What are the customs of beginning of spring?

On the day of beginning of spring in Guangzhou, there are customs of welcoming the spring, biting the spring and worshiping the spring god.

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 Spring Festival was held the day before beginning of spring, with the aim of bringing back spring and Ju Mang. In the past, there were pictures of gods and spring cows in the yellow calendar every year. In Dianshizhai Pictorial in the late Qing Dynasty, "Turtles reporting spring" and "Bronze drums expelling epidemics" were both important activities at the beginning of the Spring Festival at that time.

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. Spiced board is made up of five kinds of spicy food, with onion, garlic, pepper, ginger, mustard and so on, as a seasoning for meals.

3. Worship the God of Spring

Hakka Spring God, the ancient Ju Mang God, is the god in charge of agriculture among the gods. As a model group of agricultural civilization in China, Hakkas especially worship the Spring God. The custom of worshipping Spring God in Sanming Hakka is called "Spring God". During the Spring Festival, farmers put red notes on the gate, such as "Welcome to Spring", "Welcome to Home in Spring" and "Go to Fu Lin in Spring", to welcome the gods of spring.

The origin of solar terms in beginning of spring

"Twenty-four solar terms" is the product of ancient farming civilization, which was originally determined by the rotation direction of Beidou bucket handle. China's astrological culture has a long history and is profound. The ancients began to explore the mysteries of the universe very early, and thus deduced a complete and profound star-watching culture. The Big Dipper will appear in different directions in the northern hemisphere sky in different seasons and at different times at night. It is a ruler for the ancients to set directions and solar terms.

Polaris is located at the northern end of the earth's axis, which is five times as long as the extension line connecting Tian Xuan and Shu Tian in the Big Dipper. Because of the earth's rotation, Polaris is just on the axis of celestial rotation, so it is relatively static, while the Big Dipper on the axis seems to revolve around Polaris, resulting in a "star shift". The calendar of twenty-four solar terms was formulated by the ancients according to the Big Dipper, so the solar terms in bucket handle are basically the same as those in the present Huangjing solar terms.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Guangzhou City