The beginning of autumn is the thirteenth of the 24 solar terms. Ancient times"Beginning of autumn"It refers to the beginning of the harvest season of crops, and in China, it is customary to start autumn and autumn. At the beginning of autumn, the sun reaches 135° ecliptic longitude, and the festival falls on August 7 or 8 every year.
The ancients divided the beginning of autumn into three phases: "one waits for the cool breeze to arrive, the second waits for the white dew, and the third waits for the cold cicadas." "That is, at the beginning of autumn, the cool breeze arrives in the first five days. Northwesterly winds are starting to arrive. After another five days, the white dew will fall, and there will be white dew drops condensed every day. For another five days, the autumn coolness made the cicadas feel something and start chirping.
But the beginning of autumn is not the beginning of autumn, and it does not mean that the hot weather is over. There is a folk saying that "heat is in the three dogs", according to the time of the "three dogs", the beginning of autumn to the summer is often still in the "three dogs" period, so the early autumn weather is still relatively hot, there is an autumn tiger said. It is necessary to wait for the next solar term to heat before the heat comes out.
The beginning of autumn is not only an important solar term, but also an important festival in China.
The beginning of autumn is one of the "four seasons and eight festivals". In ancient times, the beginning of autumn was called the beginning of the autumn festival, also called the July Festival. In ancient times, the Son of Heaven personally led the three princes and nine princes and doctors to the western suburbs to welcome the autumn, and held the ceremony of sacrificing the young and harvesting. Now there is also the custom of tasting new watermelons and green beans and laying down ancestors. There are also customs such as the day before the beginning of autumn, Chen ice melon, steamed eggplant, fried fragrant herb drink, etc.
"Basking in autumn" is a typical agricultural phenomenon in the beginning of autumn. In Hunan, Guangxi and other places in China, rural residents will use the front and back of their houses and the roof of their window sills to dry and hang their crops on this day. At the beginning of the autumn rush, there was a common custom of "mutual assistance in the autumn harvest" in the countryside, helping each other to harvest the crops.
It is popular to weigh people on hanging scales on the day of the beginning of autumn, and compare the weight with the beginning of summer, and the weight is usually reduced when there is a lot of sweating in summer. After the beginning of autumn, people will eat meat to supplement nutrition, which is called "sticking autumn fat". In addition, autumn is the harvest season, so there is a custom of "worshiping the shrine god" to celebrate the harvest in the beginning of autumn.