What is the meaning and tradition of the Beginning of Summer solar term?

What is the meaning and tradition of the Beginning of Summer solar term?
The sun is shining brightly in the sky and the flowers are in full bloom, ushering in the wonderful time of the Beginning of Summer. Lixia is the first solar term in summer. Do you want to know more about it? The third month of the lunar calendar is the period between spring and summer. Want to know what good days there are in March of the lunar calendar in 2021? Then click on Mr. Shui Mo's website and take a look.
1. The meaning of Beginning of Summer
The Beginning of Summer marks the farewell to spring and the beginning of summer. The Beginning of Summer is also the beginning of the Si month in the Ganzhi calendar, and is an important solar term indicating that all things enter their peak growth season.
"When the Dipper points to the southeast, it is the beginning of summer. All things grow at this time, so it is named the beginning of summer." "Xia" in "Beginning of Summer" means "big." "Beginning of Summer" means that the plants sown in spring have grown upright by this time.
Spring is for growth, summer is for growth, autumn is for harvest and winter is for storage. Summer is the best season for many crops to grow vigorously. According to the climate and phenology, the ancients divided the solar terms into four groups: "fen, zhi, qi, and kai". "Fen" refers to the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, which were called the "two equinoxes" in ancient times; "zhi" refers to the summer solstice and the winter solstice, which were called the "two solstice" in ancient times; "qi" refers to the beginning of spring and the beginning of summer, and "bi" refers to the beginning of autumn and the beginning of winter. The Beginning of Spring, the Beginning of Summer, the Beginning of Autumn and the Beginning of Winter are collectively known as the "Four Beginnings", which add up to the "Eight Festivals", which are commonly known as the "Four Seasons and Eight Festivals" or the "Eight Festivals of the Year".
2. The Tradition of Beginning of Summer
1. Try something new:
There is an activity of "tasting new things" at the beginning of summer. For example, there is a proverb in Suzhou that "see three new things at the beginning of summer", which are cherries, green plums and wheat, which are used to worship ancestors. In Changshu, the food is more abundant. There is a saying that "nine meats and thirteen vegetables". The nine meats are crucian carp, salted eggs, snails, simmered chicken, pickled chicken, braised shrimp, and cherry meat; the thirteen vegetables include cherries, plums, wheat silkworms (new wheat is kneaded into thin strips and cooked), bamboo shoots, broad beans, spears, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, grass heads, radishes, roses, and pine flowers. In Nantong, people eat boiled chicken and duck eggs.
2. Egg fighting:
There is a custom of "egg fighting" on the day of the Beginning of Summer. On this day, children will soak boiled eggs (with intact shells) in cold water, then put them in a net bag woven with colorful silk or wool threads and hang it around their necks. If you meet other children who have eggs, you can play the egg fighting game together. Each person holds an egg, the pointed part is the head, and the round part is the tail. The egg heads hit each other, and the egg tails hit each other, one by one. The one whose eggshell is broken loses, and then the loser has to eat the egg. The one whose egg is still intact is the winner.
3. Weighing people:
There is a custom of "weighing people" at the beginning of summer. Usually after lunch, people hang a large wooden scale at the entrance of the village or at the gate, with a stool hung on the hook. Everyone takes turns sitting on the stool to weigh people. The person who was weighing the scales was saying auspicious words while beating the scales. The old man on the scale would say "If the flower weighs eighty-seven, you will live to ninety-one"; the young girl on the scale would say "If the flower weighs one hundred and five pounds, the rich man's family will come to your house. Don't be unwilling, don't be unwilling, because it is your destiny that you will meet the number one scholar."; the young boy on the scale would say "If the flower weighs twenty-three, the young master will grow up and become a successful businessman. Don't be afraid to get a seventh-rank county magistrate, it will be easy to marry a duke or a minister." The scale can only be punched from the inside (that is, from the small number to the large number), not from the outside to the inside.
3. Diet during the Beginning of Summer
1. In the suburbs of Shanghai, people use wheat flour and sugar to make strips of food about an inch long on the Beginning of Summer. These strips are called "wheat silkworms". People can eat them to avoid summer heatiness.
2. Tongshan County, Hubei Province, regards the Beginning of Summer as an important festival. People in Tongshan eat strawberries, shrimps, and bamboo shoots on the Beginning of Summer. They say that "eating strawberries will brighten your eyes, eating shrimps will give you strength, and eating bamboo shoots will strengthen your legs."
3. In Shengzhou area, on the day of Beginning of Summer, people eat eggs to support the heart, bamboo shoots to support the legs, peas to support the eyes, and scales to support the body. The purpose is to pray for the health of important parts of the body, mind, legs, etc., to prevent illness, and to successfully get through the hot summer.
4. In Zhouning and Fu'an in eastern Fujian, people will soak Guangbing in water and make it into a dish at the beginning of summer; while in Jiaocheng and Fu'an, people will cut Guangbing into two halves and eat it with fried bean sprouts, leeks, meat, pickled vegetables, etc.
5. In the southern Fujian region, there is a custom of eating "shrimp noodles" at the beginning of summer. On the day of the Beginning of Summer, people will buy shrimps and mix them with noodles to cook. The shrimps turn red when cooked, which is an auspicious color. The word shrimp is homophonic with "summer", which means summer, so this is a blessing for the summer.
6. In eastern Zhejiang, there is a custom of eating "Seven-family porridge" at the beginning of summer. In rural areas, neighbors will give each other beans and rice, mix them with brown sugar, and cook them into a pot of porridge called "Seven-family porridge". It is said that after eating this porridge, the neighbors will be harmonious and concentrate on summer farming and planting.
7. In Changsha, Hunan, people eat soup balls made of glutinous rice flour and Artemisia selengensis on the day of the Beginning of Summer. It is called "Beginning of Summer Soup". A folk proverb says, "After eating the soup at the beginning of summer, the granite will be stepped into a pit", and "Eat a dumpling (pronounced "tuo") at the beginning of summer, and you can cross the river with one foot", which means to have unparalleled strength and be as light as a swallow.
8. In Chunchi Town, Zhouning County, some villages eat "Lixia Paste" at the beginning of summer. There are two main types of "Lixia Paste", one is rice paste and the other is sweet potato flour paste. The soup is cooked in a big pot. The ingredients are extremely rich, including meat, bamboo shoots, wild vegetables, chicken and duck offal, tofu, etc. Neighbors invite each other to drink the soup.
9. In Ningbo area, people eat "foot bone bamboo shoots" at the beginning of summer. Black bamboo shoots are cooked, each one is three or four inches long, and are not split open. When eating, two bamboo shoots of the same thickness are picked and eaten in one bite. It is said that eating them can make the "feet bones strong" (healthy body). Then eat soft vegetables (Juntaxai). It is said that after eating it you will not get prickly heat in the summer and your skin will be as smooth as soft vegetables.

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