What are the customs in early autumn?

Beginning of autumn, beginning of spring, long summer and beginning of winter, also known as the "Four Estates", are also one of the "Four Seasons and Eight Festivals" in ancient times. In early autumn, there is a custom of offering sacrifices to the land gods and celebrating the harvest. In ancient times, after the autumn harvest, people would choose the auspicious day of the zodiac, on the one hand, to worship and thank God and ancestors for their blessings, on the other hand, to taste the newly harvested rice grains and celebrate the hard-won harvest. In addition, there are some folk customs such as "pasting autumn fertilizer", "biting autumn" and "gnawing autumn" on beginning of autumn.

Sacrifice to the land god: Autumn is the harvest season, and there is a custom of sacrificing to the land god to celebrate the harvest.

Eating autumn melons: In the south, there is a custom that "beginning of autumn eats autumn melons". Eat more watermelons in autumn to prevent autumn dryness and form a custom for a long time. Zizhi, published in the Republic of China, records: "beginning of autumn ate watermelon the day before, which is called gnawing autumn." It also means welcoming the arrival of autumn.

Sticking autumn weight: It is popular to weigh people with hanging scales in early autumn, and compare them with those in long summer 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, weight loss needs to be "supplemented", and the way to make up is to "paste autumn fertilizer".

Sunbathing in autumn: Sunbathing in autumn is a typical agricultural custom phenomenon with strong regional characteristics. Villagers living in mountainous areas such as Hunan, Guangxi, Anhui and Jiangxi. It has become a traditional agricultural custom to use the roof in front of the house and the window sill to hang crops.

For a long time, in the vast rural areas of China, people used to predict the hot and cold weather in beginning of autumn during the day or at night. There is also the custom of tasting new things with watermelon and green beans and offering sacrifices to ancestors. On the day before beginning of autumn, Chen Bing had the customs of eating melons, steaming eggplant and frying fragrant incense.