Source: CCTV News
At 10:39 on January 20, the great cold festival ushered in.
The great cold is not only the last solar term of winter, but also the tail of the twenty-four solar terms, "the reverse pole of the cold, so it is called the great cold." "The seasons flow slowly, and when the cold ends, there is always endless hope in my heart, which is stored in the next spring not far away."
"The Great Cold: The Year Is Coming, Looking forward to spring"
Author | Shen Fuyu
Excerpt from Time: The Chinese's Solar Terms
Reading: Jing Yidan Soundtrack: Wu Na - Reincarnation
It was freezing cold, and the hen suddenly became hot, her feathers fluffy, "grunting" non-stop, and after walking a few laps irritably, she jumped into the chicken coop and refused to come out again. The mother lit the oil lamp, looked at the eggs one by one, and if there was a shadow in it, she put it under the hen's body and let it hatch. After seven days, take out the eggs one by one and put them in warm water, and what is floating is good, and if it can continue to hatch and sink in the water, it will not work. The Book of Zhou says: "On the day of the great cold, the chicken begins to milk." "The chickens start hatching, indicating that the cold has arrived.
A very important phenology of the great cold is the "water belly", and the ice in the river is thick and solid. Ice can be collected, hidden in the ice pipe, and kept for summer use. The Zhou Li records that in ancient times, there were officials in charge of the ice government, called "Ling Ren". He was given more than eighty men. In the cold, Ling Ren presided over the cutting of ice cubes. Ice cubes need to be stored three times as much in the summer, because two-thirds of them will melt away. Folk also collect ice. In the winter, the water is put into the open field, and when it is cold, it is frozen, and then the ice is cut into pieces and dragged into the ice basket.
In the cold, not only to store ice, but also to hide snow. Seal the snow in a jar and hide it in the shade. By the summer of the following year, it is melted with snow water, sencha, or cooking vegetables. Soybean oil or vegetable oil squeezed in the cold is called "wax oil". In the spring, use it to light a lamp and put it in the jam room, so that the little bugs will not fly in and harass the silkworm babies.
After the cold, the taste of the year is getting stronger and stronger. The market is covered with New Year paintings, Spring Festival, candy, firecrackers, crowded, festive. The shaver carries the package and goes door to door to cut hair, making everyone refreshed. The master who sold incense candles also walked over with his burden on his shoulders, and he could smell the strong smell of sandalwood in the distance. The tofu shop is also very busy. One by one, soybean milk was ground and carried in large vats to make tofu. The busiest was the village's well-written teacher, and the children kept sending him red paper and asking him to write the Spring Festival.
Every family is busy. Someone brought a tailor into the house and made a new dress for everyone. Someone called out to the butcher, set up a field in the yard, and slaughtered the pigs and sheep. The pond in front of the village is also bustling. People smashed ice cubes and jumped into the water one by one to catch fish. Above the village, cooking smoke wafted all day long, and every family set up steamed steamed buns on a large pot. A basket of steamed buns was poured into a long bamboo plaque in the courtyard to dry. Whoever came over, the master would take one and stuff it into his hand, let him taste it, and ask him if he was alkali or small, and his face was tight and loose.
Moms are busy during the day and have soles at night. Every New Year,children and the elderly have to wear a new pair of shoes that she sewed by hand. Dads go out every day to buy New Year goods. Grandma constantly hangs out pickled fish, cured meat, chicken and duck, sausages. Grandpas get together every day to discuss which plays to ask the theater team to sing. The children who had taken the winter vacation were the most energetic, running to where there was a lot of excitement, and shouted happily in their mouths: It's going to be the New Year, it's going to be the New Year.
Time flies, and it is a new cycle. The operation of four hours is such a connection between the end and the end, endless.
"Chicken first milk": During the coldest season of the year, the hens at home begin to hatch their chicks.
In the cold season of the ice and snow, predators such as eagle falcons often starve and starve, and once they find their prey, they swoop down and pounce on them.
"Mizusawa belly" in the third season of the great cold: The "freezing" at the time of the great cold is in the deepest depths, as if frozen into the abdomen.
Cold season
Good times, good things
The old snow has not yet subsided, and the new snow has been crowded.
Frozen silver bed in front of the steps, ice stalactites at the eaves.
The sky is cold and green, and the north wind is called dry mulberry.
Thick ice without cracks, short days with cold light.
Slightly humid and easy to dry sand soft road,
It was cold but sunny with warm snow.
Whiskers take a part, relatively all day long.
(Take a book and sit all day)
Drunken face rushing wind is easy to wake up, heavy qiu hides his hand to take a slight warmth.
(Wear thick and hide your hands inside for warmth)
The great cold can not have a glass of wine, and want to cause much hatred.
(How can you not have a drink during the cold season?) ）
Great Cold Customs
01
Big Cold Welcome Year
The cold has passed, and the new year is coming. The ice and snow are cold, but they can't hide a heart of looking forward to the New Year. Everyone can't wait to prepare for the New Year: catch up with the New Year's market, prepare New Year goods, put in new clothes, paste window flowers, write Spring Festival, cured bacon... In these activities to remove the old and the new, all the expectations for the year will not be disappointed.
02
Big Cold Glutinous
On the day of the great cold, since ancient times, there is a custom of "eating glutinous and beating teeth sacrifice", that is, on the day of the great cold, you must eat some food made of glutinous rice, such as glutinous rice, rice cakes, rice cakes, rice dumplings, etc.; in addition, you must also eat a beautiful meal, a pot of stewed chicken and a bowl of chicken soup, which is both warm stomach and heart.
03
Great Cold Weather
"Big cold, big cold, windproof and cold." At this time, the weather is extremely cold, it is the high incidence of influenza, remember to dress warmly, prevent colds, proper exercise to warm up, healthy and healthy to welcome the New Year.
Big Chill Whispers
"The End of the Cold, It's Spring"
The solar terms, as if they were some kind of convention and ritual between heaven and man, remind people at a fixed time of what to do and what to do. People can also find the fulcrum of time in the years and year after year, and observe the changes of the four seasons.
"Spring rain shocks the spring valley days, summer is full of mango and summer and summer are connected, autumn dew and autumn frost falls, winter snow and snow are small and cold in winter." Great Cold, the last stop of the twenty-four solar cycles, "year-end chapter, here is reincarnation." ”
At such times, people are always prone to trance: originally, has it been another year? After a short trance, it was a great realization: at the end of the cold, isn't it spring?
Since this is the case, there is no need to be saddened by the years that have passed, as the poet said, "The peach and plum hawthorn that is left out in the garden and on the side of the road will also be the noisy spring flowers of next year." ”
What really matters is that you have not lived up to the four seasons of the past year: you remember how the spring water is gentle, how the summer cicadas are chirping, how the autumn leaves are falling, how the winter snow is spread...
What really matters is that even if you have regrets in the years and your ideals have not been reached, you can look back with a clear conscience, and you have the courage to start again at the next spring.
What really matters is to find some invariance in the changing time, to find some long-term, almost confessional companionship in the comings and goings of people.
As you do in Night Reading. May the Night Reading be the same for you.
Thank you for accompanying "Night Reading" to every one of you today. Time with you is more like time than any other time.