Fall Into Autumn

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Of all the stories I've heard about them, the most moving is related by naturalist Edwin Way Teale. In Autumn Across America , Teale tells how he and his wife were driving across the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah and were depressed by the fact that no plants, birds, reptiles, or even insects were visible—none were capable of living in that stretch of white flatness without water. Then Teale and his wife suddenly saw five spots of color flying steadily onward—five monarch butterflies were on their way home to California.

Special Day: Time for Loaf Mass

Cross-quarter days, those that occur halfway through the seasons, have all been the occasion for holidays. But not many surpass Lammas, once celebrated widely in the British Isles on August 1st.

There are two theories regarding the origin of the holiday's name. One holds that it comes from "Lamb-Mass" because the early Roman church supposedly took a lamb to the altar when commemorating St. Peter's miraculous freeing from his prison chains.

The other theory holds that the name comes from the Middle English lammasse, or"loaf mass:' August 1 was when the people of the British Isles consecrated the first bread baked from the new wheat or corn of the season. The Old English form of the holiday's name was hlaf-mass. Our word "lady" comes from the Old English hlafdig, which means something similar to "loaf dispenser" or "loaf kneader." On Lammas it was the custom in England to give money to servants to buy gloves ("Glove-Silver") and for every church to have a sheaf placed over its door.

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