May 5 is the seventh of the traditional Chinese twenty-four solar terms, Lixia, and the first solar term of summer. At this time, the sun reaches 45° ecliptic longitude, so the sunshine time increases, gradually heats up, and thunderstorms increase.
"Lixia" represents the beginning and arrival of summer. The so-called "standing" is the meaning of the beginning, and in ancient times, in order to more accurately express the characteristics of the chronology, Lixia was divided into "closed", and lichun, liqiu and lidong were collectively called "four li". After the summer, it will officially enter the rainy season, and the abundant rainfall, sufficient light and suitable temperature in the summer contribute to the vigorous growth of many crops, which is the reflection of the weather changes of the seasons on the crops.
In the Yuan Dynasty Wu Cheng's "Explanation of the Seventy-Two Waiting Collections of the Moon Order", it is said: "Xia, false also, everything is false at this time. The Yi zhou Shu Shi Xun Xie has phenological accounts of the Lixia season of "grasshoppers singing", "earthworms out", and "Wang Guasheng"; there are proverbs such as "Mai Xiu wind shaking, rice Xiu rain pouring" and "Lixia sesame seeds small full of valleys", as well as poems such as "LiXia" and "Lixia Remembrance of the Brothers of the Beijing Master", which record the characteristics of the Lixia festival. Entering the summer festival, the grasshoppers greet the summer with noise, the earthworms help to turn over the soil, and the wild vegetables in the field thrive. The northern part of the mainland has just had the breath of spring, and the area south of the line from Fuzhou to Nanling has entered the summer of "green trees and thick summer days, and the reflection of the building platform into the pond".
"It rains in summer, and the grain is like rain." After entering the Summer Festival, the amount of rain and rainy days have increased significantly. If it rains on the summer day, there will be as many grains of grain as the rain, which means that the harvest of grain will be very good in the future. At the same time, "I can plant full moon seedlings, not full moon grass." "Before and after the summer is still the season of early rice planting in the north and south of the river, but due to the low temperature, it is still necessary to strengthen management and treat diseases and insects early after planting."
Lixia "scale people" custom
"Lixia weighs people lightly and heavily, and laughs and noise on the scale cantilever." In the Canton area, Lixia has the custom of "weighing people". Rao Yuan, a famous Guangfu cultural scholar, introduced that "Lixia Weighing" comes from the story of Zhuge Liang's Seven Captures of Meng in the Three Kingdoms. Folklore says that Meng Yue was accepted by Zhuge Liang, and before dying, he instructed Meng Yue to visit the lord once a year, and the day of the entrustment was exactly the summer of that year, and Meng Yu immediately went to worship Ah Dou. After the Return of the Three Kingdoms to Sima ( Sima ) , Meng Yu would visit Ah Dou every time he went to Lixia to see if he was fat or thin , whether Emperor Wu of Jin had bullied him, and so on. Therefore, the allusion of "Ah Dou weighing" was passed down to the people, and the common people also competed to imitate it. Since the Lixia scale people will bring blessings to Ah Dou, people also hope to pray for good luck from the heavens through Lixia weighing.
Lixia "egg fighting" custom
"Li Xia egg, throw it all over the street." On the day of Lixia, there will be a custom of "fighting eggs" in the folk. That is, everyone holds the egg, the tip is the head, the round is the tail, the egg head hits the egg head, the egg tail hits the egg tail, one after another to fight past, the eggshell is broken as a loss, and then the egg is eaten, and the last one left behind is respected as the "egg king". In addition, in jiangsu and Zhejiang, there is also the custom of "lixia and taste new". For example, suzhou has a proverb of "Lixia sees three new", "three new" is newly ripe cherries, green plums and wheat, on the day of Lixia people will take "three new" to worship the ancestors, and then taste.
"In the summer of March, this is called the show; the heavens and the earth are intertwined, and all things are magnificent." With the arrival of summer, people need to pay attention to the special care of the heart. You can conform to the characteristics of long days and short nights in summer, "go to bed late and get up early", and you can also take a nap to avoid fatigue and reduce a large amount of strenuous exercise. At the same time, lixia yang qi rises, and yin qi gradually weakens. In terms of diet, it is necessary to focus on a light diet, coarse fiber, and less greasy food, which can play a role in supplementing nutrition and strengthening the heart.
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[Reporter] Huang Kunyuan
【Intern】He Ruishi
【Author】 Huang Kunyuan
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client