Born in September

The name and the season

September comes from the Latin septem, 'seven', because it was the seventh month of the Roman year when that year began in March; the name survived the move of New Year to January, leaving the month two places out of step with its number. Several emperors tried to rename it after themselves, and none of the new names lasted. Bede records the Anglo-Saxon name as Haligmonath, 'holy month', a time of offerings after the harvest. The autumn equinox, when day and night are of nearly equal length, falls around 22 or 23 September. The full moon nearest to it, the Harvest Moon, rises soon after sunset on several evenings in a row, which once let farmers work late into the night.

Festivals and folklore

The end of the grain harvest was celebrated in England with the harvest home supper and the last sheaf, sometimes plaited into a 'corn dolly' kept until spring; the church harvest festival in its modern form dates from the 1840s. Michaelmas, the feast of St Michael and All Angels on 29 September, was a quarter day for rents and hiring, and folklore warned against picking blackberries after it, because the devil, cast out of heaven, had spoiled them. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and the Day of Atonement often fall in September, as does the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, with mooncakes and lanterns under the full moon. In ancient Greece the Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated in the month Boedromion, which corresponds roughly to September. Modern Pagans mark the equinox as Mabon (see the Wheel of the Year).

Birthstone and birth flower

September's modern stone is the sapphire, the blue variety of corundum, although corundum occurs in almost every colour. In medieval Europe it was a stone of the heavens and of chastity, set in bishops' rings, and in Indian astrology blue sapphire belongs to Saturn. Traditional lists give chrysolite, an old name usually understood as the green peridot; as with many historic gem names, the identification is not always certain. The month's flowers are the aster, whose Greek name means 'star', and the morning glory.

Traits tradition gives to people born this month

September is shared by Virgo and Libra, and popular portraits of September-born people join method to grace. They are traditionally described as thoughtful, observant and conscientious, attentive to detail and keen to be useful, and also as diplomatic, fair-minded and drawn to beauty and harmony. Almanacs warn that they may be self-critical, indecisive or too anxious to please. These are portraits from tradition and popular astrology; scientific studies have not found that birth month or sign predicts personality.