Twenty-four solar terms neutral summer folklore summer folklore introduction

1. Ceremony of welcoming summer: The word "summer" in "Lixia" means "big", which means that the plants sown in the spring have already grown up. On a deeper level, the twenty-four solar terms reflect the changes of the four seasons "qi", qi changes related to the natural rhythmic changes, the summer yang qi grows, all things with the rise of yang qi and thrive. In ancient times, people attached great importance to the rituals and customs of the beginning of summer. On the day of the first summer, ancient people had a ceremony to welcome the summer.

2, tasting new activities: summer and tasting new festivals. Such as Suzhou has "summer see three new" proverbs, three new cherries, plums, wheat, used to sacrifice ancestors. In Changshu, tasting new food is more plentiful, there are "nine meat and thirteen vegetarian" that nine meat for the carp, salted eggs, snail amberjack, quenching (i.e., simmering on the micro-fire; a method of cooking, with a variety of spices processed into quenching the chicken) chicken, pickled fresh, brine shrimp, cherry meat; thirteen vegetarian, including cherries, plums, wheat silkworms (new wheat kneaded into thin strips and boiled), bamboo shoots, Fava beans, spear needles, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, grass, radish, roses, pine flowers. In Nantong, then eat boiled chicken and duck eggs.

3, egg game: "summer egg, full of street dumping", egg is usually a game for children. To use cooked eggs, usually with white water with shells boiled whole eggs (shells can not be broken), by cold water soaked, and then loaded with colorful silk thread or floss woven into the mesh pocket, let the child hang on the neck. Egg fight rules are quite simple, to put it bluntly is "than whose eggshell is hard": we each hold an egg, pointed for the head, round for the tail, the egg head hit the egg head, egg tail hit the egg tail, one by one, fight the past, fight the shell of the broken, concede defeat, and then eat the egg, and the last one left behind that fight is not broken little strong, was honored as the "Egg King". "Egg King".

4, why fight eggs? Folk saying is: "summer chest hanging eggs, small people resistance (zh ) summer difficult". After entering the summer, because of the summer heat, some people, especially the old and young and weak, prone to loss of appetite, fatigue, tiredness, distraction and other symptoms, known as "Resistance to summer". Eggs as a simple and easy to obtain nutrients, used for the prevention of resistance to summer in advance "tonic", is a good choice. It's even better to combine eating and playing with the children's mindset. Of course, as a seasonal custom, the "summer egg" has its own witchcraft/ritual significance. According to traditional Chinese medical theory, summer is appropriate to nourish the heart, people believe that "the heart is like an egg", so the arrival of summer to eat eggs, the role of "crutch heart". Eat eggs on the heart", with the other customs of the summer - eat bamboo shoots, crutch legs; eat beans, crutch eyes - people face the upcoming summer heat and bitter summer, physical loss and birth of the Insecurity, finally in this whole set of "shape to make up for the shape", support the physical health of the ceremony to find a solution. Therefore, in the past, the folk proverb will say: "eat the egg in the summer, the strength of ten thousand."

5, Lixia weighing people: Lixia ate a midday meal and the custom of weighing people. People in the village entrance or the door to hang up a large wooden scale, scale hook hanging a stool, we take turns to sit on the stool above the scale. The weigher will play the weighing flower on one side and speak auspicious words on the other. The old man would say, "Weighing eighty-seven flowers, live to ninety-one". The girl on the scale said, "One hundred and five pounds, and the family of a foreigner will come to me. Don't be willing, don't be willing, don't be willing, the son of the scholar is destined." The child said, "Weighing one dozen twenty-three pounds, the young official will grow up and go to the mountain. Don't worry about the seventh-grade county officials, and the three officials are also good climbers". Playing the scale flower can only play in the out (i.e., from the small number to the big number), can not be outside to play in.