Seasonal Symbolism

Just to add a wrench in the works, upon re-reading the Silmarillion, I noticed this quote:

it is told that even as Varda ended her labours, and they were long, when first Menelmacar strode up the sky and the blue fire of Helluin flickered in the mists above the borders of the world, in that hour the Chilrdren of the Earth awoke, the Firstborn of Iluvatar.

Menelmacar (Orion) is a fall constellation. Therefore fall is associated, in this case anyway, with birth and awakening, quite the opposite of the idea of fading autumn seems to imply in other places.