Is there any connection between the 24 solar terms and the traditional festivals in China?

Related. Solar terms are related to the solar calendar in China. Every two adjacent solar terms are separated by about 15 days. Twenty-four solar terms are a unique invention of China calendar method, which is divided according to the position of the sun on the ecliptic.

For example, the Mid-Autumn Festival is related to the autumnal equinox.

The autumnal equinox is the sixteenth of the twenty-four solar terms, and the time is generally from September 22 to September 24 of the Gregorian calendar every year. On the day of the autumnal equinox, the sun reaches the longitude 180 (autumnal equinox), almost reaching the equator of the earth, and the length of day and night is equal all over the world (regardless of the refraction of the sun light by the atmosphere and the shadow in the morning).

The autumnal equinox used to be the traditional "Festival of Sacrificing the Moon". Now Mid-Autumn Festival comes from the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.

Extended data

Twenty-four solar terms refer to 24 special festivals in the lunar calendar of China, indicating the seasonal changes. They are formulated according to the position change of the earth on the ecliptic (that is, the orbit of the earth around the sun), and each one corresponds to a certain position reached by the sun every time it runs 15 on the ecliptic. 2016165438+1October 30th was officially listed in the representative list of human intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Four seasons and eight festivals are the skeleton of twenty-four solar terms and calendars. The other 16 solar terms are branches or meat on the skeleton. Using branches or meat is a bridge between astronomical season and meteorological season.

The embryonic period of the twenty-four solar terms is the Zhou Dynasty, so people will naturally use the number 12 when dividing the time series. In the eyes of the ancients, the 24 solar terms were strictly different. The ancients called solar terms "qi", and the twenty-four solar terms were twenty-four "qi", which were divided into "solar terms" and "neutral qi".

The first day of each month, that is, the "qi" at the beginning of the month, is called "solar term"; The second "Qi" in the middle of the month is called "Zhong Qi". In this way, there are 12 solar terms and 12 neutral terms throughout the year, which together are exactly "24 solar terms".

Baidu encyclopedia-24 solar terms