Today is beginning of autumn, and my mother let me eat watermelon. What is the custom? What is Yuanyuan?

In China, there is a custom of "eating autumn" on the day of beginning of autumn, that is, eating watermelon on the day of beginning of autumn means eating watermelon to get rid of the summer heat and eating autumn tigers to welcome the cool autumn.

Why does beginning of autumn eat watermelon?

The latitude in northwest China is relatively high, and watermelons just entered the picking period around beginning of autumn. Eating watermelon in early autumn is an early adopter. Watermelon has entered the last market in early autumn in some areas of central China. Eating watermelon can dispel the evil spirits in early autumn and nourish the five internal organs.

The custom of eating watermelon and eating watermelon in autumn has a long history. Legend has it that one year in the Ming Dynasty, many people in Nanjing suffered from dysentery, and some people followed the story of Cui Xianggong's daughter who ate melons to make "dysentery" heal itself. As a result, dysentery really got better. Therefore, people eat more watermelons in autumn to prevent autumn dryness and form a custom for a long time. Zizhi, published in the Republic of China, records: "beginning of autumn ate watermelon the day before, which is called gnawing autumn." It also means welcoming the arrival of autumn.

People believe that eating melons in early autumn can avoid diarrhea in winter and the next spring. There is such a record in Zhang Dao's "Customs of Tianjin Miscellaneous Notes at the Age of Years" in the Qing Dynasty: "beginning of autumn can avoid diarrhea by eating melons and biting autumn." In the Qing Dynasty, people put melons, steamed eggplants and fragrant soup in the yard the day before in beginning of autumn, and ate them in beginning of autumn to remove the heat in summer and avoid dysentery.

Tianjin pays attention to eating watermelon or cantaloupe in beginning of autumn, which means "biting autumn", which means that the hot summer is unbearable. Take a bite when you get to beginning of autumn. If you use the current buzzword, it is called hold. Jiangsu and other places also eat watermelon to "bite the autumn" in beginning of autumn. It is said that prickly heat in autumn can be avoided. In Zhejiang and other places, beginning of autumn's daily habits of eating watermelon and shochu are thought to prevent malaria.