Lixia is the seventh of the twenty-four solar terms, and the "Lixia Eggs", also known as "Lixia Eggs", are the most classic delicacies of Lixia, as well as toys for children. Here's what we know about the "Rixia Egg" and the interesting customs and legends associated with it!

One of the summer eggs

The summer egg is a "moral and artistic" good egg. "Virtue" is reflected in it is a gourmet food, the perfect embodiment of the value of food; "art" is reflected in it can become a toy in the hands of the children to show a variety of "talent".

Gourmet: The day before the summer, many people home began to cook "summer eggs", usually with tea leaves or walnut shells to cook, and watch the eggshells slowly turn red, full of fragrant house. The eggs are round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round, round and round. Such a delicacy should be eaten while it is still hot, and when you eat it, pour good Shaoxing wine, sprinkle some fine salt inside, and the wine smells like tea, and it smells and tastes good.

Maybe some friends have discovered that the summer egg looks very similar to the tea egg, in fact, the summer egg is the predecessor of the tea egg. Ancient people believed that the egg round and smooth, symbolizing the success of life, eat eggs on the day of summer can pray for the peace of summer. Summer is generally in the lunar calendar in April, "April eggs as cheap as vegetables", people put the eggs into the leftover "seven tea" boiled and burned into the "tea eggs". Later, people improved the cooking method, in the "seven tea" into the fennel, meat brine, cinnamon, ginger, from now on, tea eggs is no longer a summer festival food, and has become one of China's traditional snacks.

Toys:I don't know if you've ever heard of such a catchphrase, "summer eggs, dumped all over the street". It's normal that you haven't heard of it, after all, different regions have different customs. Although the Lixia egg is a traditional custom of our Han Chinese, many customs have become memories of a generation in the process of passing them on.

One way to play Lixia egg is called egg fighting, which is usually a game for children. A cooked egg, generally a whole egg boiled in white water with its shell (the shell must not be broken), is dipped in cold water and then placed in a mesh pocket made of colorful silk threads or velvet threads for the child to hang around his or her neck. The rules of the egg fight are quite simple, to put it bluntly is "compare whose eggshell is hard": we each hold an egg, pointed for the head, round for the tail, the egg head hit the egg head, the egg tail hit the egg tail, one by one, one by one, the fight broke the shell of the, concede defeat, and then eat the egg, and the last one left to fight the The last one left is the one that can't be broken, and is honored as the "Egg King".

Second, the origin of the custom

There is a folk saying, "Summer chest hanging eggs, small people Resistance and Propulsion (zhù?) summer difficult". (Resistance and propulsion, Chinese medicine refers to the seasonal disease that occurs in summer, an infectious disease, the symptoms of which are a slight heat and little food, tiredness and limb softness, and gradual wasting.) Little man does not mean a person of bad character, but a child. The meaning of the whole sentence is that: on the day of the first summer a child's chest is hung with the egg of the first summer, then the child will have difficulty in resisting the resistance, this summer disease.

Three legends

The custom of eating eggs at the beginning of summer has a long history, and is said to be related to our ancestor Nuwa Niangiang.

There is a vicious god of pestilence in the sky, who usually loves to sleep, but only wakes up every year during the summer festival, bringing a pocket of pestilence with him, and sneaks down to the lower world to spread pestilence and havoc. Where it is infected with disease, is "Resistance and Resistance to Summer".　

The mothers of the children then went to the temple of Nuwa Nyunta to burn incense and kowtow to her, begging her to eliminate the plague and bless the future generations. When Nüwa knew about this, she went to the Plague God and reasoned with him.

The Niangniang said, "In the future, wherever my first-born children are concerned, you will never be allowed to harm them." The Pestilence God knew that Nüwa Niangiang's power was boundless and did not dare to go against her, and said, "I wonder how many of Niang Niang's first-born children are in the lower realms?" The Niangniang laughed and said, "Let's do it this way, on the day I set up the summer, ordered my full-blooded children to hang an egg bag on the front of their lapels, who you recognize to mark the number, and dry ten thousand shall not be fooled around. (This method of Nuwa is quite interesting.)

This year on the day of the first summer, the plague god woke up, back up the epidemic bag, and rushed to the lower world, but from morning to night, see the children have a net pocket in front of their chests, do not dare to do it, and finally the plague god is exhausted, gasping and exhausted on the road. After the death of the plague god, the children also ate the eggs hanging on their chests.

In order to commemorate this victory and to thank Nvwa for her great kindness, every year on the day of the first day of summer, children hang boiled eggs of chickens, ducks and geese on their chests. As a result, the custom of eating eggs on the Lixia Festival has continued to the present day.

Personal feelings: now the eggs are not expensive, nor is it a precious ingredient, and Lixia eggs and tea eggs to eat up no difference, but I personally feel that the day of the Lixia eat Lixia eggs, must be better than the usual eat tea eggs delicious. Maybe it is a psychological effect, after all, said tea eggs are improved by the Rixia eggs, so the flavor is almost the same, or even more delicious. Suddenly a little envious of the ancient common people, although the material life may not be as rich as modern people, but their spiritual world may be very rich, after all, interesting traditional customs are many.