Cold Dew Arrives, Autumn Deepens: This Knowledge Helps You and Your Family Get Through the Eventful Autumn Safely
Back to work after the National Day holiday, and autumn is growing deeper
Flipping through the calendar, I realize
Before I knew it, Cold Dew has arrived
No matter the solar term
Treating it with sincerity is the greatest sincerity toward life!
Cold Dew
solar term
Cold Dew begins around October 8 each year. The dew has turned cold and will soon become frost.
A proverb says: "Cold Dew is not yet cold; Frost's Descent changes the weather." As the last solar term of autumn, the "changed weather" of Frost's Descent reflects a cumulative effect, the "last blast of cold air that breaks the camel's back." In fact, among the six solar terms belonging to autumn,the one with the fastest "weather change" rhythm is Cold Dew.
Cold Dew coincides with the Double Ninth Festival, when rainfall drops sharply and thick clouds disperse, which is the meteorological precondition for people to climb high and gaze afar. "I know from afar where my brothers climb the heights, and that one of us is missing as dogwood is stuck in every hair." The ancient Double Ninth custom of wearing dogwood was, to a certain extent, related to the sharp drop in temperature during Cold Dew. The "Records of Local Customs" says: "On the ninth day of this month, pick dogwood and wear it in the hair to ward off evil qi and guard against the first cold." The description in the "Records of the Western Capital" is clearly more "appealing":"On the ninth day, wearing dogwood, eating cakes, and drinking chrysanthemum wine make one long-lived."
There is a proverb that has gradually disappeared from people's life experience in modern society, namely:"Build the bridge at Cold Dew, tear it down at Summer Solstice."In the past, the small wooden bridge at the ferry by the village had to be dismantled when the Summer Solstice flood season arrived, and when Cold Dew came and the rainy season receded, the bridge was built again.
The writer Zhao Shuli once described it this way: "The time for building the bridge each year is after Cold Dew... too early and the water is high, too late and the water is cold." Modern bridges no longer have that seasonal quality.
In the past, through the long years, people truly lived their days according to the solar terms, whether in farming and mulberry work, or in scenery and customs, whether in daily life, or in comings and goings.
When I was a child, the late-autumn farming proverb that impressed me most was:"Harvest hawthorn at Cold Dew, dig sweet potatoes at Frost's Descent."At that time, it seemed that all year round we revolved around cabbage, potatoes, radishes, corn, and sweet potatoes. The fragrant, sandy sweet potatoes were almost my favorite. Of course, climbing the tree and shaking the branches with all my might until the whole tree's ripe red hawthorns fell to the ground, and then carefully picking them up into a basket, could also count as my "Hawthorn Tree Love" perhaps.
Taiwan, China has a proverb that goes:"In the ninth month, dogs bask in the sun; in the tenth month, the sun grows wings."It means that by the ninth lunar month, autumn sunshine is rare, and even dogs know to seize the moment to bask in the sun. By the tenth month, the days are short and clear skies are rare, and the sun is like it has grown wings, flying away before you know it. Gradually, sunbathing became a rare free health regimen.
"Li Sao" says:"In the morning I drink the fallen dew of the magnolia; in the evening I eat the fallen petals of the autumn chrysanthemum."The dew is cold, and the fallen flowers are lonely. Eating petals and drinking dew is indeed a kind of noble purity and solitary pride in late autumn.
As temperatures drop, "at Cold Dew a hundred flowers wither; at Frost's Descent a hundred grasses dry up," and "at the Cold Dew and Frost's Descent solar terms, a sharp wind means snow." The time when "plants and trees flourish and grow abundantly" has become a thing of the past, so late autumn is also called the "exhausted autumn."
Cold Dew
Customs
After eating the Cold Dew meal, men in single clothes are rarely seen
As the saying goes: At White Dew, do not expose the body; at Cold Dew, do not expose the feet. Rain gradually decreases, the air becomes dry, and it feels even more chilly. In the lingering warmth before the cold, I miss my mother's cooking the most.
One mouthful of fragrant sesame glutinous rice warms the whole body, one mouthful of snow lotus seed and white fungus sweet soup moistens the heart, and even the simplest boiled porridge, once the trickling porridge goes down, is enough to warm the entire late autumn.
Maple groves dyed in warm sunlit colors
Around Cold Dew, the pleasant climate is very suitable for climbing Fragrant Hills and enjoying the red leaves. The leaves seem to have drunk rich fine wine; ten thousand hills are red, layer upon layer of forest is dyed, like red clouds at the horizon encircling the mountains. The vivid, full colors add much vitality to this gradually desolate season.
Cricket fighting in late autumn
Autumn in the capital is deep, and it is exactly the peak time for old Beijingers to fight crickets. An old saying goes: "When the cricket sings, the lazy wife is startled." The cricket is the field cricket, and its chirping means autumn has arrived and the weather is gradually cooling, reminding people that it is time to prepare winter clothes.
At Cold Dew the persimmon skin turns red; pick them and take them to market
"Walnuts at Start of Autumn, pears at White Dew, persimmons redden their skins at Cold Dew."Walking along the country path, you will find the hills and slopes covered with fiery red persimmons, plump and full, revealing a festive air. People call them "hanging red."
Freshly picked persimmons taste astringent. Country people put them in a rice bran box to remove the astringency, then carry them to market to sell. Eaten after peeling, such persimmons are sweet and delicious, moist and tasty.
When the west wind blows, crab legs itch; in the ninth month round-bellied females, in the tenth month pointed males
Around Cold Dew, shrimp and crabs are abundant. Many places have the custom of steaming crabs during the Cold Dew solar term. As the saying goes:"At Cold Dew they start to move, at Frost's Descent they are caught; when the west wind blows, crab legs itch."At this time female crabs are full of roe and rich in yellow paste, making it the best season to eat female crabs. After the Cold Dew solar term, when relatives and friends gather, you might as well eat a few fat crabs to satisfy your taste buds, and the joy is complete.
Cold Dew
Health preservation
At Cold Dew, do not expose the feet
After Cold Dew begins, you can no longer "freeze in autumn." Nighttime temperatures will drop even lower, so special attention must be paid to keeping warm. Do not go bare-chested, to prevent cold air from invading the body. Most importantly, keep the feet warm. In addition to wearing shoes and socks with good warmth retention, you should also develop the habit of soaking your feet in hot water before bed.
Add clothes in good time
In addition, after Cold Dew, the weather turns cold, and the elderly, children, and people with weaker constitutions should pay attention to protection against cold and keeping warm, gradually adding clothes. As the saying goes, "keep covered in spring, freeze in autumn,"moderate exposure to cold in autumn helps improve the cold resistance of the skin and nasal mucosa,but the elderly and those with various chronic diseases should pay attention to protection against cold and keeping warm, to prevent "freezing" themselves into illness.
When changing clothes between seasons, do not change too quickly. It is best to pair thick and thin layers, with warmth as the priority. "Do not wear single clothes" is also an important point in Cold Dew health preservation. During Cold Dew, daily routines should be arranged even more reasonably. Research suggests that when temperatures drop and the air is dry, the disease-causing ability of cold viruses increases. When the ambient temperature drops, the disease resistance of the human upper respiratory tract declines, so in order to prevent colds in time, clothes should be changed at the right time.
At the same time, emergency medicines should always be kept ready to prevent sudden diseases such as asthma, stroke, and myocardial infarction triggered by sharp temperature drops.
Salt in the morning, honey in the evening
Cold Dew is the beginning of autumn's alternation between heat and cold. In autumn, autumn dryness is a troubling matter. Health experts propose that the best dietary remedy for autumn dryness is:"Salt water every morning, honey soup every evening."
When people find their skin getting drier and drier, many think that as long as they drink more water, they can replenish moisture. The truth is that drinking only plain boiled water actually makes moisture easier to lose. However, if a little salt is added to the plain boiled water, the situation is very different. This method is based on the same principle as replenishing saline.
Sleep early, rise early
After Cold Dew, days are short and nights are long, and the "yang qi" in nature begins to gather and settle. This is the time for people to conserve yang qi, so people's daily schedules should also be adjusted accordingly. In "Basic Questions: Great Treatise on Regulating the Spirit in Accordance with the Four Qi," there is"In the three months of autumn, sleep early and rise early, rising together with the chickens."This passage tells people the principles of autumn health preservation.
Sleeping early can comply with the gathering of yang qi, and rising early can allow lung qi to stretch and expand. Therefore, autumn health preservation should achieve "sleep early and rise early." To avoid the formation of blood clots, one should comply with the solar terms, regulate care according to the time, and ensure health.
Nourish yin and prevent dryness
After Cold Dew, rain gradually decreases, the weather is dry, days are hot and nights are cool. Many people will successively develop symptoms that traditional Chinese medicine calls "cool dryness," namely dry throat, dry nose, dry skin, and so on. Director Su said that health preservation during Cold Dew is different from that at Autumn Equinox. The most important thing in Cold Dew health preservation is to prevent "cool dryness," starting from nourishing yin, preventing dryness, moistening the lungs, and benefiting the stomach.
In diet, eat less spicy, stimulating, fragrant-dry, smoked, and roasted foods. It is better to eat more foods such as sesame, walnuts, white fungus, radish, tomato, lotus root, lily, and adenophora, which nourish yin, moisten dryness, benefit the stomach, and promote fluid production. Fruits include pears, grapes, water chestnuts, bananas, and so on; vegetables include carrots, winter melon, lotus root, white fungus, and so on, as well as beans, fungi, kelp, nori, and so on.
Moderate exercise
In autumn, if we can persist in relatively suitable physical exercise, it can not only regulate and nourish lung qi in our body, but also improve the function of the lungs as organs. It helps strengthen the immune function impaired in our body's tissues and organs, or when our body is stimulated by external cold climate, it can better have a certain resistance.
Autumn is a great time for exercise and training. You can choose different sports according to your personal condition for exercise, and long-term persistence can enhance cardiopulmonary function.Walking, mountain climbing, and so on are all good choices. But at the beginning the intensity should not be too great; exercise volume should be increased gradually. If you exercise excessively, it will increase fatigue in the body, which is instead not conducive to physical recovery.
Do not hold urine
Experts say that during the Cold Dew solar term, many people drink a lot of water before going to sleep at night to prevent dry mouth. But as a result, the frequency of nighttime urination increases. Even if some people feel the urge to urinate at night or in the early morning, because they dislike getting up in the cold, they often subconsciously hold their urine and continue sleeping. This is actually a very unhealthy habit.
Urine contains toxins. If it is stored in the body for a long time, urine containing bacteria cannot be discharged in time, making it easy to induce cystitis. For patients with high blood pressure, holding urine can excite the sympathetic nerves, leading to increased blood pressure, faster heartbeat, and increased myocardial oxygen consumption, causing cerebral hemorrhage or myocardial infarction, and in severe cases even sudden death.
Finally, here is a little Cold Dew health preservation jingle for everyone: Cold Dew brings cold weather and dew,
Fallen leaves make one melancholy and sentimental,
Sweet and mild foods nourish the stomach and spleen,
Prevent dryness, moisten the intestines, and care for the delicate lungs,
Eat more jujubes, lotus seeds, duck meat, and fish,
Climb high to nourish yang, and the mind and spirit are joyful.
Wishing everyone peace and health at Cold Dew!