When was the Beginning of Autumn?

The Beginning of Autumn is not only the 13th solar term in the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar, but also the first solar term in autumn, marking the official beginning of the Mengqiu season. "Autumn" refers to the cooling of summer, and to the Beginning of Autumn, the sycamore tree begins to shed leaves, so there is an idiom of "fallen leaves knowing autumn". From a textual point of view, the word "autumn" is composed of the words of grain and fire, which means cereal maturity.

When was the Beginning of Autumn?

The time of the Beginning of Autumn in 2016 is 09:52:58 on August 7, 2016, and the fifth day of the seventh (primary) day of the lunar calendar. The time of the Beginning of Autumn in 2017 is 15:39:58 on August 7, 2017, and the 16th month of June 2017 in the lunar calendar.

Climatic characteristics of the Beginning of Autumn

During the Beginning of Autumn's solar terms, the sun moves from Cancer to Leo. When you look at the sky at night, you can see that the handle of the Big Dipper points to the "Shen" (southwest) of the sky. The day of autumn is the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and July is also the "Shenyue". The Beginning of Autumn's sun was at + 16 degrees and 19 minutes at right latitude, which is much more southward than the Summer Solstice's + 23 degrees and 26 minutes that day. As a result, the length of daylight in Beijing has been shortened to 14 hours and 04 minutes (the Summer Solstice's day is 15 hours). However, the weather is usually still hot at this time. There is still a "volt" after the Beginning of Autumn, and the "autumn tiger" still exists. Therefore, the public should still pay attention to the prevention of heat.

"the Beginning of Autumn" has arrived, but it is not that the autumn climate has arrived. The division of climatic seasons should be based on the "pentad average temperature", that is, the local average temperature for five consecutive days is below 22 ℃ before it can be regarded as the real autumn season. China has a vast territory, although the climate is different in different places, but at this time most areas have not yet entered the autumn climate, and the last rest of the hot dog days every year is still on the third day after the Beginning of Autumn. Especially when it is still summer in this solar term in southern China, and because the rainy season in Taiwan is gradually passing, and the temperature is even hotter, Chinese medicine calls the period from the Beginning of Autumn to the Autumn Equinox a "long summer".

Heilongjiang and the northern regions that come earliest in autumn also enter autumn in mid-August. in general years, the autumn wind in the capital Beijing begins in early September. Autumn in the Qinhuai area begins in mid-September, and the autumn wind blows to the first line of Lishui, Zhejiang, Nanchang, Jiangxi, and Hengyang, Hunan in early October, and the information of autumn in the first and middle of November reaches the Leizhou Peninsula. When the pace of autumn reaches Hainan Ya County, "Tianya Haijiao", it is almost New year New Year's Day.

The Beginning of Autumn's cultural customs

1. The beginning of Autumn Festival: the beginning of Autumn Festival is also known as July Festival. In the Zhou Dynasty, the emperor personally led the princes of San Gong and Liuqing to welcome the autumn in the western suburbs, and held the ceremony of offering sacrifices to howl and harvest. This custom is still inherited in the Han Dynasty. Since the Republic of China, in the vast rural areas, there has been a custom of predicting hot and cool weather during the day or night of the Beginning of Autumn. There is also the custom of tasting the new and founding ancestors with watermelons and green beans. And the day before the Beginning of Autumn, Chen Binggua, steamed preserved eggplant, fried Elsholtzia drink and other customs.

2. Basking in autumn: every year, the Beginning of Autumn, with the maturity of fruits and vegetables, Guanling has entered the busiest season. Sunbathing in autumn is a typical agricultural phenomenon with strong regional characteristics. Villagers living in mountainous areas such as Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui have no choice but to use the front and back of their houses and their own windowsills to sun or hang their crops because of their complex topography and few flat land in their villages. over time, they have evolved into a phenomenon of traditional agricultural customs. This special life style and scene of villagers drying crops has gradually become the material for painters and photographers to chase and create, and create a poetic title of "basking in autumn".

3. Autumn busy meeting: the autumn busy meeting is usually held in July and August of the lunar calendar, which is a business and trade meeting to prepare for the busy autumn. Some are held in conjunction with temple fairs, and there are also trade conferences held solely for the busy autumn. Its purpose is to exchange production tools, sell livestock, exchange food and daily necessities, etc. Its scale is the same as the summer busy meeting, with mule and horse market, grain market, agricultural tools production city, cloth, Beijing-Guangzhou grocery market and so on. Nowadays, such gatherings are called "economic and trade exchange conferences". During the meeting, there are also theatrical performances, horse racing, monkey playing and other literary programs.

4. Mutual help in autumn harvest: with the beginning of busy autumn, there is a common custom of "mutual assistance in autumn harvest" in rural areas. You help me to help you, go to the fields in small groups and rush to harvest ripe corn. A material of corn should be moved four times: the first stubble, the second stubble, the third stubble and the empty stubble. Women, the elderly, teenagers, they carry bamboo cages, row after row, one plant after another, next to each other. Do not "monkeys move corn, move one by one." Instead, they put one in a cage, then put it in a pile of corn ears on the ground, and finally pulled it home in a cart. The first stubble first move the mature corn ear, the immature corn ear, leave the second stubble and then move. The second and third crops are moved in the same way. Finally, take out the stubble and move the remaining ears of corn back home, regardless of the old and tender. To see whose corn ripens early and whose family will move it first, it will not violate the agriculture, but also can return to the warehouse.

5. Akita Entertainment: autumn, especially before and after the busy autumn, although the farming is busy, the autumn harvest is very busy! But busy also have fun, it is common to see some young people and children in their teens, after Baogu, millet and millet grow up, especially when Baogu grows up to be tall and begins to bear ears, the field is the place where they play and play. They moved the ears of tender corn down, dug a hole in the earth kiln and left the chimney, which was a natural earth stove, and then put them in and collected firewood everywhere. The flower at the top of the grain was a good fuel to burn. After a while, all the ears of Baogu in the whole kiln were cooked, and the rich feast was held in the field. They also go up the tree to catch sparrow eggs and shoot rabbits on the spot. They can eat a lot of game, all of which can be cooked in pots in the field. There are meat and vegetarian, all kinds of flavor. They also put the persimmons they got and the red persimmons they got in the earth cave and heated them for an hour, then they turned into sweet persimmons. This fun in Akita has been passed on from generation to generation.

6. Autumn fat: it is popular among the people to weigh people with hanging scales on this day, comparing their weight with that of the Beginning of Summer. Because people do not have any appetite in summer, the food is light and simple, and most of them lose a little weight in two or three months. The autumn wind is together, the appetite is big, want to eat something good, add a little nutrition, compensate for the loss in summer, the way to make up is to "paste autumn fat": on the Beginning of Autumn's day, all kinds of meat, stew, barbecue, braised meat, etc., "fat with meat".

7. Gnawing on autumn: "gnawing on autumn" is also called "biting autumn" in some places. Tianjin is fastidious about eating watermelon or cantaloupe on the Beginning of Autumn's day, which is called "biting autumn", which means that it is very hot in summer, when the Beginning of Autumn bites it. Jiangsu and other places also eat watermelons on this day to "bite autumn". It is said that they do not have autumn prickly heat. In Zhejiang and other places, it is believed that malaria can be prevented by eating watermelons and soju together in autumn. City people in the Beginning of Autumn bought a watermelon to go home, the whole family around to eat, is gnawing on the autumn. On the other hand, farmers are much more bold in eating autumn. They are sitting on the ground in small groups in the melon shed, in the shade of trees, holding red watermelons, green melons, raw potatoes and golden corncobs. The expression of eating autumn is actually a kind of joy of harvest.

8. The Autumn Society: the Autumn Society was originally the day of offering sacrifices to the land gods in autumn, which began in the Han Dynasty, and later generations designated the Autumn Society on the fifth May Day after the Beginning of Autumn. At this time, the harvest was over, and both the government and the people offered sacrifices to the gods on this day. The Song Dynasty and Autumn Society had the custom of eating cakes, drinking alcohol and women returning to peace. Tang Hanyu "do not see" poem: "this body is willing to be a king's family swallow, and he will not return when the autumn society returns." In some places, there are still sayings of "working as a co-operative", "worshiping the gods of the society" and "cooking the porridge of the society".