Does beginning of autumn mean it gets dark early?

No, it should be the autumnal equinox. It gets dark early in the northern hemisphere. The autumnal equinox is the sixteenth solar term in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar, which usually lasts from September 22nd to September 24th every year. The climate in the south began to decline from this solar term.

On this day, the sun reached longitude 180 degrees and hit the equator of the earth directly. Therefore, in most parts of the earth, 24 hours are divided equally, each being 12 hours.

After the autumnal equinox, the northern hemisphere has shorter days and longer nights (shorter days than nights), while the southern hemisphere has longer days and shorter nights (longer days than nights).

Beginning of autumn is the first 13 of the 24 solar terms and the first solar term in autumn, marking the official start of the Qiu Meng season. In early autumn, Beidou points southwest. From this day on, autumn began, the autumn was crisp, the moon was bright and the wind was clear.

Beginning of autumn has arrived, but not in autumn. The division of climatic seasons should be based on the "average climate temperature", that is, the local average temperature is below 22℃ for five consecutive days, which is the real autumn.