What is summer?

We explain what summer is and the main characteristics of this annual season. In addition, the seasons in which the year is divided.

1. What is summer?

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 overwhelming heat towards 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 accurate. The season usually begins with the summer solstice (June 21 in the northern hemisphere and December 21 in the southern hemisphere) and ends at the autumn equinox (September 22 in the northern hemisphere and March 21 in the southern hemisphere) .

The use of the term summer is also frequent to refer to all the warm and winter seasons for the cold ones. In the intertropical zone, similarly, it is usual to refer to the dry season with summer, and winter to the rainy one.

In the Western imaginary, summer  is associated with the sun, with vintage, abundance and with the adulthood of the human being . Ancient civilizations used to worship their solar gods during the solstice, since they 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 station was personified by Carpo, one of the Hours, goddess of heat fruits and daughter of Brisa, one of the names of the god of the West wind, Zephyr.

In later Roman representations, summer was represented as a maiden crowned with golden spikes and holding a torch; or as a stocky young man who holds on his man the horn of plenty (cornucopia).

2. Summer features

Summer is the season characterized by the greater intensity of heat and sun (since the region of the planet receives the sun’s rays directly), so droughts also occur. It is not uncommon, however, for summer storms, especially in the humid regions of the planet.

On the other hand, the days in summer become longer , with greater duration and light intensity, unlike what happens in winter. The nights, therefore, become shorter and wake up earlier.

3. Seasons

As is well known, the year in temperate regions is divided climate into four defined seasons : spring, summer, autumn and winter. The first two are the warmest and most flowering 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 they are characterized by frost, snow or freezing.

This repetitive cycle each year led human civilizations to understand the world as an eternal and repetitive cycle, in which life dies and is reborn and dies again 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.