What kind of cow is a spring cow?

Spring cow is a mud cow with Sang Mu as the skeleton and spring mud as the body. It is four feet high and eight feet long. There is a folk custom of whipping spring cattle in the spring. It means that winter has passed, and it is necessary to urge cattle to work in the fields, which means praying for a bumper harvest.

Beginning of spring, also known as Da Chun, is the first solar term in spring among the 24 solar terms and one of the traditional festivals in China. Spring is the time of year. The ancients attached great importance to the arrival of spring, because it is the beginning of a year, which means that people can farm and harvest food, which is the basis for people to obtain the source of survival.

As early as thousands of years ago, when I was in beginning of spring, the king of Zhou would take the three princes and the nine princes to Tanobe in the suburbs to hold a ceremony to celebrate the Spring Festival. Gao Cheng's "Jiyuan Things" records: "The Duke of Zhou began to make beginning of spring native cattle, and unearthed them to show the farming time." During this period, Duke Zhou was a spring cow, expressing his intention to persuade farming.

The custom of whipping spring cattle became popular in Han dynasty, which expressed everyone's desire for a bumper harvest. On the morning of the day when spring begins, civil and military officials will put on police tactical unit, plant a blue flag and send cattle outside the city gate. Every official will whip the cow to welcome the spring.

"Kyoto Custom Records" also said that "Mang God is located in the east, and Spring Cattle is located in the west." There is a memorial tablet of Spring God in the east and a native cow in the west. After the sacrifice to the spring god, "all the servants burned it, so it was called' playing spring'." This is why beginning of spring is called "Da Chun".

In the end, everyone will break off the spring cattle and take the chess pieces home, which means there will be a bumper harvest at home.