The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). Start of Autumn / Li Qiu, the 13th solar term of the year, begins this year on August 7. Although Start of Autumn reflects the end of summer and beginning of autumn, hot weather will not end. The period of hot days after Start of Autumn, is called "Autumn Tiger". The following are some traditions you should know about Start of Autumn.
1 Eating peaches
In Hangzhou, people eat peaches on the Start of Autumn day. The peach stones are kept until New Year's Eve and thrown into the stove, burned into ash. People believed that in this way (瘟疫) could be prevented for the whole year.
2 Eating red beans
People in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, have eaten red beans on Start of Autumn day. They take 7 to 14 little beans, one must face west, it's said (痢疾) during the autumn.
3 Eating gourds
People in Tianjing believe that eating melons such as towel gourd, white gourd and bitter gourd can prevent diarrhea (腹泻) in autumn and the coming winter and spring.
4 Touching Autumn
There is the custom of "Touching Autumn" in the north of Yancheng, Jiangsu province. On the eve of Start of Autumn, people can touch and take for free all kinds of fruits as they like in private or public gardens, no matter how much they lose. Many gardeners even leave some melon fruits in the field on purpose for the guests during the night.
5 Fleshing out in autumn (贴秋膘)
On the first day of the Start of Autumn, usually people will weight themselves and compare their weight to what it was at the Start of Summer. If one has lost weight during the summer, then at the beginning of autumn, especially meat.
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Start of Autumn |
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Time |
Fall onthis year. |
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Weather |
Hot days will for thirty days. |
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1. Food such as peaches, red beans and different gourds should be eaten more, which will be good for . 2. "Touching Autumn" is a kind of custom in thepart of Yangcheng, Jiangsu province. On the eve of Start of Autumn, people can take for free all kinds of fruits they like. 3. If one has lost weight during the summer, then at the beginning of autumn, he or she needs to eat many different kinds of delicious food |
