China News Agency, Beijing, September 23rd: Why is the harvest festival set on the autumnal equinox?
China News Agency reporter Ma Haiyan
On September 23, the twenty-eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the autumn equinox arrived as scheduled. As one of the most important solar terms in the twenty-four solar terms, “Four Li, Two Points and Two Arrivals (Lichun, Liqiu, Lixia, Lidong, Spring Equinox, Autumn Equinox, Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice)”, the arrival of the Autumn Equinox tells people that the “Autumn Tiger” has left, Autumn and winter collections are really near.
The “divide” of the autumnal equinox, first, the day and night are equally divided, the day and night are the same length, then the night gradually becomes longer, and the day gradually becomes shorter; the second is the autumn equinox, which is divided according to the beginning of the spring, the beginning of summer, the beginning of autumn, and the beginning of winter in ancient China. According to the law, the autumn is separated from the autumn, and the autumn is equally divided.
“The autumnal equinox is equal to yin and yang, so day and night are equal, and cold and summer are equal.” Chen Lianshan, a professor of Chinese Department of Peking University, told China News Agency “East and West Questions” that the ancients believed that the direct sunlight on the autumnal equinox reached 180 degrees of the ecliptic longitude, almost directly shining Equator, the northern and southern hemispheres are equal in day and night. The ancients also believed that the spring equinox and the autumn equinox were the most balanced times of yin and yang, so there was a game of “the autumnal equinox and the egg”, taking the best time for the balance of yin and yang to stand up the egg.
There are many proverbs about the effect of the autumnal equinox on the weather. “The autumn equinox weather is full of white clouds, and everyone sings joyously in the evening.” “The autumn equinox sees wheat seedlings, and the cold dew wheat needles fall.” It refers to the impact of the autumn equinox weather on the field harvest; “The autumn equinox is sunny, and the winter is not cold.” , then the whole winter will not be too cold; there are also “the autumnal equinox has rain, the cold dew is cold”, “the autumnal equinox has thunder, and the winter solstice is full of snow”, “the autumnal equinox has heavy dew, and the winter is more frosty”, “the autumnal equinox has fog, and there is snow before March 9”. … Compared with modern weather forecasts, these sayings are not necessarily accurate, but in the long agricultural society, their reliability has been verified in the Yellow River Basin.
Aerial photo of farmers harvesting rice with harvesters in the contiguous golden rice fields in Jiangfang Village, Zuofang Town, Jinxi County.Photo by Deng Xingdong
After the autumnal equinox, the meaning of autumn is getting stronger, the days are short and the nights are long, and it is easy to give people a sense of bleakness. “Being sad and lonely since ancient times”, “Will be a frequent visitor of sad autumn”… In ancient Chinese poetry, “sad autumn” has become a common emotional description. The three phenotypes of the autumnal equinox, “the thunder begins to close, the stinging insects start to dry up, and the water begins to dry up” also reminds people to collect in autumn and winter and prepare for winter.
Chen Lianshan said that the twenty-four solar terms are the results of the ancients’ observations and summarization of astronomy, meteorology, and phenology. In addition to predicting the weather, the solar terms also contain a lot of folk customs and attention. The “Book of Rites” records that “the Son of Heaven rises to the sun in the spring, and the moon in the autumn. The day of the morning sun and the eve of the evening moon” means that the Son of Heaven leads his ministers to worship the sun in the eastern suburbs on the morning of the spring equinox, and leads officials to the western suburbs on the evening of the autumn equinox. worship the moon.
“The ‘morning sun and evening moon’ has always been preserved as a royal etiquette.” Chen Lianshan said that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the royal family began to set up moon altars in the city to save the emperor’s hard work of going out of the city at night. On the fifteenth day of August, the moon worships. Therefore, there is a saying in China that “spring sacrifices to the sun and autumn sacrifices to the moon” since ancient times. The Autumn Equinox used to be the traditional “Moon Festival”, and now the Mid-Autumn Festival comes from the “Moon Festival”.
In addition, there are autumn clubs around the autumnal equinox. The Autumn Society is a day when the ancients worshiped the god of land and prayed for a good harvest every year. Because it is a celebration after the harvest, people on Autumn Society Day enjoy the life after the autumn harvest to the fullest. It is essential to make cakes, eat meals, and drink wine. This is evidenced by the poems of Lu You’s “Autumn Society” and “Tokyo Dream Hualu”. A record of the lively scenes of the Autumn Society.
Since 2018, China has established the “Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival” on the autumnal equinox, which is the first festival dedicated to farmers at the national level. The autumn equinox is closely linked to the autumn harvest, and it still has continuous vitality today. (Finish)