Start of Autumn is one of the 24 solar terms, all of which are summaries of life from the working people of ancient China, and there is much in them worth learning. Start of Autumn is the first solar term of autumn, meaning the beginning of autumn. But now it has only been a little over ten days since Minor Heat, Major Heat has not even arrived yet, and everyone is already looking forward to Start of Autumn - it seems this summer really has been very hot!

In China's solar terms, Start of Autumn is divided into early Start of Autumn and late Start of Autumn, and the difference between the two lies in the time at which Start of Autumn begins. Because the time of Start of Autumn differs every year, when calculated according to the solar term calendar, the time of Start of Autumn sometimes falls in the morning, and sometimes in the afternoon or evening, which creates the distinction.

For example, regarding the question everyone cares about most - when this year's Start of Autumn will be - this year's Start of Autumn, calculated according to the solar term calendar, falls at 21:30:34 on August 7. Start of Autumn occurs in the evening, so it seems this year's Start of Autumn is a late Start of Autumn. As the saying goes, "a late Start of Autumn brings heat that kills an ox"!

At home people often also hear the saying "one fu period after autumn can kill people with heat," which shows that after Start of Autumn the weather does not immediately turn cool, but first stays hot for a period, and this period is dry heat, with relatively strong sunlight, making people unbearably hot and restless. This is also what we often hear called the "autumn tiger."

So in fact, whether Start of Autumn comes early or late does not have a particularly obvious effect on autumn temperatures, because the autumn tiger will dominate the weather for about half a month after Start of Autumn.

It is precisely because of the "autumn tiger" that people need to pay attention to their health in autumn, otherwise they easily fall ill. "Start of Autumn brings cool mornings and evenings, but at noon sweat soaks your clothes" - this kind of weather makes it very easy to get sick, so people need to pay attention to cooling off and also to preventing colds.

Everyone can drink some relatively cool, heat-relieving mung bean soup, coix seed water, and the like to ease the dry heat. Also pay attention to nourishing the lungs, because autumn weather is dry and easily harms the lungs, so you can drink some lung-moistening soups. Women should also pay attention to sun protection and hydration.

The above comes from Science Promoting Agriculture.