19 August: Day of Turning in Georgia

Each year on 19 August Georgians celebrate the Day of Turning. The Day of Turning is the day that the warmer weather starts to turn to cooler weather – when summer is turning to become autumn.

It is not the summer solstice – the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere. Nor is it the autumnal equinox – the ‘official’ end of summer.

The Day of Turning is associated with harvesting ripe fruit, particularly apples – it is Saviour of the Apple Feast Day.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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