Introduction: This year's Lixia is not ordinary, as the old saying goes, "Lixia is at the end of the month, widows don't have to worry", what does this mean?
"Forty-six days after the spring equinox and the beginning of summer, the beginning of summer is more in the month also", time flies so fast, on May 5, 2024 we will usher in the beginning of the summer solar term, the beginning of summer is the 7th solar term in the 24 solar terms in the mainland, and it is also the first solar term of summer, the arrival of the beginning of summer marks the official beginning of the Mengchun season, and everything begins to become lush.
Lixia this day in the mainland folk will hold a variety of "summer" ceremony, in the mainland folk there is the custom of Lixia "scale people", in ancient times people to fat to represent blessings, after entering the summer as the weather becomes hot, many people will have a loss of appetite, the body will inevitably become emaciated, so in the beginning of the summer everyone will take turns to sit on the stool to weigh people, in the scale people will also say some auspicious words, in order to pray for God's blessing, which reflects people's pursuit of a healthy life and the yearning for a better life. After people weigh themselves on the day of the beginning of summer, people will weigh people again in the beginning of autumn, and if the body is emaciated, it means that they have to "stick the autumn fat".
Agricultural proverb says "Lixia wheat grinning, can not lack water", "Lixia rain, like Xiucai in the lift", the beginning of the summer solar term wheat is in the filling period, the plant has a large demand for water, the rain is very conducive to the harvest of wheat; in addition, the rain in the beginning of the summer solar term is also conducive to the emergence of seeds and the vigorous growth of seedlings, which is also very helpful for the harvest of autumn grain, so the rain in the beginning of the summer solar term is a good thing for farmers.
The mainland is an ancient country with an agrarian civilization, and our ancestors have summed up rich experience in long-term labor production, which can guide us in agricultural production to a certain extent. There is an old saying in the rural areas of the mainland that "the beginning of summer is at the end of the month, and the widow does not have to worry." What does this sentence mean? Is the beginning of summer at the end of the month this year? Let's find out earlier.
The beginning of summer is at the end of the month, and the widow does not have to worry
The Gregorian calendar time of the Lixia Festival is from May 5th to 7th, when the sun reaches 45 degrees of ecliptic longitude, but due to the influence of the leap month of the lunar calendar, the length of the lunar calendar throughout the year is long and short, which will lead to a large difference in the lunar time corresponding to the Lixia Festival every year. In some years, the lunar time of the Lixia Festival is in the third month of the lunar calendar, and in some years, the corresponding lunar time of the Lixia Festival is in April (generally not more than April 15, and the time of the Lixia Festival will produce leap April if it exceeds the fifteenth day of April of the lunar calendar).
The "beginning of summer at the end" here refers to the lunar time of the beginning of the summer festival in late March. "The Seventy-two Candidate Explanations of the Lunar Order" records: "The beginning of summer, the April Festival. The word solution is spring. Summer, false also. Normally, Lixia is the solar term in April of the lunar calendar, if the time of the Lixia Festival is in March of the lunar calendar, then it belongs to the "early Lixia", where the "Lixia is at the end" is also the meaning of "early Lixia".
Widows are an absolutely vulnerable group in ancient times, they lose their husbands means the loss of the main breadwinner of the family and labor, lack of food and clothing is the most immediate problem they face, if they encounter a poor grain harvest year, then the widow's life will become worse, so the widow will be more hopeful for a good harvest. And "widows don't worry" here means that the grain harvest is relatively good, and widows don't have to worry about food and clothing.
"The beginning of summer at the end of the month" indicates that it is "early beginning of summer", indicating that the lunar time of the beginning of summer is relatively early, that is, the weather warms and warms up early, this weather is not only conducive to the maturity of wheat, but also conducive to the emergence and growth of spring-sown crops, which is very helpful for the harvest of grain. On the other hand, if the beginning of summer arrives late, it means that the weather becomes hot late, which will not only affect the maturity of wheat, but also lead to the reduction of yield of spring-sown crops due to insufficient growth temperature.
To sum up, as the old saying goes, "the beginning of summer is at the end of the month, the widow does not have to worry", which means that if the beginning of summer is in March, then it means that the grain is more tolerant of a bumper harvest, and the time of the beginning of summer this year is at the "end of the month", which is a good sign for people.
Of course, the mainland is vast, and the old saying has a strong regionality, so we can refer to the old saying appropriately. If we want to have a bumper harvest of grain crops, in addition to good weather conditions, we also need scientific planting and diligent management. I hope this year will be smooth and rainy, and the grains will be abundant!