Traditional Chinese characters in the long summer
Long summer is the seventh solar term among the twenty-four solar terms and the first solar term in summer. The festival is held on May 5-7 of the Gregorian calendar every year. At this time, the bucket handle of the Big Dipper points to the southeast, and the longitude of the sun reaches 45. Almanac: "Dou refers to the southeast, Wei is the long summer, and everything has grown up since then, so it is named long summer." After the long summer, the sunshine increased, gradually warming, and thunderstorms increased. Long summer is an important solar term, marking the peak season for the growth of all things. In the long summer, everything is thriving.
Long summer custom:
1, Welcome to Summer In agricultural proverbs, there is a saying that "see summer in the long summer", which means that the crops to be harvested in summer have entered the late growth stage, and the basic overall situation has been set, so you can see the harvest in the long summer on this day.
In ancient times, China, as an agricultural society, attached great importance to the solar terms in the long summer. In the long summer, every day the monarch and ministers put on a scarlet dress decorated with Yu Pei, a horse and a car flag. Under the leadership of the emperor, they will go down to the southern suburbs of Beijing to hold a summer welcoming ceremony to express their prayers and expectations for a bumper harvest. After the ceremony, many officials will be appointed to rush to various places to encourage farmers to pay close attention to farming and exchange their efforts and labor for a bumper harvest year, so that people can also eat and wear warm clothes.
In the Ming Dynasty, in the long summer, the emperor would also send a spiritual officer in charge of ice policy to dig out the ice stored last winter from the cellar and divide the large ice into small pieces, then the emperor would distribute it to officials, and the people would drink cold drinks to cool down.
2. Eat long summer rice. Every long summer, every household in some areas will cook a pot of "long summer rice", which is regarded as the eating custom of long summer. Traditional long summer rice will choose red beans, mung beans, soybeans, black beans and mung beans. These five colors of beans and rice are mixed together and steamed in a pot for cooked food.
Long summer rice is also called "five-color rice". More and more people will use bamboo shoots, peas, broad beans, carrots, bacon or sausages instead of four-color beans to make long summer rice, which is nutritious, salty and delicious.
Long summer not only eats eggs, but also hangs eggs. Hanging eggs is a bag made of colorful woven bags or wool, and boiled eggs are placed in it and hung on his chest. Nowadays, there are more and more styles of hanging bags, which are generally available on the market or online.
According to legend, Nu Wa Niangniang told the people that in the long summer, the cooked chicken, duck and goose eggs were hung on the children's chests every year to escape the heat. As the saying goes, "if you eat eggs in long summer, it will not be summer in hot weather", so you will hang cooked chicken, duck and goose eggs on your children in long summer, which means health and safety, all the best and good luck.
4. weigh yourself. Chang Xia said that the custom of weighing came from the Three Kingdoms period. It is said that after I weighed myself that day, I was not afraid of the heat in summer, and I lost weight.
Adults will prepare a large wooden scale in advance and choose a laundry basket or stool from the hook. Old people and children will sit on stools or stand in laundry baskets, record their weight on the weighing scale, and then weigh it again at the end of summer for comparison. Weight gain is called "gaining weight" and weight loss is called "reducing meat".
5, avoid sitting on the threshold. On this day of long summer, the ancients thought that you can't just sit on the threshold. It is said that sitting on the threshold in summer will make you tired all summer, and people will get sick easily. Therefore, for the sake of their own health, many people will not sit on the threshold.
6. Eat black bamboo shoots. In Sichuan, there is a custom of eating black bamboo shoots in the long summer. The so-called "black bamboo shoots" are actually slender bamboo shoots that locals eat on this day. You can choose a suitable cooking method according to your own preferences. As for why you want to eat, I still hope my legs can be as hard and strong as bamboo shoots, so it is easier to climb the mountain. Of course, the temperature has gradually increased since the long summer, so it will be difficult to eat later.