Start of Autumn 立秋

What it marks

Autumn begins on the calendar well before it does in the weather — the heat usually lingers for weeks. The almanac marks the turn anyway, because the sun has already begun the descent.

Traditionally favours

• gathering in
• reviewing
• collecting debts
• settling

The year's mood shifts from expansion to consolidation, whatever the thermometer says.

These are the tradition’s tendencies, not guarantees — and a solar term describes a stretch of weeks, so for a specific day check today’s almanac, which reads the day’s own 宜 and 忌.