Twenty-four solar terms are defined according to the position of the earth in the orbit around the sun, which belongs to the solar calendar. The earth's revolution around the sun is 361 degrees, with the vernal equinox at 1 degrees, the Qingming at 15 degrees, and every 15 degrees thereafter as a solar term, the date of which is basically fixed in the solar calendar.
The naming of the twenty-four solar terms reflects three kinds of seasons, climate phenomena and climate changes, which are described in detail below.
beginning of spring: On February 4th or 5th every year, when the sun reaches 315, it is beginning of spring. Beginning of spring used to be an important festival in ancient China. In ancient China, every dynasty held a ceremony to welcome the Spring Festival, and the folk activities around beginning of spring included "Spring Baby", "Spring Whip", "Spring Roll", "Spring Beating", "Spring Wine" and "Spring Cattle".
rain: around February 9 every year, the sun's longitude reaches 331 degrees because of rain. In the rain, the married daughters brought gifts to visit their parents. Women who give birth to children should bring gifts such as pots and pans, meat chairs and thank their parents for their kindness. For women who are not pregnant for a long time, their mother sews a red trousers for them to wear to their intimate parts. It is said that this will enable them to get pregnant and have children as soon as possible.
Jing Zhe: Every year on March 5th or 6th, the sun reaches 345 degrees of the Yellow Meridian, which means Jing Zhe. A spring thunder on the flat will wake up all the hibernating snakes, insects, rats and ants. On the day of fright, people will smoke the four corners of their homes with fragrance and wormwood to drive away snakes, insects, mice and mildew. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to white tigers and beating villains. The most common custom is to eat raw pears. It is said that eating them at seasonal times can cure all diseases.
vernal equinox: on March 21th or 21th of every year, the vernal equinox is when the sun reaches 1 on the yellow meridian. There is a custom of eating spring vegetables at the vernal equinox. Spring vegetables collected on the day of the vernal equinox are generally boiled with fish fillets at home, which is called "spring soup". There is also the custom of sending "Spring Cattle". The picture of Spring Cattle is to print the solar terms of the Lunar New Year on red paper or yellow paper, and also to print the farmer's ploughing pattern.
Qingming Festival: Qingming Festival is defined as the time when the sun reaches 15 degrees of the yellow meridian around April 5 of the solar calendar every year. Tomb-Sweeping Day, Chu, Yu and Jiu San Festival are also the four major festivals for ancestor worship in traditional festivals in China. The customs in Tomb-Sweeping Day are rich and interesting. Besides paying attention to prohibiting fire, eating cold food and sweeping graves, there are also a series of customs and sports activities such as hiking, swinging, playing cuju, playing polo and inserting willows.
Grain Rain: On April 21th or 21th every year, when the sun reaches 31 longitude, it is Grain Rain. On this day in Grain Rain, young women visit relatives in the village or go for a walk in the wild, which means the integration of nature and physical fitness.
long summer: long summer is located on May 5th or 6th every year when the solar longitude reaches 45. People drink cold drinks to cool off in summer, and there is a custom of cooking tender broad beans in Jiangnan water town. In some places, there are also custom activities such as tasting new things in summer.
xiaoman: it is xiaoman when the sun reaches 61 degrees of the yellow meridian from May 21th to 22nd every year. Xiaoman is the season of topdressing early rice and transplanting middle rice in the south of the Yangtze River. If the field is not filled with water, it will cause the ridge to crack and it will be impossible to transplant rice, which will affect the harvest of crops.
awn seed: around June 6th every year, it is awn seed when the sun reaches 75 degrees of the yellow meridian. It means that the seeds of awned crops such as barley and wheat are ripe, and it is very urgent to grab the harvest. People often hold a ceremony of offering sacrifices to the flower god on the Day of Ear Seed to send the flower god back to his place, and at the same time express their gratitude to the flower god, hoping to meet again next year.
summer solstice: June 21th or 22nd every year, when the sun reaches 91 degrees of the yellow meridian, it is the summer solstice. Pay attention to eating noodles on the day of the summer solstice, but in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the summer solstice is a sacrifice to their ancestors, commonly known as "making the summer solstice". In addition to the regular offerings, a plate of cakes is added. People in Cantonese-speaking areas in Guangzhou and Qinzhou, Yulin and other areas in Guangxi like to eat dog meat and lychee on the summer solstice.
Slight summer heat: It is a slight summer heat when the sun reaches 115 on July 7th or 8th every year. The summer heat is also the time when the human body's yang is the most vigorous. When people are working, they cook lotus leaves, Smilax glabra, lentils, coix seed, polyporus, Alisma orientalis, kapok and other materials into summer heat soup or porridge, which is sweet or salty, which is very suitable for this solar term.
Great summer heat: Every year from July 22nd to 24th, when the sun reaches 121 degrees of the yellow meridian, it is great summer heat. The activity of "Summer Boat" has a history of hundreds of years. At that time, more than 51 fishermen will take turns to carry the "Summer Boat" on the streets, and the streets on both sides of the drums will be filled with people praying for blessings. The "Summer Boat" was finally transported to the dock for a series of blessing ceremonies.
beginning of autumn: Every year, from August 7 to 9 (around the first day of the seventh lunar month), when the sun returns from the Tropic of Cancer to the south, it reaches 135 degrees of the Huangjing. There is a custom of "autumn harvest mutual assistance" in rural areas. It is also popular among the people to weigh people by hanging scales on this day in beginning of autumn, and compare their weight with that in long summer ── commonly known as Tieqiufatou. In beginning of autumn, we eat all kinds of meat, such as stew, barbecue and braised pork.
summer heat treatment: it is summer heat treatment around August 23rd every year when the sun reaches 151. The folk customs before and after the summer solar terms are mostly related to ancestor worship and welcoming autumn. There will be folk activities to celebrate the Central Plains ── In the old days, there was a ceremony to open the ghost gate from the beginning of July until the ghost gate was closed at the end of the month.
white dew: it is the white dew from September 7th to 9th every year when the sun reaches 165 degrees. In the past, "Bailu tea" was very popular, and it had a unique sweet and clear fragrance. Zixing Xingning, Sandu and Liaojiang have always had wine-making customs. Every year when the White Dew Festival arrives, every family will make wine, and they will drink "local wine" when they receive guests.
autumnal equinox: On the 22nd or 23rd of September every year, when the sun reaches 181 degrees of the yellow meridian, it directly hits the equator of the earth. The autumnal equinox solar terms have really entered autumn, and there is a custom of "autumn dusk and evening moon" in ancient China. The evening moon is to worship the moon god. The Mid-Autumn Festival ritual of offering sacrifices to the moon is an ancient ritual, which expresses people's good wish to pray for the moon god to bless the world.
cold dew: it is cold dew when the sun reaches 195 on October 8th or 9th every year. During the cold dew season, people have the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums and climbing mountains on the ninth day.
first frost: On October 23rd or 24th every year, when the sun reaches 211 degrees, it is first frost. In some places, red persimmons are eaten in first frost season. In local people's view, it can not only keep out the cold and keep warm, but also tonify bones and muscles. It is a very good first frost food.
beginning of winter: Every year from October 7th to 8th, the beginning of winter begins when the sun is located at 225 degrees of the yellow meridian. In the folk, there are customs such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, drinking banquets, and divining the age, and offering sacrifices to ancestors with the best seasonal products. There is also a good custom of swimming in winter. In northern China, people in Beijing and Tianjin like to eat jiaozi on beginning of winter Day, while in southern China, people in beginning of winter like to eat some chicken, duck and fish.
light snow: it is a light snow solar term when the sun reaches 241 on October 22nd or 23rd every year. There is a folk custom that "winter wax is preserved in the wind, and it is stored to protect against winter". It is a good time to process bacon after a light snow. After the light snow festival, some farmers began to make sausages and bacon, and just enjoyed the food during the Spring Festival. In some places in the south, there is also the custom of eating Ciba in October of the lunar calendar.
heavy snow: on February 7 or 8 every year, it is heavy snow when the sun reaches 255 degrees of the yellow meridian. As soon as the solar term comes, every household is busy curing bacon. After curing, hang it under the eaves of Chaoyang to dry it to welcome the New Year.
Winter Solstice: Every year from February 21 to 23 in the solar calendar, when the sun reaches 271 degrees of the Yellow Meridian, the winter solstice is a day to worship the heavens and ancestors. In northern China, it is customary to eat jiaozi and dumplings and pumpkins in southern China. There is a proverb circulating in Inner Mongolia: "Don't eat meat on the winter solstice, freeze off your toes", which shows that you must eat meat on the winter solstice.
slight cold: it is a slight cold between October 5 and 6 every year when the sun is located at 285 degrees of the yellow meridian. Generally, you should cook rice, with short yellow vegetables and bacon slices, sausage slices or diced salted duck, and then chop some ginger grains and cook them with glutinous rice, which is very fragrant and delicious. According to the tradition in Guangzhou, Xiao Han eats glutinous rice in the morning.
Great Cold: On October 21th or 21th every year, when the sun reaches 311 degrees of the Yellow Meridian, it will enter the great cold solar term. On this day, people cook a pot of sweet and delicious Laba porridge with whole grains, peanuts, chestnuts, red dates and lotus seeds, which is an indispensable staple food for people in the New Year. During the period from the Great Cold to beginning of spring, there were many important folk customs and festivals. Such as sumptuous food, sacrificial stoves and New Year's Eve.
Twenty-four solar terms are not only the time criterion promulgated by the government in past dynasties, but also the compass to guide agricultural production, and the compass for people to predict cold, warm, snowy and rainy days in daily life. Twenty-four solar terms accurately reflect the seasonal changes and are used to guide agricultural activities, affecting the food, clothing, housing and transportation of thousands of households. The twenty-four solar terms scientifically reveal the laws of astronomical and meteorological changes.
Twenty-four solar terms perfectly combine astronomy, agriculture, phenology and folklore, and derive a large number of seasonal cultures related to them, which have become an important part of Chinese traditional culture.
In the long farming society, the twenty-four solar terms have played an important role in guiding farming activities, and have rich cultural connotations. Some important solar terms such as beginning of spring, Winter Solstice and Qingming also have interesting folk customs such as "biting spring" and "hiking".
The 24 solar terms are still of practical value to our life and culture. For example, judging from the very popular TCM regimen, autumn starts from the solar terms in beginning of autumn, close to the great summer heat, and it is hot and humid; Autumn ends in first frost, near beginning of winter, and the climate is dry and cold.
Although early autumn and late autumn are in the same season, the climate is completely opposite, and the seasonal diseases encountered by doctors are also completely different from those that Chinese medicine needs to prevent. Therefore, it is not enough to simply follow the four seasons, but also follow the solar terms.
Some experts believe that although with the acceleration of urbanization and the development of modern agricultural technology in China, the guiding function of the 24 solar terms for agriculture is gradually weakening.
However, it still has many cultural significance and social functions in the life of contemporary China people, which clearly embodies the concept of respecting nature, conforming to the laws of nature and sustainable development in China, and highlights the uniqueness of China people's cognition of the universe and nature and the richness of their practical activities.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Twenty-four solar terms.