Editor 's note: Folk customs related to festivals and solar terms have been passed down for thousands of years and contain the wisdom and culture of ancestors. In modern society, we are drifting farther and farther from traditional folk customs, but at a certain moment, we will still be amazed by the names of the twenty-four solar terms such as Qingming and Grain Rain, and will be moved by the Lantern Festival's "flower market lights like day", and will be in the Spring Festival. and the Mid-Autumn Festival from a distant hometown to the hometown. Folklore is the memory that belongs to the Chinese people flowing in the blood.
The Paper, in cooperation with the Folklore Institute of East China Normal University, has launched a traditional folk festival column to introduce those festivals that are very important in traditional Chinese culture and related folk customs. These folk customs have not disappeared and are still in our daily life.

On May 1, 2022, a squirrel was eating at the National Botanical Garden in Beijing. Visual China

The "May Day" holiday has passed, and the temperature has picked up. On May 5, we also ushered in the first solar term of summer in the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms": Lixia.
Lixia is after Guyu and before Xiaoman, and the time is around May 5th or May 6th every year. This solar term has been officially established as early as the Warring States Period, representing the end of spring and the arrival of summer.
"The Seventy-two Hours of the Moon Order" divides the fifteen days of the Lixia solar term into "three phases": the first phase is the sing of the grasshoppers; the second phase is the emergence of earthworms; the third phase is the birth of the king melon. "Book of Rites, Yue Ling mentioned Lixia and said: "The grasshoppers sing, the earthworms come out, the king melons grow, and the bitter vegetables show."
The grasshopper is a species of frogs. As soon as the beginning of summer and the weather turns hot, you can vaguely hear the chirping of the grasshopper in the fields; the temperature rises, and earthworms are also active, busy loosening the soil in the fields; The vines of the melon begin to climb and grow rapidly, and it will not be long before they can be ripe for picking; the wild vegetables in the countryside are also scrambling to be unearthed and growing day by day.

Daohuaxiang Visual China Data Map

These three phenologies reflect that in the early summer, many animals became active, and plants also entered a period of vigorous growth and reproduction. It can be said that "everything flourishes", which are inseparable from the climatic conditions at this time. Beginning of summer is the beginning of summer, with longer sunshine hours and higher temperatures.
"Put more seedlings in the beginning of summer, and the millet will be full of grains." Before and after the beginning of summer, the temperature conditions are the most suitable for transplanting rice seedlings. The north and south of the river have entered the busy season of early rice transplanting. At this time, tea farmers are also entering the busiest season of the year. "The Grain Rain is seldom picked, but it will not stop in the beginning of summer." Quick, if you don't pay attention to the tea leaves, they will mature and age. In order to pick more fresh and delicious tea leaves, it is necessary to seize the time before and after the beginning of summer to harvest tea leaves in batches.
Now Lixia is just a "solar term" in many places, but in ancient times, even now in some areas where traditional culture is well preserved, Lixia is still an important festival.
"'Eating eggs in Lixia' is an important food custom in Lixia, and it can be found in many places," said You Hongxia, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Folklore at East China Normal University's School of Social Development. Early in the morning of Lixia, every household began to cook Lixia eggs. People will also use colored threads to weave egg sets, put boiled Lixia eggs in them, and hang them on the chests of children. Children will also play the game of "Fighting Eggs", which is full of childlike fun.

Lixia Easter Egg Visual China Data Map

There are different opinions about the reasons for eating eggs, but the general meaning is similar. You Hongxia introduced that maybe the shape of the egg is like a heart, and everyone thinks that eating hard boiled eggs can make the heart, energy and spirit not suffer. There are also people who think that the weather gradually becomes hot after the beginning of summer, and the boiled eggs that have been peeled off the shell are left unripe, and if you eat a little, the human skin will be so smooth that no boils will appear in the future. "In short, eating eggs during the beginning of summer is good for your health. of."
"Lixia Weighing" is also a distinctive custom of this solar term. "Lixia Weighing" is also called "Scale Man". People believe that Lixia "Scale Man" will bring blessings, so in the process of "Weighing Man", the weight of the report is also important. "Under normal circumstances, it is necessary to make every nine to ten, and there are certain rules for discussing the weight of women and children. Weigh the children, and sometimes put a stone in the basket to increase the weight. When weighing, weigh the weight. You can only hang on the outside, move inward with 'no pleasure', and report the number with a 'ten' every ninth, which is auspicious.
During the beginning of summer, people still have the habit of eating bamboo shoots. "Everyone hopes that their legs are as strong and strong as spring bamboo shoots, and they can travel long distances and travel thousands of miles." On that day, Ningbo custom to eat "foot bone bamboo shoots", boiled with black bamboo shoots, each three or four inches long, not cut open, When eating, you should pick two bamboo shoots of the same thickness and eat them in one bite.
At this time, it is also the season of peas and broad beans. Shelled peas and broad beans are shaped like eyes. In order to eliminate eye diseases, people eat peas and broad beans to pray that their eyes will be as clear as fresh peas and broad beans in a year, free from diseases and disasters. .
"In the beginning of summer in the south of the Yangtze River, there is a custom of drinking 'Qijia tea' and eating 'Qijia porridge'," said Fang Yun, a lecturer at Shanghai University's School of International Education and a Ph.D. in folklore.
Tian Rucheng of the Ming Dynasty recorded in his "West Lake Tour Zhiyu·Xi Dynasty Leisure": "On the day of the beginning of summer, everyone cooks new tea with various kinds of fine fruits and feeds them to relatives and neighbors, which is called Qijia tea.
The seven in "Qijia Tea" refers to the general meaning, and the sound is close to "eat". "It means to take different tea ingredients shared by the neighbors, and then the neighbors invite each other to taste and drink tea together, so that the neighbors can be harmonious and happy."
In addition, there is a poem in Jiangnan: "Spring plum and summer cakes and cherries, bacon and anchovies and black rice cakes. Amaranth, sea and salted duck eggs, roasted goose and broad beans with wine and glutinous rice." The twelve kinds of food described here are all fresh and fresh in the beginning of summer in the south of the Yangtze River. Seasonal food. Neighbors will give each other a variety of fresh ingredients, and collectively cook "seven family porridge" with their own rice, beans and grains, and share them together.
Fang Yun feels that now in the urban steel forest, there is less and less communication between neighbors. "But during the epidemic, Shanghai communities sent vegetables to each other, and they got to know each other a lot, and the neighbors helped each other. The meaning of "jiacha" and "seven family porridge"."