Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Almanac inquiry - What does it mean to eat autumn vegetables at the autumnal equinox?

What does it mean to eat autumn vegetables at the autumnal equinox?

The autumnal equinox is an important solar term in China, and it is also a solar term in autumn. There are many customs in this solar term. So what is the significance of eating autumn vegetables at the autumnal equinox? What are the dietary taboos in the autumn equinox? Come and analyze it with Huang Li!

The significance of eating autumn vegetables at the autumnal equinox

The autumnal equinox is the official beginning of stepping on autumn. In Lingnan area, Xie's family in Cangzhen, Kaiping used to be four cities (now Heshan is five cities), and there is an unbroken custom called "eating autumn vegetables at the autumnal equinox". "Autumn vegetable" is a kind of wild amaranth, which villagers call "autumn Artemisia". On the autumnal equinox, the whole village went to pick autumn vegetables. When searching in the wild, it is often green and thin, about the length of a palm. Picked autumn vegetables are usually boiled with fish fillets at home, which is called "autumn soup". "Autumn soup dirty, wash the liver and intestines. The whole family is safe and healthy. " Since autumn, people still pray for peace and health at home.

What is the dietary taboo of autumnal equinox?

1. Avoid spicy, hot, fragrant and dry food in autumn.

Spicy foods and spices such as garlic, onion, ginger, star anise, fennel, etc., if eaten more, will help dry evil and hurt yin, aggravate internal heat and make dry evil invade the human body.

2. Avoid greasy fried food in autumn.

Fried greasy foods such as fried chicken legs and quails are difficult to digest after eating in autumn and are easy to accumulate in the stomach. In addition, the spleen and stomach function is weak, eating greasy fried food will aggravate the accumulated heat in the body, which is not conducive to the human body to adapt to the characteristics of dryness in autumn.

3. Avoid eating aquatic plants raw in autumn.

Autumn is the harvest season of most aquatic plants, and it is also the season with the most metacercariae. Such as water chestnut, bamboo shoots, water chestnut and so on. , mostly white, fresh and crisp, cool and refreshing, delicious, with heat and detoxification, appetizing and digestion, phlegm and cough and other medical effects. However, eating this aquatic plant raw can easily lead to Fasciola zingiberensis infection, causing intestinal mucosal inflammation, bleeding, edema and even ulcers, usually accompanied by diarrhea and loss of appetite; After children are infected, there will be facial edema, stunting and mental retardation. A few cases are serious, which may lead to death due to exhaustion or collapse. Therefore, avoid eating aquatic plants raw in autumn.

4. Avoid greasy food and sweets in autumn.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that autumn governs lung qi and lung governs pungent taste. Excessive lung qi often leads to stagnation of liver qi. Autumn dryness is easy to hurt body fluids. Therefore, in terms of diet, it is mainly to prevent dryness and protect yin, nourish yin and moisten the lungs, and avoid greasy food and sweets.