What are the customs of the Beginning of Summer? How do people celebrate the Beginning of Summer?

What are the customs of the Beginning of Summer? How do people celebrate the Beginning of Summer?
Introduction: Lixia is the first solar term in summer, heralding the arrival of summer. So what are the customs of Lixia? The third month of the lunar calendar is the last month of spring and it is also a time full of vitality. If you want to know more about the third month of the lunar calendar in 2018, please pay attention to our Fortune Teller website! This season was established in the late Warring States Period (239 BC), heralding the change of seasons. It was the day when summer, which was one of the four seasons divided by the ancient lunar calendar, began.
For example, it is said in "Yi Zhou Shu·Shi Xun Jie": "On the day of the Beginning of Summer, crickets chirp. Five days later, earthworms come out. Five days later, melons grow." That is to say, during this solar term, one can first hear the chirping of clams (i.e. crickets) in the fields (some say it is the sound of frogs), then one can see earthworms digging in the soil, and then the vines of melons begin to climb and grow rapidly. This is a description of the phenological scene at the beginning of summer.
At the beginning of summer, everything flourishes. In the Ming Dynasty book "Lotus Born Eight", it is written: "In the first month of summer, heaven and earth begin to interact, and all things bloom." At this time, summer crops enter the late growth stage, winter wheat is flowering and filling with grain, and rapeseed is close to maturity. The harvest of summer crops for the year is basically determined, so there is a saying in the agricultural proverb "The beginning of summer determines the summer." Rice planting and management of other spring-sown crops have also entered a busy season.
Therefore, my country has attached great importance to the Beginning of Summer solar term since ancient times. According to records, during the Zhou Dynasty, on the day of the Beginning of Summer, the emperor would personally lead civil and military officials to the suburbs to "welcome summer", and instruct officials such as the Minister of Education to go to various places to encourage farmers to work hard on their farms. At noon on the day of the egg-fighting game , every household boiled whole eggs (the eggs were boiled in their shells and must not be broken), soaked them in cold water for a few minutes, put them in a woven silk mesh bag, and hung them around the children's necks. The children gathered in groups of three or five to play the egg-fighting game. The egg is divided into two ends, the pointed one is the head and the round one is the tail.
When fighting eggs, egg heads fight egg heads, and egg tails fight egg tails. They fight one by one, the defeated one admits defeat, and finally the winner is determined. The winner of the egg head is first, and the egg is called the king; the winner of the egg tail is second, and the egg is called the little king or the second king.
Weighing People There is a custom of weighing people after lunch at the Beginning of Summer. 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 scale operator was beating the scales while saying auspicious words. An old man would say "If you spend eighty-seven on the scale, you will live to ninety-one". The girl on the scale said, "One hundred and five kilograms, the young master's family has come to your house. Don't agree, don't agree, because you are destined to be with the number one scholar." The boy on the scale said, "Twenty-three flowers on the scale, the young master will get married when he grows up. Don't be afraid to get a seventh-rank county official, and it's also 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.
In later generations, there are festival activities such as tasting new things at the beginning of summer. For example, there is a proverb in Suzhou that "three new things are seen 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.
Summary: The above is [What are the customs of the Beginning of Summer? How do people celebrate the Beginning of Summer? 】, I hope the entire content can be helpful to everyone!

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