2, in many places, on this day, people will use the newly harvested grain vegetables and fruits to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. According to historical records, this custom has a long history. Every day during the Zhou Dynasty, the King of Zhou personally led the civil and military officials to the southern suburbs of the capital city to welcome the summer, and held a grand ceremony to sacrifice to the Emperor Zhu Rong. Later on, this ceremony was inherited by successive rulers. The emperor wore Zhuyi when welcoming summer, and sacrificed raw meat, fresh fruits, grains and tea to the ancient emperor. After this custom spread to the people, there will be the summer tasting of new behavior. Because at this time the ground vegetables flourish, the forest fresh fruit ripe, is really a good time to taste the new. Nowadays, Jiangsu and Zhejiang still have "summer see three new" said, the so-called "three new" is to refer to the new ripe cherries, plums and wheat.
3, summer and the custom of cooking new tea, in fact, is an evolution of the traditional custom of tasting new. Such as in the Ming Dynasty, that is, households in the summer this day cooking new tea custom, together with a variety of fruits and snacks, relatives and neighbors to feed each other, known as the seven family tea. Later, cooking new tea is developed into a folk tea ceremony. On this day, every family chooses good tea, mixes all kinds of auxiliary materials, and then draws live water and boils it for brewing tea. The tea is also mixed with jasmine, osmanthus core, rose, cloves, Su apricot, etc., together with some seasonal fruits, which are given to each other in the neighborhood and tasted by each other. Some rich families take this opportunity to compete for wealth, using fine porcelain from famous kilns as tea sets, carving fruits into various shapes and decorating them with gold foil, and placing them on tea trays to offer to guests or neighbors. Literati to organize a "tea party", tasting tea, poetry and fugue, in order to celebrate.
4, summer for the hail season, easy to become a disaster, thus causing great harm to agricultural production. The first day of summer for the first day of summer, since then the weather has become increasingly hot, easy to have hail. And in the northern region, after the summer is the day of wheat grouting, full of particles. If the wind and rain, wheat growth is good, then a month later, will usher in a bumper wheat harvest. But if encountered hailstorm weather, will certainly bring great damage to agricultural production. Therefore, people worship the Hail God on the day of the first summer to ask for his blessing for a good harvest. The Hail God is usually worshipped in the countryside, because hailstorms mainly fall in the fields and cause damage to agricultural production. At the time of the festival, blackfish and noodles must be included in the offerings. The reason why black fish are used is that hailstorms in summer often go hand in hand with thunderstorms, when clouds are dense, so the people believe that the Hail God prefers black color. As for the noodle cake, the people think it is the hail god's favorite food, so it must be enshrined.
5. In the muggy summer, many people feel unwell, or lose weight, or lose appetite, or sleep poorly, or feel drowsy all day long, and feel weak in all four limbs. These phenomena are collectively known as "bitter summer", or "Resistance and Propulsion" and "Cavity Summer" in folklore.
6, the people believe that in the summer of this day to carry out some customary activities to avoid this phenomenon. For example, eat plums, that after eating will not be bitter summer. Then try to wear Ge or gauze, the weather is not yet too hot, do not need to wear such a thin, and therefore only symbolically wear a little, said the heat in front of the summer, the summer does not invade, will not be again bitter summer. There is also drinking seven family tea, to the right and left neighbors to ask for some tea, boiled and then drink. According to customary regulations, cooking seven family tea must use charcoal, with pottery or porcelain as cooking utensils, never use iron. On this day, the whole family, young and old to drink, neighbors also give each other.