Summer welcoming ceremony

The word "summer" in "long summer" means "big", which means that the plants sown in spring have grown upright. In ancient times, people attached great importance to the customs and habits of long summer.

On the long summer day, the ancient emperor would lead officials to the southern suburbs of Beijing to welcome the summer and hold a ceremony to welcome the summer. The monarch and his subjects all wear scarlet ceremonial costumes and jade ornaments, and even horses and car flags should be scarlet to express their prayers and good wishes for a bumper harvest. In the imperial court, "open the ice in summer and give it to the civil and military ministers." Ice was stored last winter and given to officials by the emperor.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, people are sad and cherish spring because of the bright spring, so they prepare wine and vegetables for fun, as if they were giving people away, and call it Hunchun. In Fu, Cui Jian said: "Welcome to the summer is the first, and the spring is the last." Wu Outing's poem "Long Summer" also said: "There is no way to go in spring, and the cherry blossoms return in spring."

In the folk, people drink cold drinks to cool off in summer. In summer, there is a custom of boiling tender broad beans in Jiangnan water town. In some places, there is also the custom of calling people in summer.

Taste new activities

Later generations have a festival in summer, such as tasting new things. For example, there is a saying in Suzhou that "three creations are seen in the long summer", and the three creations are cherries, plums and wheat, which are used for ancestor worship. In Changshu, tasting new foods is more abundant, and there is a saying of "nine meats and thirteen vegetables". Nine meats are crucian carp, salted eggs, snails and quenching (that is, cooked with small fire; A cooking method comprises processing with various spices to make chicken, salted fresh, marinated shrimp and cherry meat; Thirteen elements include cherry, plum, wheat silkworm (new wheat is kneaded into thin strips and cooked), bamboo shoot, broad bean, spear tip, pea, cucumber, lettuce, grass head, radish, rose and pine flower. In Nantong, we eat boiled chicken and duck eggs.

Egg beating game

At noon that day, every household cooked the eggs (the eggs were cooked in shells and could not be damaged) and soaked them in cold water for a few minutes.

Colored eggs

After the clock, put on a woven silk bag and hang it around the child's neck. Children will play egg-beating games in groups of three or five. An egg has two heads, the pointed one is the head and the round one is the tail. When you beat eggs, the head of the egg hits the head of the egg and the tail of the egg hits the tail of the egg. Fight one by one, the loser gives up, and finally the high and low are separated. The winner of the egg head is the first, and the egg is king; The winner of the egg is the second place, and the egg is called Xiao Wang or Er Wang. As the saying goes, "an egg hangs on the chest in the long summer, and the child has no summer sickness." Summer sickness is a common anorexia, which can cause abdominal distension, fatigue and emaciation in summer, especially for children. Lunch is glutinous rice mixed with peas. There must be boiled eggs, whole bamboo shoots, peas with shells and other special dishes on the dining table. Eat double eggs and bamboo shoots in pairs, no matter how many peas. According to folklore, eating eggs in the long summer depends on the heart. Because eggs are shaped like a heart, people think that eating eggs can keep the spirit from losing money. It will be a hot summer after a long summer. In order not to lose weight in hot summer, Chang Xia should take supplements. With a thriving life, people's legs are as strong as bamboo shoots, and they can travel long distances by their legs. Peas with shells are shaped like eyes. Eye diseases were common in ancient times. In order to eliminate eye diseases, people pray that their eyes will be as clear as fresh peas for one year by eating peas.

The Weigher in Long Summer

Long summer "calls people"

There is a custom of weighing people after lunch in the long summer. People hang a big wooden scale at the entrance of the village or platform, and a stool is hung on the scale hook. Everyone takes turns to sit on the stool and weigh people. When weighing flowers, the caller said auspicious words. The old man will say, "weigh 87 and live to 91." The weighing girl said, "105 Jin, someone is looking for you outside." Unwilling, unwilling, unwilling, the son of the champion has a fate. " The weighbridge said, "When the weighbridge is over ten or twenty-three, the young official will grow up. Seven county officials should not be guilty, and three public officials and nine ministers should climb. " Weighing flowers can only be typed in (that is, from decimal to large number), but not outside. Legend has it that Zhuge Liang is related to the stories of Meng Huo and Liu Adou. It is said that after Meng Huo was surrendered to Shu by Zhuge Liang, he took orders from Zhuge Liang. On his deathbed, Zhuge Liang entrusted Meng Huo to visit the master of Shu once a year. Zhuge Liang instructed that day, which happened to be the long summer of this year. Meng Huo immediately went to worship Adou. Since then, every summer, Meng Huo has promised to visit Shu. A few years later, Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, destroyed Shu and took Adou away. Meng Huo did not forget the entrustment of the Prime Minister. Every year, Chang Xia led troops to Luoyang to visit Dou E, and every time he went, he weighed Dou E to verify whether Dou E was abused by Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty. He threatened to fight Kim if he mistreated Dou. In order to accommodate Meng Huo, every year in the long summer, Emperor Wu of Jin used glutinous rice and peas to make lunch for Adou. Dou saw that peas were glutinous and fragrant, and he ate them twice. Meng Huo weighed people in the city, weighing several kilograms more each time than the previous year. Although Adou has no skill, he has Meng Huo's reputation as a man in the long summer, and Emperor Wu of Jin did not dare to bully him, so he lived a quiet and happy life and lived a long and happy life. Although this legend is different from historical facts, what people want is a peaceful world of "peace and happiness, long life". People who weigh in the long summer will bring good luck to Adou, and people also pray to God to bring them good luck.

Solar term diet

Peas and glutinous rice

"Help" means support. There is a saying in Su Shi's "brew tea in the Pilot School" that "5,000 volumes need not be held in the stomach". Long summer is the beginning of summer. People in Shengzhou eat eggs and hearts in summer, bamboo shoots and legs, beans and eyes, and cannibalism. The purpose is to pray for the health of the body, heart, legs and other important parts, prevent diseases, and successfully spend the hot summer. In the old days, in rural areas, five-color beans such as red beans, soybeans, black beans, mung beans and mung beans were mixed with white rice and cooked into "five-color rice". Later, it evolved into glutinous rice cooked with Japanese bean meat. The dish consisted of amaranth and yellow croaker soup, which was called "long summer rice". Boiled eggs with black tea or walnut shells are called "long summer eggs" and fed to each other. Weave the egg cover with colored thread and hang it on the child's chest or curtain. Children play with long summer eggs, and the eggshell is strong but not broken to win. As the saying goes, "children don't suffer from summer if they have an egg hanging on their chest in summer." Summer onset is common abdominal distension, anorexia, fatigue and emaciation in summer, especially in children. Now there are five-color silk ropes for children, which are called "long summer ropes". On that day, it was a custom in Ningbo to eat "foot bone bamboo shoots", which were cooked with black bamboo shoots, each three or four inches long and not cut. When eating, choose two bamboo shoots with the same thickness and eat them in one bite, saying that eating them will make your feet and bones healthy (healthy). Then eat soft food (Junda food), saying that after eating it, there will be no rash in summer, and the skin will be as smooth as soft food.

Changxia folk custom

After the long summer, it is another hot summer. People eat some food in the long summer, usually hoping to pray for peace. For example, people in Shengzhou, Zhejiang believe that eating eggs with crutches (meaning "raising"), eating bamboo shoots with crutches, and eating peas with crutches in summer; People in Changsha, Hunan eat glutinous rice flour mixed with sage in summer, which is called "long summer soup". There is a folk saying that "eat long summer soup and learn from into the pit" and "eat a ball in long summer (pronounced" Tuo ") and cross the river with one foot", which means that he is extremely powerful and as light as a swallow; Farmers in the suburbs of Shanghai make strip-shaped food with wheat flour and sugar in summer, which is called "wheat silkworm". When people eat them, they can avoid "summer". People in Tongshan County, Hubei Province regard the long summer as an important festival. Chang Xia, a native of Tongshan, eats soaked strawberries, shrimps and bamboo shoots, which is called "eating soaked eyes, eating shrimps is strong, and eating bamboo shoots strengthens the feet and bones". Eating shrimp noodles in southern Fujian in the long summer is to buy shrimp and cook it in the noodles. Shrimp turns red when cooked, indicating good luck. Shrimp is homophonic with summer, which is a wish for summer.

Fujian snacks-Guangbing

East Fujian mainly eats "light cakes" (flour baked with a little salt) in the long summer. Zhouning, Fu 'an and other places in eastern Fujian soaked the light cake in water and made it into dishes, while Jiaocheng, Fuding and other places cut the light cake in half and ate fried bean sprouts, leeks, meat and waste vegetables. Some villages in Chunchi Town, zhouning county eat "long summer paste", which can be divided into rice paste and sweet potato paste. Cook the soup in a large pot. The content of soup is extremely rich, including meat, small bamboo shoots, wild vegetables, chicken and duck water, tofu and so on. Neighbors invited each other to drink paste soup. This is similar to the custom of eating "Qijia porridge" in the rural areas of eastern Zhejiang in the long summer. "Qijia porridge" and "Qijia tea" are another form of tasting new things in the long summer. Qijia porridge is a big pot of porridge, which is made of rice, beans and brown sugar from neighbors for everyone to share. Seven families brought white baked tea, mixed it, cooked it or soaked it into a big pot of tea, and then everyone got together to drink it. These porridge or tea are not necessarily delicious food, but these ceremonies can be said to be important social activities in rural society in the past. In the long summer, in the rural areas of eastern Zhejiang, there is a custom of eating "seven porridge", that is, farmers give each other beans and rice and cook a pot of porridge with yellow sugar, which is called "seven porridge". It is said that after eating this kind of porridge, the neighborhood is harmonious, and they are bent on going to Xia Geng for summer sowing.

Weigh sb.

The ancient poem goes: "Long summer is called a person, hanging beam laughs." The custom of "calling people" in the long summer is mainly popular in the south of China, which originated in the Three Kingdoms period. It is said that after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang sent his son Adou to Zhao Zilong and Jiangdong to be raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Wu Sunfu, who had already returned to her family. It was long summer, and Mrs. Sun called Adou in front of Zhao Zilong. The next year, Chang Xia called him again to see how much he had gained, and then wrote to Zhuge Liang to report, thus forming a custom introduced into the people. It is said that after weighing yourself on this day, you will not be afraid of the heat in summer, and you will not lose weight, otherwise you will be troubled by diseases. After eating the long summer meal, hang a big scale on the beam. Adults pull the scale hook with both hands and weigh with their feet suspended. Children sit on the laundry basket or stool with their feet down and weigh themselves by hanging them on the scale hook, which means that they can avoid summer by weighing themselves in the long summer. If you gain weight, it's called "gaining weight", and if you lose weight, it's called "eliminating meat". On that day, children should not sit on the stone steps. If you sit, you should sit on the seventh, so that all diseases can dissipate. Avoid sitting on the floor (threshold), which means that sitting on the floor on this day will lead to sore feet and bone pain in summer. If you sit on the first floor, you must sit on the sixth floor and synthesize seven numbers to solve the nightmare. In the old society, mothers chose this day to put on ears for girls, coaxed their children to eat tea eggs while putting them on, and then put on needles when the children opened their mouths to bite the eggs. Some people wear ears and red ropes for domestic cats. As early as ancient times, kings often went out of the city to welcome summer on the first day of summer, and the day to welcome summer was long summer.

In the summer custom in Shanghai, eggs are always eaten in summer, because this is the peak season, and children always hang an egg with a red net around their necks. In Shanghai, there is also a saying called "Long Xia Ji Festival", which is called "eating vegetables and trying to be precious". The custom (see above) is to eat pancakes made of taro and cauliflower in the long summer, and all men, women and children should be weighed at noon.

There is also a saying that it is forbidden to sit on the threshold in summer. In Anhui, it was recorded in the "Taihu County Records" in the tenth year of Daoguang: "It is said that in summer, bamboo shoots and amaranth are used as soup, and it is forbidden to sleep at the threshold during the day, which is also called worrying about summer fatigue." It is said that sitting on the threshold on this day will make you tired and sick in summer. In the 1930s, the Annals of Ningguo County recorded: "Long summer. Weighing the human body with scales to avoid diseases means that you are not afraid of summer. It is said that sitting on the threshold in the long summer will be depressed for a year. " Long summer, also known as the end of spring in ancient times, is generally a poet and a poet. It is inevitable to be sad when you are in love with spring. Spring sorrow enters poetry, invites friends to gather for drinks, and leaves many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation.

"The bucket refers to the southeast, and the dimension is long in summer. Everything grows here, hence the name Long Summer. " "The Book of Rites and the Moon Order" explains the saying of Chang Xia: "Insects come out, melons grow long, and bitter vegetables are obvious." It shows that the growth of all things is in a vigorous period at this time. "Introduction to Medicine" said: "The heart of flesh and blood is like nothing.

It is also true that the lotus blooms, lives under the lungs and lives on the liver. The heart of the gods ... dominates everything, and the ethereal is not ignorant. "So, so summer health should pay attention to the maintenance of the heart. Diet conditioning should be based on low fat, low salt, multi-dimensional and light. In such a dreamlike season, I recommend "Lycium barbarum clam loofah" for you.