The beginning of autumn has just passed, and I remembered the custom of eating melons in the beginning of autumn. In fact, at the beginning of autumn, the weather gets cooler and watermelon will be out of the market. The sweetness and quality are not as good as Dafuli. Why should we eat watermelon at this time?

Watermelon was originally introduced to the Central Plains from the Western Regions in the Song Dynasty. Around the beginning of autumn, the Western Regions entered the watermelon picking period, so eating melons at the beginning of autumn is a kind of early adopter.

According to the "Essays of Erban Qiu Yuzhai", women in the Western Regions go to the fields to touch melons on the night of the beginning of autumn, which is called "touching autumn". It may be related to the fact that the shape of the watermelon resembles the belly of a pregnant woman, and the seeds inside the melon symbolize having a son.

In Chinese customs, "melon" is always closely related to breeding offspring.

It is said that if you can touch ripe melons in "touching autumn", it means that a girl will find a good husband and a woman will have more sons.

In order to ensure that you can touch a good melon, you usually select a melon and place it in a confirmed location during the day, and let women "touch" it after nightfall. At this time, "touching autumn" is like a divination activity.

With the expansion of watermelon planting, urbanites have also begun to eat watermelon at the beginning of autumn as a custom of the year.

To this day, northerners still call eating melons at the beginning of autumn "touching autumn".