Spring in Shen County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province

Spring in Shenxian County, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province is on February 4th every year.

Playing spring is the common name of beginning of spring, and it is the solar term of spring returning to the earth. It is the first of the 24 solar terms.

Beginning of spring is a traditional festival in China. In the Zhou Dynasty, on this day, the son of heaven personally led Sangong to wait until the eastern suburbs to celebrate the Spring Festival. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people whipped the cattle in spring and sent Koharu cattle to persuade farmers to plow their fields in spring and pray for a bumper harvest. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there have been eating green vegetables, welcoming local cattle, bathing silkworm eggs and drinking spring tea, which has strong traditional folk customs and local flavor.

Beginning of spring (Once upon a time, the county magistrate greeted the clay spring cows in beginning of spring the day before and put them in front of the yamen. Beginning of spring whipped them with red and green whips, so it is often called the spring beating in beginning of spring. Old customs in China. It is very popular in many parts of the country. "Spring Cattle", with Sang Mu as the skeleton, is made of clay on the second day of the winter solstice. The pattern with a height of 4 feet and a length of 8 feet and 360 days 12 hours was drawn at 4: 08.

The day before in beginning of spring, people went to the Xianjia altar to offer sacrifices, then beat them with colorful whips, and drove the "Spring Cattle" back to the county government, and set up wine and fruit sacrifices in the hall. Men, women and children hold "cows" to help "plow", sing and plant yangko, and pray for a bumper harvest.