Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - The 24 Solar Terms - The Origin and Meaning of Great Cold

The Origin and Meaning of Great Cold

The Origin and Meaning of Great Cold (2023)

The Great Cold is the last of the 24 solar terms. Great cold refers to the weather and extreme cold. What is the origin and meaning of the Great Cold? Next, I will bring you the origin and meaning of the Great Cold. I hope you like it!

The Origin and Meaning of Great Cold

The Great Cold is the last of the 24 solar terms, and it is called "Great Cold" when the sun reaches 300 degrees around 65438+1October 20th every year. Great cold refers to extremely cold weather. "Judge the time" quotes "Three Rites and Righteousness": "Great cold is the middle, shaped by slight cold, so it is called great ... extremely cold, so it is called great cold."

At this time, the cold wave goes south very frequently, which is the cold period in most parts of China in a year. The wind is strong, the temperature is low, and the snow on the ground does not melt, showing a cold phenomenon of ice and snow and freezing in the cold.

In ancient China, the Great Cold was divided into three stages: "One stage is chicken milk; Second, the symptoms of bird disease; Three times, the water is strong. " In other words, in the great cold solar terms, chicks can be hatched; At this time, falcons, such as eagles, have extremely strong predation ability. In the state, they hover in the air looking for food to replenish their energy to resist the cold; In the last five days of the year, the ice in the water has frozen to the center of the water, and it is the strongest and thickest.

During the severe cold solar term, the atmospheric circulation is relatively stable, and the adjustment period of circulation is about 20 days. When this circulation is adjusted, there will often be a wide range of rain and snow weather and strong winds to cool down. When the west of 80 degrees east longitude is a long wave ridge and East Asia is a coastal trough, under the influence of northwest wind and constantly supplemented cold air, China will have a sustained low temperature.

The moral of the great cold

Is it a solar term in China? A slight cold means that the weather is already very cold. Like severe cold, mild summer heat, severe summer heat and intense summer heat, it is a solar term indicating temperature change. In most parts of China, the periods of slight cold and severe cold are generally the coldest, so there is a folk proverb: slight cold and severe cold make ice hockey.

Slight cold refers to the degree of cold. Literally, the great cold is not as good as the slight cold, but in meteorological records, the slight cold is often colder than the great cold, which can be said to be the coldest solar term among the 24 solar terms all year round. There is often a saying that it is cold on March 9, and this "March 9" is within the slight cold solar terms.

This period of time is called slight cold instead of great cold because solar terms originated in the Yellow River basin. The twenty-four solar terms say, "the cold is still small at the beginning of the month ... but it will be big in half a month." This is just a continuation of the situation at that time.

Cold traditional customs

Drink porridge

That is, as the saying goes, "drink Laba porridge." The custom of drinking porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month has a long history. This porridge is made of rice, beans, dates, lotus roots, peanuts, medlar, chestnuts, nuts, longan, raisins and walnuts.

Indulge in drinking

It means to eat and drink freely. Cai Yong's "Arbitrariness" in the Eastern Han Dynasty said: "Those who wax, have a big sacrifice at the end of the year, and the official banquet drinks." .

Tooth manufacturing

Tooth-making, also known as "rich food", was originally a ceremony to worship the land father-in-law, and the so-called "Tooth-making Festival" also came from it. Tooth making pays attention to "head teeth" and "tail teeth". The first tooth is on the second day of February in the lunar calendar, and the tail tooth is on the sixteenth day of December. The whole family sits together and eats the tail tooth. But for employees, the tail teeth are not delicious, because employers often decide whether employees will stay or not in the coming year at the dinner table, so there is a saying that "eating the head teeth sticks to the mouth and eating the tail teeth saves worry". Tail-toothed rice is very rich, and a chicken is indispensable for hard dishes. It was hard to say before, so I used the head of a chicken as a sign to show who the head of a chicken was firing.

dust

Also known as "getting rid of the old" and "dust removal", it is a kind of general cleaning: "Every family paints the walls and sweeps away the ominous" to sweep away bad luck; On the contrary, "the twelfth lunar month does not remove dust, and the plague will be recruited in the coming year." Dust removal is generally carried out on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, that is, on the day of "offering sacrifices to the stove". Avoid words when removing dust, and pay attention to "silence is better than sound".

Paste window

Just paste the window with new paper, "paste the window for good luck." For the sake of beauty, some people will cut some auspicious patterns and stick them on the windows, so it is also called "stick grilles", which is usually held on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Catch up with the wedding

The ancients believed that at the end of the twelfth lunar month, the gods went to heaven for a year. At this time, we don't have to choose the wedding day at this time, and it is the slack season, so the old folk scene is "twelve years old busy getting married in the countryside."