Frost's Descent霜降

Frost's Descent (霜降, Shuāng Jiàng) is the eighteenth of the twenty-four solar terms and the final 氣 of the autumn season, sitting at the midpoint of the 戌 month that Cold Dew opened two weeks earlier. It is an astronomical instant: the moment the sun reaches 210° of ecliptic longitude, landing on 23 or 24 October depending on the year.

The name is literal rather than symbolic: this is traditionally the point in the year where frost starts forming in earnest across much of the temperate northern hemisphere, the visible marker that autumn's mild stretch is over.

Astronomically it sits between Cold Dew and Beginning of Winter, the last stop before the cross-quarter term that opens winter's first month. In the agricultural calendar it is read as the final call for the autumn harvest and the point where preparation for the cold months — storing, insulating, closing off — properly begins.

Frost's Descent is a 氣 — a mid-month term — so unlike Cold Dew before it, it changes no pillar. This site's engine confirms the general rule across a full year's scan: the twelve month pillar switches in 2026 land only on the twelve 節, and this term contributes none of them.

A birth at this instant still carries the 戌 month pillar that Cold Dew opened, exactly as a birth the day before or the day after would. The term marks a position in the sky and in the season, not a new boundary in the chart.