First Day Of Fall 2019: Can't-Miss Ellicott City Events

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — The fall equinox on Monday, Sept. 23, officially ushers in the new season and its promise of crisp air, show-stopping leaf displays and more sunny afternoons in college football stadiums. Fall is an especially exciting time of year in Ellicott City.

The autumnal equinox isn't a day-long event, but rather occurs at the exact moment the sun crosses the celestial equator. In New York City, fall officially arrives at 3:50 a.m. EDT. We're also coming up on the end of Daylight Saving Time, which officially ends on Sunday, Nov. 3, but that's a while off.

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To help usher in the fall season, make plans to attend one of several events going on in the area. The 2019 Harvest at the Hill Festival at Manor Hill Farm takes place on the 54-acre working farm in Ellicott City on Oct. 19 from 1 to 5 p.m. Local bands will perform live, there will be farm tours and educational activities, a food truck rally, yard games and farm-fresh brewed beer. Ellicott City ghost tours will be held Fridays and Saturdays through the end of October where people will walk the streets and learn about past inhabitants of the historic milltown — one of the oldest, most haunted locales in America.

Halloween costume parades will take place Oct. 26-27 at Clark's Elioak Farm, 10500 Clarksville Pike (State Route 108), in Ellicott City starting at 11 a.m. There also will be pumpkin picking, rides, a maze and an enchanted forest castle available at the farm Oct. 12-13 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Robinson Nature Center's Halloween Tricks, Treats and Trees will be held Oct. 19-20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Participants will join a self-guided adventure for all ages where nature's "tricks" are revealed at delightful stations among the trees. Inside the nature center, make potions with a witch and enjoy Halloween-inspired music and puppet shows.

The word equinox comes from the Latin words "aequus," which means "equal," and "nox," which means night. That's led to the perception that everyone worldwide sees the same amount of daylight and nighttime, but it's not the absolute truth. To be precise, daylight lasts about 8 minutes longer than nighttime on the day of the equinox.

Here are five other things to know about the September equinox:

1. There's no guarantee, of course, but the chances of seeing stunning aurora borealis displays increase after the fall equinox, according to NASA. Both the spring and fall equinoxes are good aurora seasons, but autumn produces a surplus of geomagnetic storms — almost twice the annual average.

2. Nobody alive has seen a rare Sept. 21 autumnal equinox, and only young people have any hope of seeing one barring any big shifts in life expectancy. It hasn't happened on that date in many millennia, and it won't happen again until 2092 and 2096. The date of the September equinox varies. Usually, it's on the 22nd or, as it is this year, the 23rd, but it can occur as early as Sept. 21 or as late as Sept. 24 (that hasn't happened since 1931, and won't again until 2303). The reason: A year is defined as 365 days by the Gregorian calendar, but it takes the Earth 365 and ¼ days to orbit the sun. What this means is the autumnal equinox occurs about 6 hours later than it did the year prior, which eventually moves the date by a day.

3. Thank Canada for spectacular fall sunsets with more vivid with pinks, reds and oranges than at any other time of the year. The Weather Channel offers an explanation: Dry, clean Canadian air begins to sweep across the country, fewer colors of the rainbow spectrum are scattered by air molecules. That means the reds, oranges, yellows and pinks make it through for your sunset-viewing pleasure.

4. No matter where you are in the world, the sun will rise due east and set due west during the fall equinox (the same thing happens during the spring equinox). For the directionally challenged, it's a good time for a reset. Go outside around sunset or sunrise, find a landmark and mark the sun's location in relation to it.

5. Fall isn't just a time for the human world to start buttoning things up outside. It's rutting — or mating — season for deer, elk and moose, and males will battle it out by thrusting their antlers together until one of them gives up or dies. Swans, geese and ducks begin their migration south. Frogs burrow deep into mud holes to wait out the winter. Chipmunks retreat to their underground tunnels. Bears eat and drink almost non-stop as they prepare for hibernation.