As early as the Zhou Dynasty, the ancients had the custom of offering sacrifices to the sun at the vernal equinox, to the ground at the summer solstice, to the moon at the autumnal equinox and to heaven at the winter solstice. Their places of worship were also called altars, earth altars, moon altars and the Temple of Heaven. The Moon Altar in Beijing is the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to the moon. The Book of Rites says: "The son of heaven is sunny in spring and autumn is in the evening. The DPRK, the evening of the moon. " Moonlight refers to offering sacrifices to the moon at night. China's ancient book "Spring and Autumn Stories, Yin and Yang in and out" said: "The autumn equinox, Yin and Yang are also half-phase, so it is cold and hot day and night." The characteristics of the autumnal equinox The autumnal equinox solar terms are special among the 24 solar terms. There are two main characteristics: first, the sun reaches the longitude of the Yellow Meridian 180 degrees on this day, and directly hits the equator of the earth, so the 24 hours of this day are equally divided, each being 12 hours; There is no extreme day and night phenomenon in the world.

According to the lunar calendar, "beginning of autumn" is the beginning of autumn and ends with "the first frost", and the "vernal equinox" is just half of the 90-day journey from beginning of autumn to the first frost. At the autumnal equinox, the Yangtze River basin and its vast northern area have entered autumn, and the daily average temperature has dropped below 22℃. The cold air mass in the north began to have some influence. In most areas, the rainy season has just ended, with a cool breeze blowing gently, blue sky and Wan Li, sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance and fat crabs. This is a beautiful and pleasant season.

Eat autumn vegetables

In Lingnan area, every household goes to the fields to pick autumn vegetables every autumn equinox. Autumn vegetable is a kind of wild amaranth, also known as "autumn Artemisia", which is slender and light green. After picking it home, it is boiled into soup with fish fillets, which is called "autumn soup". Amaranth has the functions of clearing away heat and toxic materials, moistening skin and caring skin. Therefore, the locals said, "Autumn soup is dirty and washes the liver and intestines; The whole family is safe and healthy. "A bowl of autumn soup not only has the richness of autumn, but also people's expectations for a bumper harvest and the simplest wishes for their families.

Vertical egg

There is also a simple game called "Vertical Egg" in the Autumn Equinox, which is also called "Vertical Egg". This kind of game also exists in the vernal equinox and has spread all over the world.

Sticking sparrow's mouth

On the day of the autumnal equinox, farmers traditionally eat jiaozi at home, and make a dozen or twenty or thirty jiaozi. They put a thin bamboo fork on the outdoor ridge, which is called sticking sparrows' mouths, which means that they hope to prevent sparrows from destroying crops.

respiratory diseases

The weather turns cold after the autumnal equinox, and the temperature drops more obviously if it rains. Cold air can irritate the skin, and people's immunity is reduced due to cold, so they are unable to resist cold pathogens and are prone to lung and respiratory diseases, such as fever, cough and bronchitis.

intestines and stomach disease

There is a folk saying that "autumn melons are not good for the stomach", which means that beginning of autumn will continue to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables raw, and cold food will easily lead to gastrointestinal diseases. In summer, in order to prevent heatstroke and cool down, people often eat a lot of fruits and cold food, which damages spleen yang and makes it weak, and then acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea and dysentery will occur.

cardiovascular disease

There is a big temperature difference between morning and evening in autumn. For acute cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events such as unstable angina pectoris and even myocardial infarction, supercooling and overheating are both inducing factors. Therefore, when the seasons change, patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should pay more attention.

allergic rhinitis

Autumn is also a period of high incidence of allergies, which is closely related to the climate characteristics in autumn. It is windy in autumn, and pollen and dust are scattered in the air, which is easy to cause allergies. In addition, the temperature and humidity in autumn are suitable for the reproduction of mites, which is easy to cause allergies.

Quench thirst, invigorate qi and promote fluid production

At the autumnal equinox, the yang of the human body changes from publicity in summer to introversion, showing a trend of weak yang and strong yin. At this time, health care should pay special attention to leveling, that is, balancing the changes of yin and yang in the body, benefiting qi and promoting fluid production.

Always replenish water and drink more porridge. Drinking water is the easiest way to fight autumn dryness. In addition, eating more warm health porridge can replenish water and also have the effect of nourishing yin and promoting fluid production. Autumn fungus, benefiting qi and promoting fluid production. Some foods that nourish yin and promote fluid production, such as sesame, walnut and chestnut, are very suitable for eating at the autumnal equinox. Auricularia auricula, a seasonal food, tastes sweet and flat, has the effect of benefiting qi and promoting fluid production, and is a delicious food that cannot be missed.

Eat a warm diet and eat more sour food.

The "dryness" of the autumnal equinox is cool and dry, and "dryness hurts the lungs". You can eat more warm food, such as sesame seeds, walnuts, glutinous rice and so on. You can also eat more fruits and vegetables such as white radish and carrot, which can reduce lung qi. Autumn belongs to lung gold, sour taste converges and tonifies lung, pungent taste diverges and clears lung, and autumn should not be scattered. Try to eat less irritating foods such as onions and ginger, and eat more sour and sweet fruits and vegetables.

Calm down and adjust your mood.

Since the autumnal equinox, there is little sunshine, and the biological clock of human body can't adapt to the change of short sunshine time, which leads to physiological rhythm disorder, endocrine disorder and emotional and mental instability. This is also the truth of "hurting spring and mourning autumn".

In autumn, mental conditioning is to calm down and recuperate, and the way to do this is to eliminate distractions as much as possible in order to achieve a state of peace of mind.