The crisp air, bright colors, sparkling night lights, family, friends, peals of laughter, and the smell of salty and sweet foods permeating the air. It’s fall in the South, and I find myself at the county fair.
Beginning at the end of summer and continuing through harvest, there is just something about county fairs or festivals in the South that says fall has arrived. Even Southern Living magazine announced “it’s not fall in the South without a visit to the fair.” Just to see if SL was right, I asked a friend, “What is that one thing that makes you think “the South” when imagine or remember it?” After a moment or two, to my surprise, she answered, “Red barns, bales of hay, and all of the local festivals and fairs.”
What is this love we southerners have for the county fair? We are a complicated people with still waters that run deep. So, what is it about a festival or a fair that has the power to bring us together and become such a rich part of our cultural traditions?
I had to know.
As with most things in our lives, our deep connection with the fair began in our past, long before any of us were born or can even remember. County fairs in the South began in earnest around 1855. What previously had been celebrated as harvest festivals (the biggest time of the year for courting!) became known as county fairs or exhibitions when state legislative acts were passed to encourage all counties to hold fairs in the fall for the purposes of demonstrating advancements in farming technology, practices, and techniques.
Equally important were exhibitions of prize livestock and domestic arts, such as quilting. One of the oldest competitions at fairs is recipe judging, having its roots in the early harvest festivals. These contests included pies, cakes, breads, preserves, jams, jellies, and other canned items. A panel of judges would taste each entry and pick a winner based on taste, texture, quality of ingredients, technique, and a myriad of other criteria specific to the food group. After all, what good was all that harvest if you couldn’t do something wonderful with it?
In the agricultural South, these fairs celebrated both individual successes and the achievements of a community. As a result, the county fair became a source of community pride and even growth by creating community identity, bonding citizens together, and representing the community’s values. In some counties, fairs have been held every year without fail except during the Civil War and those first years of Reconstruction. But as soon as communities were able, they brought back their fairs and festivals, celebrated what they grew and made, and all of the ways they had not just survived, but improved. The return of our festivals were a sign that these communities were healing and ready for the future.
We work hard to preserve our heritage through our county fair and festival celebrations today. As we have changed, our fairs have changed with us. While still honoring our farm, livestock, and domestic arts exhibitions, we have incorporated midways for the thrill seekers, beauty pageants, talent shows, crafts, races, eating contests, parades, cook-offs, and much more. But it is still our fair or festival. It still represents our community and what is special to the people who live here. It still celebrates our achievements and what makes our community unique. And it offers a particular nostalgia in an ever-changing world.
I know I have my own special memories of the fair. As a young teenager, I rarely ventured off the midway, eating as many foot long corn dogs as I could hold and riding all of the thrill rides I could possible handle with a mixture of delight and sheer terror. I remember my children’s first visit to the fair, riding the ponies, their first taste of cotton candy and their immediate love for funnel cake. And I remember as an adult, 2 of my very best friends going on their first date at the fair and falling in love under the spell of the Ferris wheel. Yes, I have my own special memories of the fair, and now I understand its deep connection with our past and the strange power it has to draw us together for an evening or a weekend and help us remember that we are a community.
[Contest 2014] Fall brings out the best in our southern traditions from the fair, to homecoming (those giant mums), football and tailgating, hayrides, and more. I would love to hear about your favorite fall tradition in our comment section below! Subscribers who comment are entered in the drawing for our October gift basket giveaway. If you are not a subscriber, just subscribe now and comment, then you will be entered in the contest also! I am waiting to hear YOUR fall favorite. | CONTEST CLOSED |
Sources (and further reading):
Southern Festivals (a list by state)
“We’ll See You at the State Fair,” The Daily South, SouthernLiving.com
Studying Community Festivals, Smithsonian; National Museum of Natural History
“County Fairs,” Encyclopedia of Chicago
“A Brief History of State Fairs,” TIME
Love those county fair pictures!
There is nothing like the feel of crisp air after one of our fall cool fronts moves through, the excitement of a football game on Friday night or Saturday evening, and the luscious light of an autumn afternoon. Such a beautiful season.
I would definitely say fall means football to me……
Fall is my favorite season, because of the cooler weather, comforting food and the beautiful colors. So the very first day of fall, has me busy decorating the house with fall decorations, while a pot of chili is cooking on the stove and pumpkin cheesecake bars are cooking in the oven, it’s a tradition I’ve loved for years.
Fall – For me, it conjures up images of huge leaf piles and children delighting themselves JUMPING into them! Then of course my sisters and I would have to rake the piles back up and bag up those same leaves.
Fall is my absolute favorite season!! I do enjoy the fairs, like you, but my favorite parts of the season are the colors and the cooler temps. I love to watch the leaves turn their various shades of golden yellow, orange, and red. Most years I will drive around my area snapping photos of the trees just because I think they are so beautiful. And the cooler temperatures mean it’s time to break out the comfy sweaters and start cooking warm comfort foods like soups and stews. Honestly, there is not much about the fall season that I don’t like, and sometimes I wish this season could last all year long! 🙂
I love fall! This year we took our first trip to an apple orchard in the ga mtns. That will continue every year. It was nothing crazy but just fun walking around picking edibles off trees!
I will say fairs are ok but I puked in those spinning teacups after a gravitron ride when I was 12. Coated my brother and our bff’s. Lol I’m a little jaded and weak stomached, apparently. 🙂
Fall in the south (or, Texas, because…well, you know) to me equates to the jingle of homecoming mum bells, photogenic trees, a pause on deadly hot days, open windows, and hours and hours of college football.
I love the cooler weather of fall and being outside with my family. Visits to the pumpkin patch, hikes in the woods, and just playing at home make these few years that they’re young extra special. This is the first year our four boys have played football, so this fall has been really a good year at our house.
I love everything that is associated with Fall: the food, the weather, the decorations. It’s my absolute favorite time of the year!
I am loving all of these fall favorites!
Loved your article and I think I might know the couple you are referring to. Wink, wink. :). Yes, the fair just left here a few weeks ago and the kids tasted their first funnel cake. Yum, yum!!!
I loved reading everyone’s posts! I’m from California so this is my first actual real fall and I’m already excited, rubbing it in all my Cali friends faces haha. I LOVE the weather that fall brings, being able to get up, throw on an oversized sweater, scarf and my dusty ugg boots haha. The leaves changing and the cool weather makes me more relaxed and an extremely nice person since I’m not sweating like a pig from summer :). The fairs are AHmazing ( since I won a bunny and a hermit crab) and can’t wait for more. Oh and did I mention the pies??! Time to work on my winter coat starts now 🙂
I am telling y’all I love ALL things pumpkin- muffins, breads, pies, cakes, soups… I wait all year just to eat them!
And what about those b&w pics in this article? As much as I am fascinated by the bake-off contest with all of the cakes, I cannot get over that pumpkin queen!
Fall is the best time of year!!
Fall colors, fall smells and that summer is over. …
Fall is my favorite time of the year because its the last season I spent with my brother before he was killed by a drunk driver coming home from school. Halloween was our last holiday together, so treasured memories for me happen in the fall season.
The things I love about the fall are: football season- SEC games (esp my Auburn Tigers), the local high school football games on Fri night, & all of the tailgating & game outfits that go along with it! I love cotton fields in bloom, soups, hot chocolate on a cool fall night( with marshmellow of course), get togethers with family & friends. Focusing on thankfulness during the holiday season & watching the kids get excited about Christmas coming. Big fuzzy blankets, soft sweaters, boots, pumpkins, candy corn with peanuts, snuggling up for warmth, parades, fairs. ….
Truly, so many things that I can’t list them all. I just love the Fall 🙂
Sweatshirts, campfires, and falling leaves.
My husband has built a hay wagon specifically for hayrides! WE LOVE IT!! We recently purchased a farm and Fall is my favorite time to be there with friends! So bring on the hayrides – marshmallow roasts – and FUN!
I love this! Fall is my favorite time of the year: the smells of pumpkins, campfires, gorgeous colors, football, sweatshirts… I wish everyone could Fall in love with the south. 🙂
I love many things about Fall! My 2 favorites are going to the pumpkin patch and reading and watching
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0099RWB4S?pc_redir=1411019348&robot_redir=1
Fall at our house means football and bonfires! As a matter of fact, we had our first bonfire of the season Friday night with roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Then, homemade hot chocolate with laughs and talks around the fire. Love it!
Stacey, I love pumpkin-flavored anything, too!! My favorite is coffee…..Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte! But there is so much more…..breads, cookies, even ice cream! If you haven’t had it yet, you need to try Blue Bell’s Spiced Pumpkin Pecan ice cream. It is sooooooo good!! 🙂
Like everyone else, fall is my favorite season. I love the the colors of the changing leaves. I can’t think of anything more comfortable than my favorite jeans and a sweatshirt. I love the food. Love for food has increased as I get older. I never noticed as a child the change in food, but not I can not wait to have apple cider (BTW- I made your recipe again for a family reunion and everyone loved it), sweet potato casserole, pumpkin rolls. My list could go on and on. I also love taking my family to the pumpkin patch. We spend an entire day there every year, and my daughter loves it.
Love fall. Everything pumpkin.
Fall means Aggie Football! (shared even with you a couple of times!) For many years, this meant going to Aggie Bonfire, watching it light up, roasting marshmallows once it cooled down enough, and starting Thanksgiving with the Aggie / UT game. Now, things are a little different — no Aggie Bonfire and no UT / A&M game. 🙁 So, as a family we spend days cooking, making apple & pecan pies, the turkey with all the trimmings. Most importantly, we use our 3rd generation Turkey plates! Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. I wish we saw it more abundantly in Texas as you do in your state!
Fall is football and Family time!!!
I love fall!! Sweaters and boots! I also love that my husband makes taco soup for the first cold snap and then homemade chili (made from dried chilis) for the 2nd cold snap! Yum!
Fall is as much a feeling as a it is a season to me. There is beautiful God made scenery to enjoy, a cool feel throughout the entire day with a slight warmth from the sun at times… Fall decor can be found on every door step which brings a cozy feel, even on the gloomiest of days. I personally love to do photography this time of year, my heart skips beats with such gorgeous backgrounds and families to document.. pumpkins,cotton and leaves.. <3Can't it be Fall all year long??
My favorite things about fall are FOOTBALL, comfy hooded sweatshirts, and mums. I love mums 🙂 Love the blog and love that basket full of goodies!
What I love about the South is the good ole southern hospitality. And I love our southern accent, too. Fall is always so beautiful with the leaves on the trees and bushes turning all kinds of gorgeous colors. I love the cool crisp days too. My favorite holiday is in the Fall: Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because I am reminded of all the wonderful blessings God has bestowed on me and I love spending time with family.
I love the crisp cool air, the yellow. orange and golden brown leaves falling from the trees, pumpkins everywhere. The smell of cinnamon candles & food and fresh apples from the farmers market. Fall brings to mind fond memories of cooking together with my grandmother, mother and family. I am reminded to be thankful for SO many blessings as well as challenges.
Fall reflects change,
survival, beauty, hope and rest. No time in nature is more pleasant, peaceful or perfect. A time to
refresh and renew our minds and bodies and bask in the beauty of
the gifts we have been given. Loving fall today!