Beginning of autumn in the seventh month of the lunar calendar (the seventh day of August in the solar calendar) is a traditional festival with a long history. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, on the day of beginning of autumn, Emperor Tiandi personally led the princes and doctors of the Three Kingdoms and Nine Counties to the western suburbs to welcome autumn and hold a sacrificial ceremony. In the Han Dynasty, this custom was followed, and animals were sacrificed to show Qiu Lai's intention to promote martial arts. People have the custom of predicting whether the weather will be cold or hot when they are in beginning of autumn. Cui Yan's "Four-person Monthly Order" in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Welcome to beginning of autumn, it is chilly; Autumn night, hot to the end. " Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, drinking autumn water and eating red beans every day has become a custom. Take seven to fourteen small red beans and swallow them with well water, facing west when taking them, so it is said that dysentery can be avoided in autumn.

Beginning of autumn weighed people in the morning, and compared with the number of people in summer, we can know whether summer itself is fat or thin. In terms of diet, it is common to eat watermelon, steam eggplant, stir-fry glutinous rice or drink soju in early autumn.

In the past, people paid a lot of attention to solar terms, mostly related to diet and disease prevention, which was not unrelated to people's concern for their own health. "Food is the most important thing for the people". Beginning of autumn is a very important solar term, and people certainly can't forget to eat it. Therefore, it is deeply loved by the people in Beijing and Hebei. People have a bad appetite in dog days, so many people will lose weight. In the Qing Dynasty, people (children, of course) were weighed on the dog days, and compared with the weight of Chang Xia to measure their fatness. Losing weight is called "bitter summer". At that time, people often judged health only by being fat and thin. Of course, if you lose weight, you need to make up. The way to make up for it is to go to beginning of autumn, eat delicious food, and "paste the autumn fat". Of course, meat is the first choice, and "stick fat with meat". On this day, ordinary people eat stewed meat, while cultured people eat boiled meat and braised pork, as well as jiaozi, stewed chicken, stewed duck and braised fish.

In addition to beginning of autumn's "sticking autumn fertilizer", Tianjin and other places are also popular with "biting autumn". Just like "biting spring", people believe that eating melons in beginning of autumn can avoid diarrhea in winter and the following spring. There is such a record in Zhang Dao's "Customs of Tianjin Miscellaneous Notes at the Age of Years" in the Qing Dynasty: "beginning of autumn can avoid diarrhea by eating melons and biting autumn." In the Qing Dynasty, people put melons, steamed eggplants and fragrant soup in the yard the day before in beginning of autumn, and ate them in beginning of autumn to remove the heat in summer and avoid dysentery. As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, people in beginning of autumn would send 7- 14 adzuki beans from well water on the same day, and they should face the West Railway Station to pray for diseases such as diarrhea in autumn. At present, the dietary customs of beginning of autumn vary from place to place in China. Autumn peaches used to be very popular in Hangzhou. In beginning of autumn, adults and children should eat autumn peaches, one for each person, and keep the stone after eating. On New Year's Eve, the peach pit was thrown into the stove and burned to ashes. It is thought that this will save the plague for a year. Autumn water is also popular in the east and west of Sichuan. Immediately in beginning of autumn (beginning of autumn, the specific time is marked on many old calendars), the whole family will have a drink. It is said that it can eliminate the accumulated heat in summer, and Qiu Lai has no stomachache. In Laixi, Shandong Province, beginning of autumn is popular to eat "dregs", which is a kind of small tofu made of tofu and vegetables. There is a saying that "adults and children don't spit or pull after eating beginning of autumn dregs". So many dietary customs are mostly aimed at preventing dysentery, which shows that workers in China are aware of autumn diarrhea.

Nantong custom predicts the cold weather after beginning of autumn with the time of beginning of autumn solar terms in the morning or evening. Proverbs "beginning of autumn, chilly; Night beginning of autumn, hot roar "is what it means. According to the calendar, this year is beginning of autumn at 6: 24 am on August 8th, so it should be a cool autumn! Nantong folklore also believes that the weather change on this day has a lot to do with the harvest of farmland in autumn. If beginning of autumn hears thunder on this day, the crops in the field will "look good" (bloom), the millet will not grow full, Gu Duo will wither, and the yield will be greatly reduced. Some people think that if there is heavy fog and Bai Hong penetrates the sky during the rice planting season, this astronomical phenomenon, which is called "white horse-hoofed crab" by the sand people, will have a lot of grain when harvesting, which is commonly known as "heavenly harvest". It can be seen that opposing natural phenomena such as autumn thunder and rainbow is a taboo for people.

Nantong, like Jiangnan, has the custom of eating watermelon every day in early autumn. The watermelon market in Nantong and the south of the Yangtze River lies between a little summer and a big summer, and the hot summer is also in this period, while in beginning of autumn, it is usually on August 7th and 8th after the big summer. At this time, watermelons in this area have been listed, and the sweetness and quality of melons have also dropped significantly, and the climate will come to an end. Therefore, it is unreasonable to eat watermelon in early autumn. But why is there a custom of eating watermelon in early autumn? Although watermelon was introduced into the Central Plains from the Song Dynasty, it was not planted in a large area, so the custom of eating watermelon in beginning of autumn did not form at that time. However, in the western region, in the origin of watermelon, the custom of eating watermelon in beginning of autumn is prevalent. Because the Western Regions are located in the northwest of China, and the latitude is high, watermelons have just entered the picking period around beginning of autumn, so it is an early adopter to eat watermelons in beginning of autumn. This custom influenced the south in Qing Dynasty, when watermelons in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai had entered the final market. People gave various explanations for why beginning of autumn ate watermelons. Some people say that eating watermelon in beginning of autumn can eliminate the stagnant air accumulated in summer, while others say that it can accumulate "prestige" for winter. In fact, it is only the influence of northern customs. However, it should be admitted that after beginning of autumn, the weather became colder and the number of watermelons on the market decreased. People eat watermelon again in early autumn, which means saying goodbye.

After beginning of autumn, if the weather is dry and rainy, and the sun is scorching, it will produce continuous high temperature weather, which will prolong the dog days, which is the so-called "autumn tiger", which means that it is as hot as a tiger and as hot as a summer heat. At this time, people feel more sultry. Of course, the heat of autumn is like "rabbit's tail-it can't grow" after all. After beginning of autumn, if there is a lot of rain, the next shower will be cool for a while. After the summer heat, the summer heat has subsided, and it is indeed autumn.