Fall Starts Tuesday at 8:05 p.m.: 15 Free (or Virtually Free) Methods to Welcome the Season in Alexandria

Fall formally arrives Tuesday in Alexandria at 8:05 p.m. That time comes from the U.S. Naval Observatory, which lists the autumnal equinox at 8:05 p.m. ET on Sept. 22.

Here are 15 methods to ease into the season that will not price a lot, if something.

1. Watch the final sundown of summer season. Head to the waterfront, Founders Park or Jones Point Park and watch the solar go down over the Potomac, a bit of after 7 p.m. The equinox itself arrives about an hour later, so you’ll be able to toast it on the stroll house.

2. Plan a household photograph in your vacation card. Fall mild is heat and forgiving. Captain’s Row’s cobblestones, the brick sidewalks of Old Town and the bushes alongside the Potomac all make nice backdrops. Take it on occasion at peak colour, and you will have a before-and-after.

3. Plan a fall drive. The greatest native colour normally exhibits up late within the month. The Virginia Department of Forestry places jap Virginia’s peak at roughly Oct. 20–31, and colour arrives sooner for those who head west. Our story on when fall foliage will peak in Virginia covers the timing and the very best drives. Closer to house, the George Washington Memorial Parkway towards Mount Vernon is free and beautiful.

4. Go apple selecting, or not less than go look. It’s a troublesome 12 months for Virginia apples. A spring freeze hit orchards throughout Northern Virginia and the northern Shenandoah Valley, and not less than two longtime pick-your-own farms aren’t opening their bushes in any respect in 2026. Our information to the place to go apple selecting west of Alexandria this 12 months lists who nonetheless has fruit. Even if an orchard is not selecting, shopping for cider, doughnuts, pumpkins or pre-picked apples helps growers by a foul 12 months.

5. Be looking out for pumpkins. Be looking out for pumpkins this fall at a few of our favourite spots.

Close to house:

For a full outing, Burke Nursery‘s Pumpkin Playground is a longtime favourite with little ones. Farther out:

Picking out a pumpkin at an area spot is free, and a small one will not set you again a lot.

6. Bake an apple pie. Whether your apples got here off a tree or out of a grocery bag, the primary pie of fall is price making. Double the recipe and convey one to a neighbor.

7. Find your soup of the season. Borrow a cookbook from the Alexandria Library at no cost and decide one soup to grasp this fall, like butternut squash, chili or a great rooster noodle. Save the very best one for the primary chilly snap.

8. Watch the Harvest Moon rise. Saturday, Sept. 26, brings the Harvest Moon, the total moon closest to the equinox. Saturn will seem close by as a shiny, regular level, in line with NASA’s skywatching information. Find a spot with a transparent view east round sundown.

9. Browse a fall pageant. Plenty of Alexandria’s fall occasions are free to stroll by. Our roundup of fall occasions in Alexandria covers artwork festivals, Oktoberfest, the Del Ray Halloween Parade and extra.

10. A enjoyable fall weekend: Take the youngsters to the Waterford Fair. For a day journey, the 82nd annual Waterford Fair runs Oct. 2–4, from 10 a.m. to five p.m. every day, within the historic Loudoun County village of Waterford, about an hour from Alexandria. The honest has been held since 1944. It options craft artisans demonstrating conventional expertise, residing historians, a juried artwork present, a historic properties tour, stay Americana music and native meals, beer and wine. Kids 12 and below get in free with a paid grownup ticket. Adult tickets are $20 prematurely or $25 on the gate and are good for all three days. Parking is free. The village is pedestrian-only throughout the honest, so put on comfy footwear. There are not any ATMs, so carry money. Proceeds help the Waterford Foundation’s preservation and training work.

11. Walk the Mount Vernon Trail. The path runs alongside the river previous marshes and woods that change colour week by week, and it is free.

12. Stroll a farmers market. Browsing prices nothing, and September and October carry apples, squash, mums and the primary pumpkins. Check out our information right here.

13. Start a leaf assortment with the youngsters. Press the very best leaves between wax paper or in a heavy e-book, then use them for place playing cards at Thanksgiving.

14. Swap your entrance porch from summer season to fall. A pumpkin, a pot of mums or a wreath of branches from your personal yard will get you there.

15. Bank the additional hour on Nov. 1. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, when clocks fall again to 1 a.m. That means an additional hour of sleep, and instantly earlier evenings. On Halloween night time, the solar units in Alexandria round 6:10 p.m. The subsequent night, it is down shortly after 5 p.m., and inside a couple of week it units earlier than 5. The earliest sunsets of the 12 months are available in early December, at about 4:46 p.m. So squeeze in these after-work walks and porch evenings now, and put the additional Sunday hour towards one thing good, like an extended breakfast, an early stroll on the Mount Vernon Trail or that pot of soup.

Why fall begins at 8:05 p.m.

The first day of fall is not a date anybody selected. It’s an astronomical second. The equinox occurs when the solar crosses the celestial equator heading south, marking the beginning of astronomical fall within the Northern Hemisphere and spring within the Southern Hemisphere. It lasts an prompt, not a day, and it occurs on the identical second in all places on Earth. That’s why it lands on Sept. 22 right here and Sept. 23 in Europe and Asia.

The phrase comes from Latin. “Equinox” combines aequus, that means equal, and nox, that means night time. But day and night time aren’t fairly equal. The ambiance bends daylight, so the solar seems above the horizon whereas it’s really beneath it, which supplies Alexandria a couple of minutes greater than 12 hours of daylight immediately. The day when mild and darkish are closest to even, generally referred to as the equilux, comes just a few days later.

If a buddy insists fall started Sept. 1, they’re proper too. Weather companies use “meteorological” seasons, dividing the 12 months into even three-month blocks so their data keep comparable. Under that system, fall at all times begins Sept. 1.

Either means, fall runs till the winter solstice, which arrives Dec. 21 at 3:50 p.m. EST.