Chào thu (Welcome fall)!

Mùa thu (Autumn/Fall season) is a beautiful season. Its beauty has inspired many artists and writers to create many masterworks depicting this season. Common conversation topics in mùa thu are completely different than other seasons. These are the things you often hear and discussed at least once in this season.

1. Sự thay đổi của khí hậu (Change in weather)

It’s pretty obvious when it comes to this season. Daylight starts getting shorter, until the change to “Daylight Savings Time” in early November. Temperatures start to drop, especially in the evenings, triggering the change of colors on the tree leaves.

2. Mùa gặt hái (Harvest season)

This is the main topic for families who live in the countryside. Mùa thu is the time to harvest crops that had been planted in the spring and summer such as

• Bắp (Corn)
• Đậu nành (Soybeans)
• Táo (Apples)
• Khoai tây (Potatoes)
• Bí ngô (Pumpkin)

3. Trở lại trường học/Tựu trường (Return to school)

For children, the arrival of mùa thu marks the time to trở lại trường học (return to school), and to start a niên khóa mới (new school year). It has been many years since I was school age, but each time when it comes to mùa thu, seeing kids trở lại trường học, lines from the popular short story “Tôi Đi Học” (I go to School) written by Thanh Tịnh, always come to mind:

“….Hằng năm, cứ vào cuối thu, lá ngoài đường rụng nhiều và trên không có những đám mây bàng bạc, lòng tôi lại nao nức những kỷ niệm hoang mang của buổi tựu trường…”

“…Each year, when it comes to the end of autumn, many leaves fall on the street, and silver clouds float above, my heart is filled with bewildering memories of the return to school days…”

You can easily find this story both in Vietnamese and English translations online. It’s very short and easy to read. I strongly recommend it.

4. Trang trí cho mùa thu (Decoration for Autumn)

One of many reasons that I like Autumn is because of its many ideas for decoration. Whatever the theme is, you ought to have:

• Trái bí ngô (pumpkin).
• Hoa cúc (chrysanthemum).

It’s not autumn without seeing these items on your porch or at the door entrance. Other additional items include:

• Gạc hươu (deer antlers)
• Trái thông (pine cone)
• Hoa hương dương (sunflower)
• Trái bầu hồ lô (bottle gourd)

The main color theme to trang trí cho mùa thu is màu cam (orange).

4. Các lễ hội mùa thu (Fall festivals)

If you are in the United States, you can’t miss these two major holidays:

• Lễ hội hóa trang (Halloween)
• Lễ tạ ơn (Thanksgiving)

In my area, almost each town has its own Fall parade or some sort of lễ hội mùa thu (fall festival). I would say, fall has the most festivals compared to other seasons, at least where I live.

5. Mùa dọn dẹp (Clean-up season)

Nothing lasts forever. Fall beauty comes with a big price for people who have big yards! After the tree leaves turn to gorgeous bright red, orange, and yellow colors; they start to shed. Not only do you have to clean up your yard, you may have to clean the gutter as well. It’s also the season when you see spiders making cobwebs everywhere. With this seasonal change, its time to switch the light summer clothes into thicker, warmer clothes for Fall and Winter in the closet. That means time to clean-up the closet, too.

For me, it’s okay to be busy in the Fall with all the clean-up because I know when the winter comes, I’ll have plenty of time to rest and get stuck in the house. Fall always brings me some sort of inspiration and some sort of melancholy, a feeling that is hard to describe. In order to see the beauty of mùa thu, it’s all worth it for the trouble that it brings.

Tôi yêu mùa thu! (I love autumn)