The Origin of Vernal Equinox

The origin and meaning of the vernal equinox

The vernal equinox, also known as "the middle of the day", "day and night," "the month of mid-spring," around March 21 every year, the sun reaches 0 ° of the yellow meridian when the festival, the lunar calendar date is not fixed. Reached 0 ° of the yellow longitude when the festival, the lunar calendar date of the equinox is not fixed. The average length of day and night on this day, just half of the ninety days of spring, so called "spring equinox". In ancient times, the spring to summer for the spring, the equinox is just spring three months, equal parts of the spring.

The vernal equinox is a relatively important festival, this day the sun directly on the equator, the northern and southern hemispheres, day and night, and then the position of the direct sunlight gradually moved north, the beginning of the day is longer and shorter. It not only has astronomical significance, but also has more obvious climate characteristics, the equinox, China, except for the Tibetan Plateau, Northeast, Northwest and North China outside of the northern region have entered the bright spring, in the vast land, willow green, warbler grass, wheat plucking, rape flowers.

Ancient China will be divided into three equinoxes: "one waiting for the birds to the first; two waiting for the thunder to sound; three waiting for the beginning of electricity." That is to say, after the spring equinox, the swallows will fly from the south, and when it rains, the sky will be thunder and lightning.

The spring equinox "points" has two meanings:

1. means "the spring and fall equinoxes, day and night";

2. means that the seasons are equally divided. If the period from spring to summer as the spring, the equinox is the midpoint of spring, just divided the spring, from spring to summer exactly ninety days, the equinox will be divided into two, and therefore named the equinox.

The origin of the allusion to the spring equinox

"The seventy-two wait collection of the moon": "February in the middle of the month, half of the split is also half of the ninety days, so it is called points. Autumn is the same meaning."

"Spring and Autumn flourish dew - yin and yang in and out of the upper and lower parts of the" said: "Spring Equinox, yin and yang half, so the day and night and cold and heat flat."

The Book of Rites: "Sacrifice the day at the altar." Kong Yingda: "It is also called the spring equinox."

Qing Pan Rong ah, "Imperial Capital Years and Years": "Spring Equinox Festival, Autumn Equinox Festival of the moon, is the country's great ceremony, the people shall not be trespassing on the rituals.

In fact, the day of the equinox is also the New Year in many countries in the Middle East, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other countries in the equinox day is the New Year, has a history of three thousand years.

Traditional customs of the spring equinox

1, vertical egg

In the spring equinox every year, tens of millions of people around the world will do the "vertical egg" test. Choose a smooth and well-proportioned, just laid four or five days of fresh eggs, gently on the table to put it up. There were many failures, but also many successes. Vernal equinox is the best time for the vertical egg game, so there is "spring equinox to, the egg is pretty" said.

2, sticky bird mouth

Vernal equinox this day farmers are in accordance with customary vacation, each family to eat soup yuan, but also do not have to wrap the heart of the soup yuan more than ten or twenty or thirty boiled, with a fine bamboo fork skewer placed in the outdoor field side of the ground, the name of the sticky finch mouth, lest the finch to destroy the crops.

3, spring festival

The vernal equinox is also the beginning of the spring festival. Spring festival, that is, the beginning of the tomb sweeping ancestor, also known as spring festival. Before sweeping the tomb to hold a grand ancestral ceremony in the ancestral hall, killing pigs, slaughtering sheep, please drummers playing, by the ceremony read the text, with the lead in the line of three offerings. At the beginning of the Spring Equinox Tomb Sweeping, the first thing to do is to sweep the graves of the founding ancestor and the distant ancestor, and the whole clan and the whole village will be mobilized on a very large scale, with the team often amounting to several hundred or even thousands of people. After sweeping the graves of the founding fathers and distant ancestors, the ancestors' graves are then swept and sacrificed in different houses, and finally the private graves of the families are swept and sacrificed in each house.

4, kite flying

The spring equinox is a good time for children to fly kites, and even adults should participate. In the gentle spring breeze, people run wildly in the open space, competing with each other to see whose kite can fly higher and farther.

5, drink spring wine

China's Zhejiang, Shanxi area in the spring equinox winemaking custom. Ancient books recorded: "spring equinox wine stored in the urn, over three volts of dross since the melting, its color red, taste after a long time, known as the spring equinox wine."

6, worship

Folk festivals before and after the spring equinox are February 15, the birthday of the Sage King of Zhangzhou: the Sage King of Zhangzhou, also known as the "Sage King of Chen", for the Tang Dynasty, Chen Yuanguang, a martial arts scholar, Zhangzhou, after his death became the guardian deity of Zhangzhou. February 19th is the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva. On this day, believers go to the Guanyin temples to pay homage to the Bodhisattva. February 25th King of the Three Mountains Festival: The King of the Three Mountains is the god of the three mountains of Jieyang County, Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, Dushan, Mingshan and Towel Mountain, which was patronized by the Hakka immigrants from Chaozhou in the early years of Chun, and therefore the believers are mainly of Hakka origin.

7, the festival

The festival is the most important ancient royal activities on the day of the equinox, in the Zhou Dynasty, the equinox will have a festival ceremony. Records of the Book of Rites: "Sacrifice the day at the altar", "said the spring equinox", this custom has been passed down through the generations. Qing Dynasty Pan Rong ah, "the Imperial capital of the year and time records": "the spring equinox sacrifice of the sun, the autumn equinox sacrifice of the moon, is the country's great ceremony, the people shall not trespass on the rituals."