How much do you know about the customs of the Great Cold: Take the ice and hide the ice "The Great Cold welcomes the New Year"

"Flowers and wood pipes are seasonal, and birdsong is reported to farmers." Time is rushing, and the great cold of the twenty-four solar terms has also arrived as promised.

The temperature is very low in the cold, and in the old days, people took ice and hid it for summer use. In addition, An Deming, deputy director of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and vice chairman of the China Folk Writers Association, said that the great cold is the last of the twenty-four solar terms, and it is close to the Lunar New Year, and there is also a saying of "big cold to welcome the New Year".

Get ready for the Lunar New Year

The big cold, like the small cold, is a solar term that indicates the degree of coldness of the weather. From the perspective of time, the great cold falls on January 20-21 of the Gregorian calendar every year.

The ancients divided the great cold into three seasons: "one waits for chicken milk; the second waits for birds to be sick; and the third waits for water and zee belly." "That is to say, the temperature is very low during the cold, and the ice can be frozen all the way to the center of the water."

"When it is cold, it is usually the 'April 9' season. In ancient times, there was less agricultural work in winter, and people invented some games, such as the Nine-Nine Cold Map, etc., to kill time. Andremin said.

Among the above -- "cold-quenching maps", there are two more popular ones, namely dyeing plums and crosswords. For example, draw nine branches of cold plums on white paper, nine flowers per branch, one branch corresponds to one nine, one flower corresponds to one day, and one plum blossom is filled with a specific color according to the weather conditions every day.

In terms of diet, writer Liu Yida once said that the old Beijingers in memory like to eat ice persimmons and frozen sour pears before and after the cold, "and will also invite three or five relatives and friends to eat hot pot around the stove, with a different flavor."

The Great Cold is the last of the twenty-four solar terms, and it has always been said that "the Great Cold Greets the Year".

This solar term often coincides with the end of the year, and some folk customs during the period have more meaning of retiring the old and welcoming the new. During the cold season, families are busy preparing for the Lunar New Year – curing bacon, preparing new clothes.

"Some activities before the New Year, such as sweeping dust and pasting new year red, the time they appear coincide with the time period of the great cold. Its formation is not necessarily related to this festival, but it enriches the cultural content of the Great Cold. Andremin said.

Culture and common sense in the twenty-four solar terms

In the past, according to the traditional twenty-four solar terms, people rationally arranged production and life: "biting spring" in the spring, and also watching plum blossoms in the cold.

Some people believe that the twenty-four solar terms are a cultural technique for people to grasp the growth time of crops, observe the laws of animal activities, and understand the rhythm of human life.

In addition, the traditional Chinese twenty-four solar terms contain rich folk culture, life culture, health knowledge, and also reveal the philosophical wisdom of "the unity of nature and man", which requires respect for nature, which is still applicable today.

"The traditional concept of health care pays attention to the 'autumn harvest and winter storage', which also reminds people that when the cold season comes, it is necessary to conform to the laws of nature, especially in the winter, it is necessary to recuperate, and do not consume too much energy and physical strength." Andremin said.

He believes that with the development of the times and the adaptation of people's needs, some customs related to solar terms will be strengthened, and some will gradually fade. At the same time, from some indications, new customs may also slowly form and become more popular, "and people's acceptance of new customs is often from the recognition of festival cultural symbols such as the great cold." ”

(China News Network)