Hanging eggs. Profile picture
□ all-media reporter of Sichuan Rural Daily
Liu Jia
"The little lotus has only shown its sharp horns, and there are dragonflies standing on its head." The famous sentence of the Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli depicts the scene where spring is about to end and the time sequence has not yet reached the height of summer, which echoes the Lixia festival.
From Taiyang to 45°, it is Lixia, which is the seventh solar term in the whole year, and Lichun, Liqiu, and Lidong are called "Four Li", marking the change of seasons.
As the beginning of summer, Lixia is also called "Spring End Day". Since ancient times, it has been believed that the establishment of summer means that the temperature has risen significantly, the heat is coming, and the thunderstorm is increasing, which is an important festival for crops to enter the vigorous growth. It is of great significance for production and life.
What does Lixia mean?
As early as the last year of the Warring States period, Lixia had been established. The "Almanac" has clouds: "Dou refers to the southeast, Wei is Lixia, and all things have grown up here, so the name Lixia is also." ”
It is a festival of all things being beautiful and full of life. According to meteorological standards, the average daily temperature is stable above 22 °C, which is the beginning of summer. Although the temperature has begun to rise significantly, the temperature difference between different regions and day and night is large, so many areas are still in the mid-spring or late spring season of "all kinds of red and purple dou fangfei", and the average temperature is around 18 °C to 20 °C.
Lixia has three waits, one waits for the grasshopper to sing, the second waits for the earthworm to come out, and the third waits for the king to be born. This means that during this festival, the sound of grasshoppers in the field can first be heard, and then earthworms can be seen digging the soil on the ground, and then the vines of the king melon begin to climb and grow rapidly. This shows that due to the increase in temperature and precipitation after summer, it is suitable for the sowing and growth of crops, and the field work is becoming increasingly busy. The agricultural proverb "planting sweet potatoes before and after lixia" and "planting rice and sesame seeds in lixia"... For a long time, the annual summer festival arrives around the beginning of May, which is an important period of spring production of the year.
In ancient times, folk often predicted the harvest with the clouds and sunshine of the summer, believing that the rain in the summer heralded the good growth of crops. Therefore, there are folk proverbs such as "The summer is not down, the drought is until the wheat is gone", "the summer does not rain, the plough rake is hung high" and so on. This season coincides with the transition of spring and summer, the summer harvest crops have entered the late stage of growth, the winter wheat is flowered and grouted, and the rapeseed is close to maturity, which is the time node of the basic finalization of the summer harvest crop. At the same time, rice planting and other spring sowing crop management has also entered a busy season, and how the autumn harvest crops grow is also closely related to this season, so there is a saying of "standing in summer and watching summer".
Because of its extensive involvement in agricultural affairs, since ancient times, there have been many customs about Lixia in various parts of the mainland.
Since the summer symbolizes the beginning of summer, everything grows into a prosperous season. Therefore, the ancient emperors, who took agriculture as the foundation of the country, would hold a grand summer ceremony to pray for the wind and rain to be smooth. During the ceremony, the king would also give ice cubes to the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs to cope with the hot summer days that followed.
In the folk, many places on the mainland have the custom of eating eggs, fighting eggs and hanging eggs on this day. There is a saying that "lixia chest hangs eggs, children do not have summer". What is "Summer Fever"? Refers to the symptoms of bloating and anorexia, fatigue and low-grade fever caused by summer heat, and children and the weak are especially prone to boiling in summer. To this end, people often boil eggs on the day of summer and give them to children to eat to replenish their physical strength; alternatively, the boiled eggs are kept intact in a silk bag and hung on the child's chest, and the children hang the eggs and play egg fighting games to avoid the summer.
Lixia also has the custom of "calling people". Since the summer means that the hot weather is gradually coming, every summer, people are prone to weight loss and emaciation. Yes, the folk also spread the custom of weighing on the day of the summer, and the Qing Jia Lu said: "Every household weighs the weight of the people with great weight, and it is also called on the autumn day of the establishment, in order to test the fertility in the summer." ”
In addition, some places on the mainland also have the custom of "living in summer". That is, in the old days, daughters had to return to their mother's house on the first summer day after marriage; in some places, daughters would even live until the Dragon Boat Festival, hoping to have early birth and early childbearing. In some places, the "Rice Worship Festival" is held around the time of the summer, in which farmers kill chickens in the fields to worship the seedlings in order to ensure that the seedlings can thrive...
What should Lixia do?
With the rise of temperature and the arrival of Lixia, people are also quite particular about agricultural affairs and health care.
Before and after the summer, the temperature rises quickly, but the precipitation in many places has not kept up, coupled with the windy spring, the water is easy to evaporate, so there is often an early drought at the time of the spring and summer, which has a great impact on crop growth.
Farmers who are familiar with agricultural operations also know that the dry weather before and after the ripening of wheat filling milk is easy to aggravate the grains of wheat, so it is necessary to irrigate at the right time. At the same time, the spring is the critical period for rice planting, so it should be strongly managed, early fertilization, early field cultivation, early treatment of diseases and insects, and promote crop growth. In addition, due to the suitable climate, after the summer, weed growth also entered a vigorous period. The agricultural proverb has clouds "one day without hoeing grass, three days can not be hoeed", so it should be "lixia three dynasties hoe everywhere", through more hoeing, while removing weeds, loosen the soil, so that crops have a better growth environment.
After the arrival of Lixia, respecting health is also of great benefit to health.
Chinese medicine pays attention to "summer yang qi", after the summer, the day is long and the night is short, people's physical and mental consumption will increase, easy to get tired and sleepy, so it is necessary to adjust the way of living and the rhythm of life in time, and promote light, less greasy and spicy in the diet.
So what exactly to eat? There is a way to "not eat from time to time", the seasonal gift of Lixia, and the expensive is "trying new".
Since the Ming Dynasty, there has been a custom in Jiangsu and other places, that is, "Lixia sees three new", which refers to people offering fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables to ancestors, gods, or ordinary people to "taste the new". What is "three new" refers to cherries, plums and wheat. Cherries are the first wave of gifts in summer. Green plums, representing the green and sour of early summer. Wheat has the function of nourishing the heart and strengthening the spleen. Gu Lu's "Qing Jia Lu" records the customs of Suzhou: "On the summer day, the family set up cherries, fragrant plums, and yuan wheat for the gods to enjoy first." ”
In Zhejiang and Jiangxi, there is a custom of drinking tea in Lixia, and on this day, people gather seven tea leaves and cook them together to ensure that they will not be sleepy throughout the summer.
In Sichuan, Lixia has the custom of eating bamboo shoots and peas. In late spring and early summer, bamboo shoots are listed in large quantities, and folk believe that eating bamboo shoots is "foot bone health", which is beneficial to strengthening the body. Eating peas is to hope that the eyes can be as clear as peas, no disease and no disaster.
In addition, in the old days of summer, the countryside used to mix five-colored beans such as red beans, soybeans, green beans, mung beans and white japonica rice to cook "five-color rice", as a "summer rice", which means abundant grain and good health.
At present, Lixia Health is more simple and clear in terms of diet. Should eat light, less greasy food, including porridge, soup and other easily digestible foods, as well as fresh vegetables, fruits and coarse grains; pay attention to the heart, drink more milk, eat more chicken, lean meat, promote low-fat less salt, more vitamins, in order to seek dietary balance.
【Source: Sichuan Rural Daily】