Is Autumn being referred to by the female pronoun 她? Is this normal?

Question

This is from my 3-rd grade 语文 book (there's a version here):

现在正是金秋时节。我们已经看到了她缤纷的色彩， 听见了她美妙的声音，分享了她带给我们的欢乐。

I translate this to:

It's currently Golden Autumn. We already see her diverse (缤纷的) colors (色彩), heard her wonderful (美妙的) sounds (声音), [and] shared (分享了) the joy (欢乐) she provides us (带给我们的).

I think I've managed to understand it correctly, but it looks like "Golden Autumn" (金秋时节) is being referred to using the female pronoun 她 (instead of "it" 它), perhaps for poetic reasons, or perhaps this is normal. I just want to check this.

Question: Is Autumn being referred to by the female pronoun 她? Is this normal?

Answer 1

Yes, It is a very common way to refer something to pronoun 她 in Chinese, commonly known as personification. In such a way, the author can strengthen his/her feelings about autumn. There are also many similar cases: such as 长江/黄河/故乡(Yangzi River/Yellow River/hometown) can often be referred to 她 as well.