Traditional Festivals Summer Solstice

Super Cold Ancient Festivals - Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is the fourth solar term of summer, which is the day with the longest day in the northern hemisphere.

In ancient times, the summer solstice was a very prominent day in the four seasons of the year, so it was common for ancient people to celebrate the summer solstice festival.

Origin of the festival

The summer solstice is the day with the longest day in a year, and it was also the most easily recognized in the ancient astronomical observation. Therefore, the summer solstice is one of the earliest established festivals in China.

It is said that during the Zhou Dynasty, Duke Ji Dan of Zhou was ordered to create the eastern capital of Luoyi. He established a set of devices to determine the seasonal seasons by measuring the changes in sun and shadow - the earth gui and the wooden table. The earth gui was a ruler placed horizontally, while the wooden table was an upright standard. He designated the day with the shortest shadow as the "summer solstice". From then on, observing the summer solstice became an important event for successive dynasties.

The summer solstice festival appeared as late as the Han Dynasty, and during the Song Dynasty, officials were allowed to take a three-day vacation to go home, bathe, and get together with their relatives. According to the Liao History, the Liao people called the summer solstice the "Chao Festival", and women would give each other colorful fans and scented pouches. The summer solstice was also a very important festival in ancient times.

Summer Solstice Song

There is also a popular song about the summer solstice. The song is recorded in the "Leopard Hidden Chronicle" by Zhou Zundao of the Song Dynasty:

After the summer solstice,

1929, the fan does not leave the hand,

392927, eat tea like honey,

492936, scrambling to the head of the road to sleep,

592945, the dance of autumn leaves at the head of the tree,

692954, take a cool not to go into the temple,

792963

From this song, we can see that the summer solstice marks the arrival of the summer heat, and there are changes in the way people live.

Summer Rituals

Sacrifices to the Gods

Summer is an important time for crops to grow, and people often organize activities to pray for a good harvest at this time. In the Zhou Dynasty, people would hold sacrifices to the gods on the summer solstice in order to eliminate epidemics and plagues. In the Records of the Grand Historian, there are also records of land sacrifices on the summer solstice. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the royal family would still continue the tradition of holding land sacrifice ceremonies on the summer solstice. Folks would also hold activities to worship the earth or pray for rain.

Diet

Summer weather is hot, people tend to lose their appetite, so the ancients attached great importance to the summer, preventing summer heat, the summer festival diet is also very careful. Jingchu people first ate dumplings on the summer solstice, and only later changed to the fifth of May. People in Jiangsu like to eat pea cakes on the summer solstice. The Hangzhou area of Zhejiang Province, on the other hand, likes to eat umami rice on the summer solstice.

The north grows more wheat, so the summer food to noodle-based, of which the noodles and cold noodles.

Preventing heatstroke

The ancient people's measures to prevent heatstroke had two main aspects, one was to eat more cold food and cool food. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, there have been officials who managed ice and ice cellar facilities, usually in the severe winter storage ice, to the summer to use. The emperor usually gave ice to civil and military ministers in the summer for them to relieve the summer heat. Folks would make all kinds of cold drinks and refreshing foods such as cold noodles, melons and fruit, and sour plum soup.

On the other hand, the use of summer tools to achieve the effect of cooling. In ancient times when there were no air conditioners or electric fans, fans, cool mats and bamboo wives (a kind of pillow mat made of bamboo) became the mainstream products to eliminate the summer heat.