Fighting eggs, weighing people and chasing spring: How much do you know about the custom of long summer?

Long summer is the seventh of the 24 solar terms.

Twenty-four solar terms: Long Summer and April Festival. Make a word to understand spring. Summer, holidays. At this time, everything is fake and big.

Astronomically, Chang Xia said that bidding farewell to spring is the beginning of summer.

Long summer customs

On May 5th, the word "summer" in "Long Summer" means "big", indicating that the plants sown in spring have grown upright.

In ancient times, people attached great importance to the customs and habits of long summer.

Ying Xia

On the long summer day, the ancient emperor would lead officials to the southern suburbs of Beijing to welcome the summer and hold a ceremony to welcome the summer.

The monarch and his subjects all wear red ceremonial costumes and red jade ornaments. Even horses and car flags should be red to express their prayers and good wishes for a bumper harvest.

In the imperial court, "open the ice in summer and give it to the civil and military ministers." Ice was stored last winter and given to officials by the emperor.

Hunchun

When I was growing up in the summer along the Yangtze River, people thought that spring had gone, so they prepared wine and food to enjoy, which meant giving it away for the sake of spring.

Wu Outing's poem "Long Summer" says: There is no choice but to go in spring, and cherry buds will return in spring. In summer, there is a custom of boiling tender broad beans in Jiangnan water town.

Have a taste of something in season/new.

In summer, some places have "product innovation" activities.

For example, there is a saying in Suzhou that "seeing three new things in the long summer". Three new ones are cherry, plum and wheat, which are used for ancestor worship. In Changshu, tasting new dishes is more abundant, and there is a saying of "nine meats and thirteen vegetables".

Battle egg

In summer, there is the custom of breaking eggs.

As the saying goes, if you hang an egg on your chest in long summer, the child will not be in summer. In summer, abdominal distension, anorexia, fatigue and emaciation are common, especially in children. Parents pray for their children to be disease-free and disaster-free by breaking eggs.

On this day of long summer, every household will boil eggs, put them in net bags and hang them around the children's necks. The children played egg-beating games in groups of three or five. An egg has two heads, the pointed one is the head and the round one is the tail. When you beat eggs, the head of the egg hits the head of the egg and the tail of the egg hits the tail of the egg. Fight one by one, the loser gives up, and finally the high and low are separated.

Weigh sb.

There is also a custom of weighing people in the long summer. People hang a big wooden scale at the entrance of the village or platform, and a stool is hung on the scale hook. Everyone takes turns to sit on the stool and weigh people.

When weighing flowers, the caller said auspicious words. Call the old man and say, "You weigh 87 and live 91."

Long summer eating customs

China has different styles and customs. When I was in the long summer, the eating customs were different everywhere.

After the long summer, it is another hot summer. People eat some food in the long summer, usually hoping to pray for peace.

Long summer rice

In the old days, in rural areas, five-color beans such as red beans, soybeans, black beans, mung beans and mung beans were mixed with white rice and cooked into "five-color rice". Later it evolved into glutinous rice cooked with Japanese bean meat. This dish consists of amaranth and yellow croaker soup, and is called "long summer rice" or "five-color rice".

Fujian Mindong: Light Cake

People in eastern Fujian eat light cakes in summer. A light cake is made of flour and a little salt. Zhouning, Fu 'an and other places in eastern Fujian soaked the light cake in water and made it into dishes, while Jiaocheng, Fuding and other places cut the light cake in half and ate fried bean sprouts, leeks, meat and waste vegetables.

Fujian Minnan: Shrimp Noodles

Eating shrimp noodles in southern Fujian in the long summer is to buy sea shrimp and cook it in the noodles. Shrimp turns red when cooked, indicating good luck. Shrimp is homophonic with summer, which is a wish for summer.

Xiangdong: Qijia porridge

Seven porridge is a kind of porridge that farmers give beans, rice and yellow sugar to each other in their neighborhoods. It's called "Seven Porridges". It is said that after eating this kind of porridge, the neighbors live in harmony, and they are bent on going to Xia Geng for summer broadcasting.

Ningbo: foot bone bamboo shoots

Foot bone bamboo shoots are cooked with black bamboo shoots, each three or four inches long and not cut open. When eating, you should pick two bamboo shoots with the same thickness and eat them all at once, saying that eating them will make your feet healthy.

Then eat soft food (Junda food), saying that after eating it, there will be no rash in summer, and the skin will be as smooth as soft food.

Changsha, Hunan: Long Summer Soup

People in Changsha, Hunan eat glutinous rice flour mixed with sage in summer, which is called "long summer soup". There is a folk saying that "eat long summer soup and learn from into the pit" and "eat a ball in long summer (pronounced" Tuo ") and cross the river with one foot", which means that he is extremely strong and as light as a swallow.

Shengzhou: eating eggs depends on the heart

People in Shengzhou eat eggs in their hearts, bamboo shoots in their legs, peas in their eyes and cannibalism in their bodies in summer. The purpose is to pray for the health of the body, heart, legs and other important parts, prevent diseases, and successfully spend the hot summer.

Shijun knows that there must be many local customs that have not been mentioned!

So, what are the customs in your hometown in summer?

Source: Zhihu Daily.