Why do you eat sleeping melons in spring?

This is a custom. There is a folk saying that "eat melons in spring and live to be eighty-eight", and melons refer to pumpkins, that is, jiaozi with pumpkin stuffing or steamed stuffed buns with pumpkin stuffing on the same day in beginning of spring.

Pumpkin belongs to a kind of melon and fruit, which is the most common one. Pumpkins can be eaten whether they are fresh or yellow. China has had the custom of eating pumpkins in the early spring since ancient times.

Playing spring is one of the solar terms customs in beginning of spring. In ancient times, people made spring cattle out of clay the day before spring, and whipped them with red and green whips in spring, so this custom was called "spring beating". In the folk, people held a ceremony of "whipping spring cattle" in beginning of spring that day to welcome the arrival of spring and pray for a bumper harvest.

In the long farming society, the 24 solar terms play an important role, with rich cultural connotations and a large number of related folk culture. As the first of the 24 solar terms, beginning of spring was once a grand New Year. In the historical development, the folk custom of "New Year's Day" in beginning of spring has been moved to 1 month 1 day, when Yin and Yang are in harmony, so beginning of spring has become a simple solar term. In some places, the customs of solar terms in beginning of spring are still circulating, such as "beginning of spring", "biting spring" and "playing spring".