What are the solar terms customs of autumnal equinox?

"beginning of autumn" is the beginning of autumn and ends with "the first frost". The "autumnal equinox" is exactly half of the 90 days from beginning of autumn to the first frost, so it is called the autumnal equinox. According to the traditional 24 solar terms of the China lunar calendar, the autumnal equinox means really entering autumn. Due to the cold weather in the northern hemisphere, geese, swallows and cuckoos began to fly in droves from the gradually cold north to the south.

Since ancient times, the autumnal equinox has been the traditional "Festival of Sacrificing the Moon". According to historical records, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, ancient emperors had the custom of offering sacrifices to the sun at the vernal equinox, to the earth at the summer solstice, to the moon at the autumnal equinox, and to heaven at the winter solstice. Its places of worship are called Ritan, Ditan, Yuetan and Tiantan, which are divided into four directions: southeast and northwest. The Moon Altar in Beijing is the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to the moon.

This custom is not only respected by the imperial court and the upper nobility, but also slowly affects the people with the opening of society. According to textual research, the "Moon Festival" was originally set at the "Autumn Equinox", but there is not always a full moon because of the different days of August in the lunar calendar every year. In order to avoid the embarrassing situation that there is no bright moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, people changed the Mid-Autumn Festival from the "autumnal equinox" to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is a full moon.

Eating autumn vegetables is a custom. "Autumn vegetable" is a kind of wild amaranth, also called "autumn Artemisia", which is commonly found in rural areas of Lingnan. The tree is very thin, and its leaves are light green, as long as a palm. Boil the picked autumn vegetables and fish fillets in soup, which is called "autumn soup". After drinking autumn soup, the whole family is safe and healthy. This is the expectation of the people!

Sticking the beak of a bird is also a custom. Farmers generally eat glutinous rice balls, which are high in sugar content and calories, and can supplement the body's heat energy, tonify deficiency, regulate blood, strengthen yang and strengthen the spleen. For farmers, there is another trick. After they cooked jiaozi without heart, they strung it with thin bamboo sticks and put it in the fields to prevent sparrows from eating crops. It's called sticking sparrow's mouth.

In addition, there are customs such as "sending autumn cows", which are not really sending cows. Who can afford it? This is a picture printed with farmers' farming map and lunar solar terms all year round. But these folk activities are generally common in rural areas.