer sweeps Egypt each year, because the Aswan High Dam, finished in 1970, now holds back the floodwater and its silt.

Before the 16th century, what word did English speakers usually use for autumn?

Harvest still names the season in German, as Herbst, while English came to use it mainly for gathering crops.

Which weather tends to bring out the most brilliant autumn leaf colors?

Sunny days and cool nights give the brightest display, but only while the nights stay above freezing.

Which pigment gives autumn leaves their red color?

Anthocyanin is mostly made fresh in autumn, from sugars trapped in the leaf, while the yellows were there all along.

Which full moon is the one farmers traditionally named for bringing in the crops?

The one nearest the autumnal equinox rises soon after sunset for several evenings in a row, which once gave farmers extra light to gather their crops.

What is an 'Indian summer'?

A warm, dry spell in autumn traditionally counts as a true Indian summer only if it comes after the first frost.

The 'dog days' of summer were named for the rising of which star?

Sirius, the Dog Star, rose with the Sun in the hottest weeks, so Greek and Roman observers blamed it for the summer heat.

On what date is Groundhog Day observed?

February 2 is when Punxsutawney Phil makes his forecast, yet studies find no consistent link between a groundhog seeing its shadow and a late spring.

The Christian feast on June 24, around Midsummer, celebrates the birth of which biblical figure?

John the Baptist's birth is marked six months before Christmas, because Luke's Gospel says his mother Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Mary conceived Jesus.

In Greek myth, Hades tricked Persephone into eating what, binding her to the underworld?

Persephone ate pomegranate seeds in the underworld, so she must spend part of each year with Hades; Demeter's grief during those months was the myth's explanation for the cold, barren part of the year.

Which prehistoric monument lines up with the sunrise at the summer solstice?

Stonehenge's axis also lines up with the midwinter sunset, and pig bones at nearby Durrington Walls suggest crowds gathered to feast at midwinter.

Each concerto in Vivaldi's Four Seasons is paired with what kind of poem?

A sonnet came with each concerto, and Vivaldi tied the music so closely to its lines that, as Spring's goatherd sleeps, the orchestra plays his barking dog.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons are concertos for which solo instrument?

The violin was Vivaldi's own instrument, and as violin master at a Venetian home for foundlings he wrote many works for its all-female orchestra.

Which of these was a number one single for The Four Seasons?

Sherry took Bob Gaudio only about 15 minutes to write, yet by his account settling on its name took longer, with Jackie Kennedy's name among those tried.

Haydn's oratorio The Seasons, first performed in 1801, is based on a long English poem by whom?

James Thomson's poem reached Haydn as a German libretto by Baron van Swieten, and the composer derided the croaking frogs it made him imitate as 'Frenchified trash'.

Which planet spins almost on its side, so each pole spends decades in unbroken sunlight and then darkness?

Uranus may have been knocked onto its side by a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago.

The midnight sun occurs in summer beyond which lines of latitude?

Beyond the polar circles the reverse comes in winter, when the Sun stays below the horizon all day, and at the poles each spell lasts about six months.

What is the Japanese custom of viewing cherry blossoms in spring called?

Hanami among Japan's early aristocrats meant admiring plum blossoms, a fashion borrowed from China, before the cherry took over as the favourite.

Which new year festival, celebrated in Iran and across Central Asia, begins at the very start of spring?

Nowruz is preceded by a festival night when people leap over bonfires, believing the flames cleanse them of the past year's sickness and bad luck.

Which people of Scandinavia traditionally recognize up to eight seasons?

The Sami are best known for herding reindeer, yet that way of life has sharply declined, and most Sámi now make their living in other work.

Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons is about which Tudor figure who refused to back Henry VIII's divorce?

Thomas More is Bolt's man of conscience, beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as head of the Church and made a saint by Rome 400 years later.

Earth's axis keeps pointing toward which star all year, a property called axial parallelism?

Polaris won't stay the North Star, because the pull of the Sun and Moon makes Earth's axis wobble like a spinning top, slowly turning it toward other stars.

Which ancient Greek astronomer is credited with discovering the precession of the equinoxes?

Hipparchus's work on it is lost, so we know of his discovery mainly through Ptolemy, who was writing nearly 300 years later.

Which animal's white winter coat gives the fur called ermine, once used to line royal coronation cloaks?

The stoat keeps a black tip on its tail even in winter, so cloaks sewn from many pelts were patterned with hanging black tips, a look heraldry copied.

At which Maya city do late-afternoon shadows each March and September make a serpent seem to crawl down a pyramid?

Chichén Itzá's serpent draws thousands of visitors, yet the shadow looks much the same for days before and after, and no one knows for sure whether the builders planned it.

Which astronomer's discovery that planets speed up nearer the Sun explains why Earth's seasons differ in length?

Johannes Kepler's law means Earth moves fastest in early January, so northern winter is the shortest season, a few days shorter than northern summer.

Which Indian state does the southwest monsoon reach first each year?

Kerala, officially Keralam since 2026, sits at India's southwestern tip in the path of the winds, and the rains' arrival there, normally around June 1, opens the country's rainy season.

Which Chinese festival in early April is also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day?

Qingming is also a day for fun, since after tending the family graves people traditionally head out on spring outings and fly kites.

Which book of the Bible supplies nearly all the words of Pete Seeger's song Turn, Turn, Turn?

Ecclesiastes gave Pete Seeger nearly every word, which he rearranged and set to music, and the Byrds' electric version went to No. 1 in the US in 1965.

On which planet does each season last roughly seven Earth years?

Saturn takes about 29.5 Earth years to orbit the Sun and is tilted about 27 degrees, so each of its seasons lasts roughly seven Earth years.

Finland and Sweden define the start of each season by what?

Daily mean temperature decides, so winter arrives in Lapland in mid-October, about two months before it reaches Finland's southwestern islands.

Who was the Roman god of the seasons?

Vertumnus got into Pomona's orchard disguised as an old woman, but his pleading failed until he dropped the disguise and his true form won her.

Which composer's ballet The Rite of Spring caused a sensation at its 1913 Paris premiere?

Igor Stravinsky's ballet provoked uproar in 1913, yet when the music was played as a concert piece in Paris the next year, he was carried out shoulder-high.

In which month is Earth closest to the Sun each year, a fact that surprises many people in northern countries?

January is when Earth swings nearest the Sun, around the 3rd, while early July brings its farthest point. The planet's tilt, not its distance, sets the seasons.

Before pumpkins took over, which root vegetable did people in Ireland carve into jack-o'-lanterns each autumn?

Turnips were hollowed out and carved with grotesque faces in Ireland and Britain. In Irish legend, Stingy Jack was doomed to roam with only a hollowed one to light his way.

According to a popular American myth, which object can be stood on its end only on the spring equinox?

An egg is the star of the myth, yet one can be balanced on any day of the year. In 1947 the physicist Ukichiro Nakaya proved it by experiment.

Which American envoy joked in a 1784 letter that Parisians could save candles by getting up earlier in summer?

Benjamin Franklin sent the satirical letter to the Journal de Paris. He never suggested changing the clocks, though he is often credited with inventing daylight saving time.

Which Beatle wrote Here Comes the Sun in Eric Clapton's garden after a long, gloomy English winter?

Harrison wrote it in April 1969 while skipping a business meeting at the band's Apple offices. He walked the garden with one of Clapton's acoustic guitars as spring finally arrived.

Which planet's tilted axis gives it four seasons much like Earth's, though each one lasts about twice as long?

Mars has a tilt close to Earth's and takes 687 Earth days to circle the Sun, which stretches every season. Its winters coat the poles with frost made of dry ice.

Which animal buries thousands of acorns each autumn and accidentally plants oak trees with the ones left behind?

A squirrel can make several thousand small caches in a single season, a habit called scatter-hoarding. It tracks them down again using a sharp memory for landmarks.

Which periodic warming of the Pacific did Peruvian sailors name for its habit of arriving around Christmas?

El Niño means 'the boy' in Spanish, a nod to the Christ child, because the warm current typically appeared off Peru around Christmas. It can shift rainfall and winter weather worldwide.

Which English river froze hard enough for winter frost fairs, the last in 1814 featuring an elephant led across the ice?

The Thames froze over at London in 24 winters between 1400 and 1831. The crowded piers of the medieval London Bridge slowed the water, which helped the ice to form.

Which nutrient does human skin make from sunlight, so that blood levels often dip by the end of a dark winter?

Vitamin D forms when ultraviolet B rays strike the skin, so blood levels can fall by a third to a half between summer's end and winter's end.

On the June solstice, the noon Sun stands overhead along which line of latitude, the farthest north it ever gets?

The Tropic of Cancer got its name in the last centuries BC, when the June solstice Sun sat among the stars of the Crab. Today the Sun is in Taurus on that date.

Along which imaginary line do day and night each last about twelve hours throughout the whole year?

The equator gets daytime about 14 minutes longer than night all year, because the air bends the Sun's light over the horizon. Sunrise and sunset times there barely shift.

Which term describes Earth's yearly trip around the Sun, the motion that carries it through all four seasons?

Revolution is one full orbit of the Sun, a journey of about 940 million km that takes just over 365 days. Rotation, the daily spin, is what brings day and night.

Which slightly stretched shape does Earth's orbit around the Sun follow, so that its distance changes through the year?

An ellipse is the true shape, though Earth's is so nearly round that sunlight is only about 7 percent stronger at the nearest point than at the farthest.

Which pope's 1582 calendar reform skipped ten days to bring Easter back in line with the spring equinox?

Gregory XIII decreed that Thursday 4 October 1582 would be followed by Friday 15 October. The calendar now used across most of the world still carries his name.

If you photograph the Sun at the same clock time every week for a year, which shape do its positions trace?

A figure eight called the analemma appears, with one loop much larger than the other. Earth's tilt stretches it from north to south as the seasons turn.

Instead of spring, summer, autumn and winter, many tropical countries recognise just which two seasons?

Wet and dry seasons take over because tropical temperatures barely change through the year, while a belt of rain clouds drifts north and south with the Sun.

Which Indonesian volcano's 1815 eruption chilled the globe and caused the following 'Year Without a Summer'?

Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa, threw up enough ash and gas to dim sunlight worldwide. The wet, gloomy summer of 1816 kept Mary Shelley indoors in Switzerland, where she began Frankenstein.

On the day of an equinox, in which direction does the Sun rise for almost everyone on Earth?

Due east is where the Sun comes up on just two days a year, the equinoxes. During northern summer it rises north of that point, and in winter south of it.

Which shape forms the heart of every snow crystal, because of the way freezing water molecules lock together?

A hexagon forms first, and six arms then grow from its corners. Fewer than 0.1 percent of snowflakes end up as the perfectly symmetrical star drawn on greeting cards.

Which birds are famous for honking as they fly south each autumn in V-shaped flocks?

Geese behind the leader ride the rising air that spills off the wingtips ahead. A 1970 study estimated that a flock of 25 could fly about 70 percent farther this way than one bird alone.

Which summer flower's young buds turn through the day to follow the light, then face one way once in bloom?

Sunflower buds track the daylight, but the mature heads stop moving and stay pointed toward the sunrise. The plant's internal clock swings the young buds back again overnight.

Which bird's two-note call, praised in a 13th-century English song, is Britain's traditional sign of spring?

The cuckoo is urged to sing in Sumer Is Icumen In, a round from the mid-13th century that welcomes the warm season. The song also holds the earliest recorded use of the bird's name in English.

Which word describes trees such as oak and maple that shed every leaf each autumn and stand bare through winter?

Deciduous is also the dentist's word for a child's milk teeth, which fall out in the same way. Most of the Southern Hemisphere has few such trees because its winters are milder.

Which dating method relies on the light and dark bands that each year's growing season leaves inside a tree trunk?

Dendrochronology can fix a ring to the exact year it formed, which radiocarbon dating cannot. Pale, fast-grown cells form early in the growing season and a denser band follows later.

Which science records the timing of yearly events in nature, such as the first blossom and the first migrant bird?

Phenology is so sensitive to warmth that old records of first flowers and bird arrivals now serve as evidence of past climates.

Which summer counterpart of hibernation lets some land snails and crabs sleep through months of heat and drought?

Estivation is a light dormancy that an animal can reverse quickly once conditions improve. Land snails prepare for it by sealing the shell opening with a film of dried mucus.

Which North American bird is the only one known to hibernate, lying inactive among piles of rocks for weeks in winter?

The common poorwill can stay torpid for weeks or months, which no other bird is known to do. Its Hopi name, hölchko, means 'The Sleeping One'.

Which North American amphibian survives winter with no heartbeat or breathing, frozen stiff, then thaws out in spring?

The wood frog floods its cells with glucose, a natural antifreeze that limits how much ice can form. While frozen it shows no blood circulation or detectable brain activity either.

In North American folklore, the brown band on which caterpillar is said to predict how harsh the coming winter will be?

The woolly bear is the larva of the Isabella tiger moth and spends the cold months letting most of its body freeze solid. No scientific evidence supports its forecasts.

In Greek myth, which goddess lets the earth go barren each year while her daughter Persephone is in the underworld?

Demeter, goddess of grain, makes flowers bloom and crops grow again once her daughter comes home. The Greeks explained spring and summer as the months the two spent together.

Which Christian season of fasting takes its English name from an Old English word for spring?

Lent is short for lencten, the Old English word for springtime, which may itself refer to the lengthening of the days. Dutch still calls spring by the related word lente.

Which midwinter festival of the old Germanic peoples gave its name to the log traditionally burned at Christmas?

Yule was a pagan winter feast that later merged with Christmas as northern Europe turned Christian. Swedish and Finnish still use related words for Christmas itself.

Which round pastry, often filled with lotus paste, is traditionally shared at the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival?

A mooncake is given to family and friends while they admire the full moon. A whole salted duck yolk is often baked into the centre to stand for it.

Which Thai New Year festival, held each April, is famous for huge public water fights in the streets?

Songkran's water fights symbolise a ritual cleansing for the year ahead. The festival was Thailand's official New Year until 1888.

During which week-long Jewish autumn festival do families eat their meals in a temporary outdoor hut?

Sukkot recalls the Exodus from Egypt, and the hut is its centrepiece. Its roof of cut branches or palm fronds is flimsy enough for the stars to be seen through it.

On an Italian quattro stagioni pizza, split into four sections for the four seasons, which topping stands for spring?

Artichokes stand for spring as a symbol of new awakening. Mushrooms recall the autumn forest floor, while black olives take the winter quarter.

Which bird did the ancient Greeks believe calmed the sea to nest at midwinter, giving us the phrase halcyon days?

The kingfisher was the halcyon of Greek legend, and two weeks of calm weather were expected around the winter solstice while it nested. Halcyon now describes any peaceful time.

Which colour names the third full moon in a season that squeezes in four of them instead of three?

Blue moon was the label a 1937 Maine farmers' almanac gave the third of four full moons in one season. The better-known meaning, a second full moon in a calendar month, comes from a 1946 magazine article that misread it.

Which coffee chain turned an autumn drink into a phenomenon by launching the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003?

Starbucks sold its first Pumpkin Spice Lattes in the fall of 2003, yet the recipe contained no actual pumpkin until 2015.

Which constellation, marked by a belt of three bright stars in a row, dominates Northern Hemisphere winter evenings?

Orion rules northern winter evenings, yet the very same stars mark summer nights for people in the Southern Hemisphere.

Which bright star in Lyra joins Deneb and Altair to form the Summer Triangle of warm northern nights?

Vega lies only 25 light-years from the Sun, while fellow corner star Deneb is a supergiant more than 50 times farther away.

Which meteor shower, nicknamed the tears of Saint Lawrence, peaks on warm nights in the middle of August?

The Perseids are dust shed by comet Swift–Tuttle, and at the peak 60 or more meteors can streak past each hour. The nickname comes from the saint's feast day on August 10.

Which Serbian scientist showed that slow cycles in Earth's tilt and orbit set the rhythm of the ice ages?

Milutin Milanković worked out how slow changes in Earth's tilt, wobble and orbital shape alter the sunlight reaching the ground. The tilt alone rises and falls over about 41,000 years.

Which dusty wind blows from the Sahara across West Africa each year between late November and mid-March?

The Harmattan is nicknamed the doctor wind, because it feels so bracing after the sticky tropical humidity. It carries fine Saharan dust as far as the Gulf of Guinea.

Which 5,000-year-old Irish passage tomb is flooded with light by the rising Sun around the winter solstice?

Newgrange was built around 3100 BC, before the pyramids of Giza. At dawn, light enters through a roofbox above the entrance and floods the inner chamber.

Which Italian painter portrayed the four seasons as human heads built from fruit, flowers and vegetables?

Arcimboldo presented the set to Emperor Maximilian II in 1569. His Winter is an old man whose skin is a gnarled tree trunk, and only it and Summer survive from the original four.

Which Argentine tango composer wrote his own Four Seasons, a set of four pieces named for Buenos Aires?

Astor Piazzolla wrote the four tangos separately, starting with a summer piece composed for a play in 1965. In concert he ran them from autumn round to summer.

Which term do astronomers use for the angle of a planet's axial tilt, the property that gives rise to seasons?

Obliquity near zero leaves a planet upright on its orbit with almost no seasons. By one convention Venus is tilted 177 degrees, which means it is effectively upside down.

In which of these countries does Christmas fall in summer, so many families celebrate with a barbecue at the beach?

New Zealand lies in the Southern Hemisphere, where December brings long, warm days. A native tree with crimson December flowers, the pōhutukawa, serves as its Christmas tree.