What is cold dew and what does solar terms mean?

Cold dew is the seventeenth of the twenty-four solar terms and the fifth in autumn.

Fight with each other; Longitude of solar arrival195; On the 7th-9th day of the Gregorian calendar (10) every year, the cold dew is a festival in late autumn and the beginning of the full moon in the trunk calendar. The cold dew is a solar term reflecting the characteristics of climate change. When entering the cold dew, the cold air sometimes goes south, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the autumn dryness is obvious.

After the cold dew, the cold air in the north has a certain influence. Most parts of China are controlled by cold and high pressure, and the rainy season is over. It's warm during the day, cool at night and often crisp in autumn during the day. From the climate characteristics, in the cold and dew season, autumn in the south is getting stronger, the air is cool and the rain is dry. The vast areas in the north have already presented the scene of winter, and the traditional customs of cold dew mainly include enjoying maple leaves, eating sesame seeds, eating crabs and drinking autumn tea.

Historical origin

Cold dew is the end of the full moon in the dry calendar and the beginning of the full moon. At night, looking up at the starry sky, you will find that the "Big Mars" (Antares), which represents midsummer, has set in the west. After the cold dew, the height of the sun continued to decrease and the temperature gradually decreased. Compared with the solar terms of the Millennium, cold dew is condensed, so it is called "cold dew". Twenty-four solar terms say: at this time, the temperature is lower than that of "white dew", with more dew and cold day and night.

There is a proverb in China called "Dew first turns white and then cold", which means that after the dew festival, the dew turns from a little coolness in early autumn to a little coolness in late autumn. There is also a proverb about dew: "Three dynasties are cold and dew, and you need to find a bridge after crossing the water", which means that the weather is already chilly and you can't wade across the river or go to the fields barefoot as before.

During the cold dew period, people can obviously feel the temperature difference change, from white, crystal clear dew to freezing cold, which vividly reflects the continuous decline of temperature. With the increase of cold, everything is gradually dim.