Autumn Customs:

The Beginning of Autumn in the seventh month of the lunar calendar (around August 8 in the Gregorian calendar) is a long-standing traditional festival. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, on the day of the Beginning of Autumn, the Son of Heaven personally led the three princes, nine ministers, princes and officials to the western suburbs to welcome the autumn and hold a sacrificial ceremony. This custom was carried on in the Han Dynasty, and animals were killed as sacrifices to express the coming of autumn and the promotion of war. There is a folk custom of divining whether the weather will be hot or cold at the beginning of autumn. Cui Yan of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in the "Four People's Monthly Orders": "At the beginning of autumn in the morning, it is chilly; at the beginning of autumn at night, it is extremely hot." Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, there has been a custom of eating red beans with autumn water on this day. Take seven to fourteen small adzuki beans and swallow them with well water. Face west when taking it. It is said that you can avoid dysentery throughout the autumn.

Weigh people in the morning on the Beginning of Autumn, and compare them with those weighed on the Beginning of Summer to know how fat or thin you are in the Summer. In terms of food, on the day of Beginning of Autumn, eating watermelon, steamed preserved tomatoes, fried glutinous drinks, or drinking shochu are all widely spread and long-standing food customs. "Food is the most important thing for the people." The Beginning of Autumn is a very important solar term. Of course, people can't forget to eat. Therefore, "autumn fat sticking" is popular among people in Beijing and Hebei. People in Futian have poor appetites, so many people will lose weight. During the Qing Dynasty, it was popular among people to weigh people (mostly children, of course) on a hanging scale on the day of Shufu, and compare their weight with that of the Beginning of Summer to test whether they were fat or thin. Weight loss was called "Bitter Summer". At that time, people often only judged health based on fatness and thinness. Of course, if you lose weight, you need to "make up for it." The way to make up for it is to "put on autumn fat" at the beginning of autumn and eat delicious delicacies. Of course, eating meat is the first choice, "putting on fat with meat." On this day, ordinary people eat stewed meat, while more sophisticated people eat white-cut meat, red-braised meat, meat dumplings, stewed chicken, stewed duck, braised fish, etc.

In addition to "posting autumn fat" at the beginning of autumn, "biting autumn" is also popular in Tianjin and other places. Like "biting spring", people believe that eating melon at the beginning of autumn can avoid diarrhea in winter and spring. There is such a record in Zhang Tao's "Jinmen Miscellanies: Customs of the Year" written by Zhang Tao of the Qing Dynasty: "Eating melons at the beginning of autumn is called biting autumn, which can avoid diarrhea." In the Qing Dynasty, people would eat melons, steamed preserved eggplants, etc. the day before the beginning of autumn. The fragrant glutinous soup and other ingredients are left to dry in the yard overnight and eaten on the day of the Beginning of Autumn, in order to clear away the heat and avoid dysentery. As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, people used well water to deliver 7-14 red beans with well water on the first day of autumn, and they had to stand facing west to pray for no diarrhea and other diseases in autumn. Nowadays, the food customs of Beginning of Autumn are also different in various parts of our country. In the past, it was popular to eat autumn peaches in Hangzhou. At the beginning of autumn, both adults and children eat autumn peaches, one for each person, and keep the core after eating. On New Year's Eve, the peach stones are thrown into the stove and burned to ashes. People think that this can avoid the plague for a year. It is also popular in eastern and western Sichuan to drink "Liqiu water", that is, at the beginning of autumn (the specific time is marked in many old imperial calendars), the whole family, young and old, each drinks a cup. It is said that it can eliminate accumulated summer heat and prevent stomach upset when autumn comes. In the Laixi area of ??Shandong Province, it is popular to eat "dregs" during the Beginning of Autumn, which is a kind of small tofu made with bean paste and green vegetables. There is also a saying that "if adults and children eat the dregs of the Beginning of Autumn, they will neither vomit nor have diarrhea." Most of these food customs are to prevent dysentery, which shows that working people in my country are aware of the prevention of diarrhea in autumn.

“The important ceremonies held at the Beginning of Autumn are also very interesting. The Han people attach great importance to the Beginning of Autumn Festival and have long had the custom of beginning autumn to welcome autumn, and the feudal emperors in the past were no exception. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, on the day of Beginning of Autumn, the emperor would In the Han Dynasty, the emperor of the Han Dynasty would shoot hunting in the beginning of autumn to show his intention to show off his strength in the coming autumn, and in the Song Dynasty, he would use the prey to sacrifice to the ancestral temple. At the beginning of autumn, the Taishi official played "Autumn is coming", so he thought of letting one or two sycamore leaves fall to signify the autumn. It was popular among the people to wear autumn leaves, or cut the red leaves of heather into petals and insert them on the temples. . In addition, there is also a popular folk song: "When autumn begins in the morning, it will be cool; when autumn begins at night, it will be hot." This means that if autumn begins in the morning, the weather will be cool after autumn; if autumn begins in the first half of the night, the weather will still be hot and unbearable.

Autumn alias:

Gao Qiu (meaning high autumn air and refreshing air)

Su Qiu? Bai Qiu (Five Elements Thought Mid-Autumn Festival = gold = white)

Baidi (the god in charge of autumn)

Golden Autumn (autumn = gold; harvest? the color of plants)

Sanqiu (the three autumns of early autumn, mid-autumn and late autumn)

Ninety days of autumn = three months)

Autumn origin:

Autumn refers to the period between the beginning of autumn and the beginning of winter, including the beginning of autumn, the beginning of autumn and the beginning of winter. The six important solar terms are summer heat, white dew, autumnal equinox, cold dew, and frost. The climate characteristics of autumn are that it is hot and humid in early autumn. After the white dew, the rainfall decreases, and the climate is dry, with hot days and cool nights. After the cold dew, the weather quickly becomes cold.

< p>In autumn, the most obvious change in the natural landscape is on the trees. A large number of fallen leaves will begin to be cleared in the city, and many tourists will flock to the mountainous areas to watch the red leaves. Autumn is the third season of the year, from summer to summer. The transition season of winter is from the beginning of autumn in July to the beginning of winter in September according to the lunar calendar, from September to November according to the solar calendar, and from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice in astronomy.