What Does Autumn Equinox Mean? A Detailed Explanation of the Meaning of the Autumn Equinox Solar Term
The Autumn Equinox is the 16th solar term of the 24 traditional Chinese lunar solar terms, usually falling on September 22 or 23 each year. In southern China, the climate only begins to enter autumn from this solar term onward. On this day, the sun reaches 180 degrees of celestial longitude and shines directly over the Earth's equator, so the 24 hours of this day are divided equally between day and night, 12 hours each, with no polar day or polar night anywhere on Earth. Let's take a look below at what the Autumn Equinox means!
What does Autumn Equinox mean?
1. Day and night are equal in length, and from this point the days gradually change from long days and short nights to short days and long nights. On this day, the sun reaches 180 degrees of celestial longitude and shines directly over the Earth's equator, so the 24 hours of this day are divided equally between day and night, 12 hours each, with no polar day or polar night anywhere on Earth.
2. The climate turns from hot to cool. According to the ancient Chinese method of dividing the seasons, which begins the four seasons with Start of Spring, Start of Summer, Start of Autumn and Start of Winter, the Autumn Equinox falls in the middle of the 90 days of autumn, splitting autumn in half.
Climatic Characteristics of the Autumn Equinox
1. The position of direct sunlight continues to move from the equator toward the Southern Hemisphere, and the phenomenon of short days and long nights in the Northern Hemisphere becomes increasingly obvious, with daytime gradually shortening and nighttime lengthening (until the Winter Solstice, when nighttime is longest and daytime shortest).
2. The temperature difference between day and night gradually increases, with the range exceeding 10°C.
3. Temperatures drop day by day, getting colder each day, gradually entering the deep autumn season. The situation in the Southern Hemisphere is exactly the opposite.
The Autumn Equinox and Agricultural Production
1. The characteristic of rapid cooling in autumn makes the busy "Three Autumns" work of autumn harvest, autumn plowing and autumn sowing seem especially urgent. At the Autumn Equinox, cotton bolls open and tobacco leaves turn from green to yellow, making it a great time for harvest. The North China region has already begun sowing winter wheat, while the Yangtze River basin and vast southern regions are busy harvesting late rice, seizing clear weather to plow the land, and preparing to sow rapeseed.
2. Drought and scant rain or continuous overcast and rainy weather during the Autumn Equinox period are the main unfavorable factors affecting the normal progress of the "Three Autumns" work. In particular, continuous overcast and rainy weather can cause crops that are about to be harvested to lodge, rot or sprout, causing serious losses. In the busy "Three Autumns" work, the key is "early." Harvesting autumn crops in time can avoid the harm of early frost and continuous overcast and rainy weather, and sowing winter crops early at the right time can make full use of the heat resources before winter, cultivate strong seedlings for safe overwintering, and lay the foundation for a bumper harvest the following year.
3. "If the Autumn Equinox does not show its head, cut it to feed the old ox." In the south, the double-cropping late rice is heading and flowering, a critical period for yield formation. The "Autumn Equinox cold" weather formed by early low temperatures and overcast rain is the main threat to the flowering and grain filling of double-cropping late rice, and forecasting and defense work must be done carefully.
Folk Customs of the Autumn Equinox
1. Autumn Moon Worship: The Autumn Equinox was once the traditional "Moon Worship Festival." As the ancients said, "Worship the sun in spring, worship the moon in autumn." Today's Mid-Autumn Festival comes from the traditional "Moon Worship Festival." According to research, the "Moon Worship Festival" was originally set on the day of the "Autumn Equinox," but because this day falls on different dates in the eighth lunar month each year, there is not necessarily a full moon. Worshiping the moon without a moon is a great spoiler of the mood. Therefore, the "Moon Worship Festival" was later moved from the "Autumn Equinox" to Mid-Autumn.
2. Eating Autumn Vegetables: In the Lingnan region, among the Xie clan of Cangcheng Town in Kaiping, one of the former Siyi (now Wuyi with the addition of Heshan), there was a custom not tied to a festival called "eating autumn vegetables at the Autumn Equinox." "Autumn vegetables" are a kind of wild amaranth, which the locals call "autumn green wormwood." On the day of the Autumn Equinox, the whole village would go to pick autumn vegetables. When searching in the fields, most were tender green, slender plants about the length of a palm. The autumn vegetables brought back were usually boiled in soup with fish slices at home, called "autumn soup." There is a rhyme that goes: "Autumn soup cleanses the organs, washes the liver and intestines. The whole family, old and young, safe and healthy." From autumn onward each year, what people pray for is still household peace and a strong, healthy body.
3. Sending the Autumn Ox: As the Autumn Equinox approached, pictures of the autumn ox were sent from door to door. These pictures were printed on quarto-sized red or yellow paper with the full year's lunar solar terms, and also with a picture of a farmer plowing the fields, called the "Autumn Ox Picture." The people who delivered the pictures were folk singers good with words, mainly saying things about autumn plowing and auspicious words about not missing the farming season. At each household, they would improvise based on the scene, saying whatever they saw, until the host was pleased and gave money. Although the words were spoken off the cuff, every line was rhythmic and pleasant to hear. This was commonly called "speaking autumn," and the speaker was called the "Autumn Official."
4. Sticking the Sparrows' Beaks: On the day of the Autumn Equinox, farmers all took a holiday according to custom. Every household had to eat tangyuan, and they also had to cook more than ten or twenty or thirty tangyuan without filling, skewer them on thin bamboo forks and place them at the edges of fields and field ridges outdoors, called "sticking the sparrows' beaks," to prevent sparrows from damaging the crops. Hoping to stick the sparrows' beaks shut with tangyuan was of course just a beautiful imagination and wish of the farmer friends, but it also illustrates a principle: tangyuan are quite sticky, not easy to digest, and should not be eaten in large amounts.
5. Flying Kites: The Autumn Equinox period is also a good time for children to fly kites. Especially on the day of the Autumn Equinox itself, even adults participate. There are types of kites such as the Wang-character kite, the silver carp kite, the squinting moth kite, the thunder god insect kite, and the moonlight kite. The large ones are two meters tall, and the small ones are two or three chi. There are kites sold in the market, mostly relatively small and suitable for small children to play with, but most are still pasted by hand at home, larger, and when flying them people even compete with each other to see whose flies higher.