We explain what summer is and the main characteristics of this annual season. Also, the seasons into which the year is divided.
What is summer?
The summer is one of the four climatic seasons of the temperate zones: the warmest of them, which takes place between spring and autumn. It is a season linked to the harvest (although this depends on the type of seeds sown) and the holiday period, since in many regions the population flees from the oppressive heat to cooler latitudes.
Summer takes place from June to August in the Northern Hemisphere and from December to February in the Southern Hemisphere. However, these limits are not always exact. The station usually starts with the summer solstice (June 21 in the northern hemisphere and December 21 in the southern hemisphere) and ends on the autumnal equinox (September 22 in the northern hemisphere and March 21 in the southern hemisphere).
The term summer is also frequently used to refer to all the warm seasons and winter to the cold ones. In the intertropical zone, similarly, it is usual to refer to the dry season by summer and the rainy season by winter.
In the western imagination, the summer It is associated with the sun, with the vintage, abundance and with the adulthood of the human being. Ancient civilizations used to worship their solar gods during the solstice, since these used to be the main ones of their mythologies.
For example, in Assyrian mythology, the death of the god Baal at the hands of his brother Mot caused the advent of drought, that is, of summer. In Greek mythology, similarly, this season was personified by Carpus, one of the Hours, goddess of the fruits of heat and daughter of Breeze, one of the names of the god of the west wind, Zephyr.
In later Roman representations the summer was represented as a maiden crowned with golden ears and holding a torch; or like a stocky young man holding the horn of plenty (cornucopia) over his man.
Summer features
The summer is the season characterized by the greatest intensity of heat and sun (since the region of the planet receives solar rays directly), so droughts also occur. It is not uncommon, however, for summer storms to occur, especially in the humid regions of the planet.
Secondly, the days in summer get longer, with longer duration and light intensity, unlike what happens in winter. The nights, therefore, become shorter and the morning rises earlier.
Seasons of the year
As is well known, the year in temperate regions is divided climatically into four defined seasons: Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The first two are the warmest and most flourishing of plant life, in which the day lasts longer and is brighter. The last two, on the other hand, are darker, colder and in certain regions characterized by frost, snow or freezing.
This repetitive cycle every year led human civilizations to understand the world as an eternal and repetitive cycle, in which life dies and is reborn and dies and is reborn again.
In accordance with their respective mythologies, this cycle of four successive periods was imagined as a constant battle between divine or mythical forces, as is the case of the arrangement between the Greek deities Hades and Demeter by the company of Persephone, wife of the first and daughter of the second.