1, offering sacrifices to ancestors
The summer solstice is the harvest of wheat. Since ancient times, it has been a custom to celebrate the harvest and sacrifice ancestors at this time in order to pray for a good year. Therefore, the summer solstice, as a festival, was included in the ancient ritual of offering sacrifices to the gods. Nowadays, some places will hold a grand "Summer Wheat Festival" around the summer solstice, which is the remains of the ancient "Summer Festival" activities.
2, summer shelter
On the summer solstice, women give each other folding fans, powder and other things. "Fan" to generate wind; "Powder fat" is applied to disperse turbid gas caused by body heat and prevent prickly heat. In ancient times, in the imperial court, after the summer solstice, the royal family took out the ice that was "stored in winter and used in summer" to "avoid summer and shelter", and since the Zhou Dynasty, it has been used in successive dynasties and has become a system.
3. Eat "wheat dumplings" and "summer solstice cakes"
"Wujiang County Records" contains: "On the summer solstice, make wheat dumplings, and the sacrifice will be finished first, then pay for each other." Not only eat "wheat dumplings", but also give "wheat dumplings" as gifts to each other. Farmers also roll pancakes, bake them, add vegetables, pods, tofu and bacon, eat them after ancestor worship, or give them to relatives and friends, which is commonly called "summer solstice cake".
4, eat noodles on the summer solstice
Since ancient times, China folks have said "Winter Solstice Wonton and Summer Solstice Noodles" and "Eating Summer Solstice Noodles makes a day shorter". There are many kinds of noodles in the south, such as Yangchun noodles, dry soup noodles, shredded pork noodles, three fresh noodles, noodles with sesame oil and cold noodles, while noodles with gravy and Zhajiang Noodles are in the north. Because the new wheat on the summer solstice has appeared, eating noodles on the summer solstice also means tasting new things.
Phenomena of Summer Solstice
In some ancient literary works in China, the summer solstice was divided into three phases: the first phase was the stag's antlers' solution, which meant that the deer's horns were forward, so they belonged to Yang, and it was believed that the positive antlers began to fall off on the summer solstice, while Mi was a yin, so it fell off on the winter solstice (Mi and deer belonged to the same family, but the ancients thought that they belonged to Yin and Yang).
When cicadas begin to sing, it means that male cicadas will flap their wings and sing after the summer solstice. Pinellia ternata is born in the third season, which means that Pinellia ternata is a shade-loving herb, so it is named because it was born in a swamp or paddy field in midsummer. It can be seen that in the hot midsummer, some shade-loving creatures began to appear, while positive creatures began to decline.
People's Information-Summer Solstice Customs