Customs and Symbols of Grain Rain

The symbolism of Guyu is "rain produces all kinds of grains", and the customary activities are drinking Guyu tea, enjoying peonies, sacrificing to Cangjie, eating spring, and sacrificing to the sea.

1, drink Guyu tea

Guyu tea has the custom of drinking tea. Guyu tea, also known as pre-rain tea, is the Guyu season harvested spring tea, also known as the second spring tea. Guyu tea is Guyu this day picked fresh tea leaves made of tea, and to be picked in the morning.

Guyu tea color green, soft leaves, pleasant aroma. Therefore, no matter what the weather is on the day of Guyu, people will go to the tea mountain to pick some new tea and come back to drink.

2. Peony Appreciation

"Peony is seen in three dynasties during the rainy season." Peony is known as the flower of the rainy season and the flower of wealth and honor, and peony appreciation during the rainy season has lasted for thousands of years. In Qing Dynasty, Gu Lu's "Qing Jia Record" said, "The Shrine of the God builds a merchant's house, and a new bureau is set up to see flowers in the rainy season. I don't believe that there is no national color when we meet each other, and the brocade scaffolding only protects the spring of the jade building." Up to now, Peony Flower Festival is held in Heze of Shandong Province and Luoyang of Henan Province during the rainy season for people to enjoy.

3. Sacrifice to Cangjie

Sacrificing the Yellow Emperor at Qingming and Cangjie at Grain Rain are folk traditions that have been passed down for thousands of years since the Han Dynasty. According to the Huainanzi, the Yellow Emperor issued an edict in late spring and early summer announcing the success of Cangjie's character creation, and a rain of grain fell that day.

After Cangjie's death, people buried him in his hometown, north of Shiguan Town in Baishui County, with a couplet engraved on the tomb door that reads, "Raining corn was a great help to the emperor of the heavens, and the same text will be used for the rest of eternity in the Qiaoling Mountains." Every year, the Cangjie Temple Festival is held in Baishui County, Shaanxi Province, during the rainy season.

4, eat spring

Before and after the rain, the toon mellow and refreshing high nutritional value, so there is a "rain before the toon tender as silk" said. People picking and eating toon in spring is said to be "eating spring". Toon is generally divided into purple toon buds, green toon buds, especially the best purple toon buds.

5, the sea

Guyu Festival is also called the fishermen to go out to sea fishing "Festival". Along the coast of northern China, fishermen have a history of more than 2,000 years of Guyu Festival. Sea festival time, the fishermen will carry offerings to the Sea God Temple, Niangniang Temple before the offerings for sacrifice, some will be carried to the sea, gongs and drums, firecrackers, face the sea sacrifice, the scene is very grand, this custom in today's Rongcheng, Jiaodong area is still popular.

Meteorological changes

Spring rain is the most important feature of the Grain Rain Festival. After the Grain Rain Festival, rainfall increases and the humidity in the air gradually increases, which is favorable to the growth of crops. Entering the Grain Rain Festival, there is a significant increase in precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the south of the Yangtze River in China, especially in south China, where longer rainy weather often forms once cold air meets warm and humid air.

The Qinling-Huaihe river basin is basically the demarcation line between spring rains in the south of the Yangtze River and spring droughts in the north, with spring rains decreasing sharply from near the Qinling-Huaihe River to the north. In the north, the valley rain is the symbol of the "final frost", the cold air invasion of the south is relatively small, but the cold air activity affecting the north did not stop, many places will appear the first thunder.

In some ancient Chinese writings, the rain is categorized into three: "the first wait Ping began to be born; the second waiting for the turtledove whisked its feathers; the third wait for Dai Sheng descended in the mulberry." It means that after the rainfall increases, the floating ping pong starts to grow, then the cuckoo bird starts to remind people to sow seeds, and then the Dai Sheng bird starts to be seen on the mulberry tree.