Indian Summer

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In Europe, for example, there are two versions of Indian summer: "St. Luke's Little Summer" and "St. Martin's Summer." The former runs from St. Luke's Day on October 18 through October 28. (St. Luke is the author of one of the Bible's four Gospels about Christ's life.) The latter runs from St. Martin's Day (Martinmas) on November 11 through November 20. St. Martin was an early bishop who died in A.D. 397. This active missionary in Gaul gained a reputation as one of the greatest wonder workers in his time. In the United States, of course, Martinmas is overshadowed by Veteran's Day, the day on which World War I ended.

PROPER CREDIT: We have President Abraham Lincoln to thank for our annual turkey feasts.

A less famous period—invoked presumably when the appropriate weather occurred between St. Luke's and St. Martin's summers—is Allhallown Summer, named for All Hallows' Day on November 1.

But now comes the most delightful complication of all. St. Martin's summer was once known as "goose summer," probably because, in parts of Europe, November is regarded as the time when geese are in season. For instance, in German, November (spelled the same as in English) means "geese month." But the term "goose summer" gave rise to a word that describes the delicate strands of spider web that are common in many lands during spells of warm, calm weather in autumn: gossamer. (The transition from goose summer to gossamer may have even included a stage in which there was a "gauze summer.") I first learned of the connection between gossamer and Indian summer, and about the aerial feats of tiny spiders, in Eric Sloane's Look at the Sky (Hawthorn Books Inc., 1970). You can read about other interesting twists in the etymology of gossamer in the Oxford English Dictionary.

But what about the origin of the term "Indian summer" itself? One leading theory holds that the periods of warm, still weather in autumn were the times when Native Americans began their fall hunting trips. Another theory claims that the haze characteristic of these periods was at first thought to be caused by, or at least to resemble, the smoke from Native American campfires in the hills.

Although many parts of the United States have spells of such weather, the most common and exemplary episodes of Indian summer occur in the region where the term first appeared, in records written during the Revolutionary War: the Mid-Atlantic states and the Ohio Valley. Indian summer in this region is generally caused by high-pressure systems that frequently stall near West Virginia at this time of year.

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