At 20:26 on May 5, the first solar term of summer was ushered in.
"The bucket refers to the southeast, the maintenance is Lixia, and all things have grown up here, so the name Lixia is also."
Lixia is the first solar term of summer, indicating the official beginning of the Mengxia season.
When the summer comes, the wind is warm and the day is long, and everything grows.
As the sun and rain increase, the temperature gradually rises, and crops and various green plants begin to thrive.
At this time, most of the mountain scenery and wild things are beautiful and edible.
Northern locust flowers bloom, can be appreciated and eaten;
Southern cherries are newly ripe, bamboo shoots are not old,
They are seasonal ingredients that amaze your taste buds.
"And returning the cherry shoots to spring" and sending spring and summer with delicious food to nourish the body and mind are the traditional customs of many places in the country.
Most of the north has the custom of making and eating pasta to celebrate the wheat harvest.
Southern Lixia has the custom of eating "Lixia eggs" and "fighting eggs", which means to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings, cool off the heat and get rid of diseases.
Lixia in the rural areas of eastern Zhejiang has the custom of eating "seven family porridge", saying that after eating this kind of porridge, the neighbors are harmonious and dedicated to summer cultivation and summer planting.
In southern Fujian, lixia eats shrimp noodles, that is, buys sea shrimp mixed with noodles to cook, and the sea shrimp becomes red after cooking, which is an auspicious color, and shrimp and summer harmony, as a wish for summer.
In the Jiangnan region, there is a custom of tasting the "three new" in Lixia. It can be said that "if there is no idle business to worry about, it is a good season in the world".
Participate in the topic #Lixia Today#,
Talk about the summer food you're most looking forward to.
#立夏 has arrived
Wind warms the day and everything grows
Let's embrace the summer of 2022 together
Two or three Lixia trivia: solar terms and customs
Summer ceremony
Summer Welcoming Ceremony The "summer" of "Lixia" means "big", which means that the plants sown in the spring have grown upright. In ancient times, people attached great importance to the etiquette of Lixia.
On the day of the establishment of the summer, the ancient emperors would lead hundreds of officials to the southern suburbs of the capital to greet the summer and hold a summer ceremony. All the monarchs wore vermilion dresses with vermilion jade pendants, and even horses and flags were scarlet to express their prayers for a good harvest and good wishes. In the court, "the summer day is opened to ice, and the minister of culture and martial arts is given." Ice was stored last winter and given to hundreds of officials by the emperor.
Try new activities
In later life, Lixia also has festivals such as tasting new things. For example, Suzhou has the proverb of "Lixia sees three new", and the three new are cherries, green plums, and wheat, which are used to worship the ancestors. In Changshu, try new foods are more hearty, there is a "nine meat and thirteen vegetarian" saying, nine meat for crucian carp, salted eggs, snails, extinguished (that is, simmered on a low fire; a cooking method, processed with a variety of spices to become chicken) chicken, pickled, marinated shrimp, cherry meat; thirteen elements include cherries, plums, wheat silkworms (new wheat kneaded into thin strips cooked), bamboo shoots, broad beans, spear needles, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, grass heads, radish, roses, pine blossoms. In Nantong, boiled chicken and duck eggs are eaten.
Fighting Egg Games
"Lixia egg, thrown all over the street", egg fighting is usually a game for small children. To use boiled eggs, it is generally boiled with white water with shells (eggshells cannot be broken), soaked in cold water, and then packed in a net pocket made of colored silk or velvet thread, so that the child can hang on the neck. The rules of egg fighting are quite simple, to put it bluntly, it is "harder than whose eggshell is hard": everyone holds an egg, the tip is the head, the circle is the tail, the egg head hits the egg head, the egg tail hits the egg tail, one by one bucket past, the bucket breaks the shell, concedes defeat, and then eats the egg, and the last one left behind is not broken, and is revered as the "egg king". As for why you want to fight eggs, the folk saying is: "LiXia chest hangs eggs, and the villain is difficult in summer.".
Li Xia Scale People
LiXia eats lunch and also has the custom of weighing people. People hung a large wooden scale at the entrance of the village or in the gate, and the scale hook hung a stool, and everyone took turns to sit on the stool to weigh people. The scale man weighs flowers on the one hand and speaks auspicious words on the other. The Lixia scales will bring blessings to Ah Dou, and people also pray to the heavens to bring them good luck.
Two or three miles Wang Ying