What is the solar term for biting spring whip and spring cattle?

Beginning of spring is a spring cow who bites the spring whip.

The reason for this is the following：

Beginning of spring is the first of the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar, marking the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Because this day is the beginning of the four seasons and spring begins to come, it is called "beginning of spring".

Beginning of spring is closely related to agriculture, so many of its festival activities have obvious agricultural color. These festivals mainly include Spring Festival, Whipping Spring and Biting Spring. It is through these activities that ancestors celebrated the arrival of spring, encouraged farming and prayed for a bumper harvest.

1, Spring Festival

Spring Festival is an important activity that begins in spring, and it must be prepared and rehearsed in advance, commonly known as spring performance. The official Spring Festival was held in beginning of spring the day before, aiming to bring back the spring and the gods of Ju Mang.

In the Spring Festival, there is a spring official, a beggar or servant, who announces the arrival of beginning of spring. In the past, there were pictures of Mang God and Spring Cattle in the imperial calendar every year. In Dianshizhai Pictorial in the late Qing Dynasty, "The tortoise reported spring" and "The bronze drum drove away the epidemic" were both important activities in the early spring.

Step 2 bite the spring

Beginning of spring also has its own food, mainly spring cakes, radishes and spiced dishes. In the south, eating spring rolls is popular, and there are many vendors selling spring rolls in the market. There are two points worth noting here: first, I used to think that biting spring meant eating radish, but actually it also included eating spring cakes; Second, the so-called begging for spring means welcoming the spring.

Why biting spring is eating radish? Generally speaking, it can solve the spring sleep. In fact, biting spring does not stop there. In addition to alleviating difficulties, it is mainly ventilation to keep people young. Spiced board is made up of five kinds of spicy food, with onion, garlic, pepper, ginger, mustard, etc., as a seasoning for meals.

After beginning of spring, people like to go out for a spring outing in spring, which is also the main form of spring outing.

3. The God of Ju Mang

Ju Mang is the god of spring, that is, the god of plants and life. Ju Mang's image is a bird with human face and rules. On this day in beginning of spring, folk customs mainly focus on spring affairs. During the Zhou Dynasty, the East Hall was set up to welcome the Spring Festival, which shows that there is a long history of offering sacrifices to Ju Mang.

In beginning of spring, Zhejiang, the day before, people carried the God Ju Mang to the mountain outside the city and offered sacrifices to Tai Sui. Tai sui is an old god who sits in the same year and is in charge of the rest of the year, so the people also offer more sacrifices. There are many activities when welcoming God, such as preaching in large classes, raising pavilions, local operas, yangko and shooting cows. After being carried from the countryside to the city, people gather in the streets to compete for food, which is called watching the Spring Festival.

During the Spring Festival in Ju Mang, people predicted the climate of that year according to Ju Mang's clothes: wearing a hat represents warm spring, balding represents cold spring, wearing shoes represents more spring rain, and barefoot represents less spring rain. In other areas, New Year pictures such as "Spring Breeze" are posted. Around Guangzhou and beginning of spring, people used drums to drive away the plague and pray for peace.

4, whip spring cattle

Whip spring cattle, also known as whip soil cattle, originated earlier and has been preserved to this day. It was popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially after Song Renzong promulgated the Classic of Cattle, and the custom of whipping cattle became more widespread and became an important part of folk culture. The significance of whipping spring cattle is not limited to sending air conditioning and promoting spring ploughing, but also has certain witchcraft significance.

Shandong folk whip spring cattle, in order to break the local cattle, people compete for the land of spring cattle, which is called grabbing spring and grabbing the cow's head is auspicious. In addition, there are tea-picking activities to worship spring cattle and turtle activities to announce the arrival of spring in Hubei. In addition to the pictures of spring cattle on the royal calendar, they are also widely engraved in New Year pictures all over the country as auspicious pictures during the Spring Festival.