From jumping in massive, crunchy piles of leaves to sipping on yet another pumpkin spice latte and carving the perfect Jack-O-Lantern, there’s something idyllic and comforting about the fall season. Why do people love fall so much? Beyond some of the things we just mentioned, as it turns out, there’s actually some science behind this seasonal fascination. We’ll touch more on what this means a little further down.
We Embrace The Fall Season As Much As You Do
Now, as the owner of a small business, the fall season does invite opportunities to take advantage of what will be an influx of business. People tend to spend more during the fall season than any other time of the year, and that’s largely due to the holiday season – because the winter solstice (i.e. the shortest day of the year) falls just four days from Christmas, most people’s shopping occurs right after Thanksgiving and thus during the fall season. Could a better understanding of why humans simply adore the fall actually help your business grow and thrive in light of the holiday season? We think so!
It’s up to you to build and grow your small business, but The Commercial Finance Group can help through our account receivable factoring services. By leveraging your account receivables, we’re able to provide you with a small business line of credit so that you can afford to expand operations, hire more staff, or make payments while you’re waiting on payments from clients and suppliers. Learn more about what our business lenders can do for your company here.
Are We Actually Conditioned To Love Fall At An Early Age?
It sounds a little far-fetched at first, but when you sit down and give it some thought, the idea that we’ve been (knowingly or unknowingly) conditioned to perceive fall as a special time of year actually starts to make some sense. According to Kathryn Lively, a professor a sociology at Dartmouth College, our obsession with this comforting season actually starts when we’re mere children:
“We’re conditioned from a very early age that the autumn comes with all these exciting things. As children, we come to associate fall with going back to school, new school supplies and seeing friends. It’s exciting, for most. We still respond to this pattern that we experienced for eighteen years.”
Whether or not you’re actually in school for eighteen years, it makes sense that we’re taught to embrace this time of year at a relatively impressionable age. Who didn’t love things like new clothes, new pencils and new sneakers in September? While no child wants to see summer go away, there’s no doubt that September represents a sort of clean slate that’s marked by the promise of a new season.
We Perceive Fall As Comforting
It’s true. If you live in a place where the seasons can turn dramatically over the course of a few weeks, we’re drawn to break out warm clothing items like flannel shirts, fuzzy boots, scarfs, and dawn thicker blankets at night. As for those salads and that light summer fare you enjoyed when it was 80 degrees out? Replace those with heavier stews and soups – it’s slow cooking season, baby!
Here’s an interesting and completely valid way to look at the upcoming colder temperatures: you can always put more clothing on and be cozy and comfortable, but you can’t be naked and rip off your own skin during the intense summer heat (well, we wouldn’t recommend it, anyway).
A Sociological Perspective On Fall
Human beings tend to create a lot of meaning around things that…well, don’t have any meaning on their own. Think of this as something along the lines of sentimentalism. Here’s what Kathryn Lively also had to say on the matter:
“From a sociological lens, our emotions are tied inextricably to the meaning that we make about ourselves, others, events and times of year.”
So, in other words, we tend to imbue things like the football season, evenings spent by the fireplace and holidays like Thanksgiving or Rosh Hashanah with personal meaning. We express this meaning by cherishing these memories with people we love and enjoy, and in doing so, we build an idea about what the fall comes to represent for us. Therefore, we always look forward to this season in a particularly special way (and hey, no longer dealing with the sweltering heat of the summer is always a huge plus).
The Spirit Of Change Is In The Air
If you’ve seen the movie Monsters, Inc. (and let’s be honest, most of us have), you might recall the scene in the locker room where Randall Boggs, the films antagonist, says to Mike, “Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh. Do you hear that? It’s the winds of change”, to which Mike hilariously mimics him. The point of this Monsters, Inc. reference is that it alludes to what fall is all about – the changing of the seasons.
From the slowly dying leaves rustling in the air to those chilly bursts of wind, you can literally feel the seasons change and the temperatures progressively drop over the course of October and November. Sometimes, change can be a little daunting, but this is a comforting sort of change, knowing that we can always put on warmer clothes and go be cozy indoors.
Take Advantage Of Fall By Optimizing Your Small Business With Us
Grow your company or your inventory levels to account for the influx of holiday business with our account receivable factoring services at The Commercial Finance Group. Learn more about what our factoring co can do for your small business by contacting us today!
