Characteristics and Customs of Xiaoman Festival

Xiaoman, the eighth of the twenty-four solar terms, is also the second solar term of summer. Xiaoman, bucket nail, the sun reaches 60 ° of yellow longitude, in the annual calendar May 20-22 cross section. The name Xiaoman has two meanings. First, it is related to climatic precipitation. Xiaoman festival during the southern rainstorms began to increase, frequent precipitation; folk proverb "Xiaoman Xiaoman, the river is gradually full". Xiaoman in the "full", referring to the fullness of rain. Second, with agricultural wheat. In the northern part of the small fullness of the festival period less rain or even no rain, this "full" does not mean precipitation, but refers to the fullness of wheat.

Meteorological features:

Southern region: During the Xiaoman festival, southern China generally receives a lot of rainfall and heavy rainfall. Warm and humid air from the southern ocean is active, and from the north south of the cold air in South China, South China will often be sustained widespread heavy precipitation, resulting in torrential rain or extraordinarily heavy rainfall, as the proverb says, "Xiaoman, the river is gradually full". After the small fullness of southern China into the "dragon boat water" rainfall concentration period. Jiangnan region is often also full of rivers and lakes, if this stage of the rain is less, may be the Pacific subtropical high pressure is weaker, the location of the south.

Northern region: Xiaoman festival, China's northern regions have not yet entered the rainy season, every year from late July to early August ("seven down eight up") is the rainy season in China's northern regions. For northern regions, the little or no rainfall of Xiaoman is not as impressive as the rise in temperature. Xiaoman, which is often the longest period of sunshine in the northern region among the twenty-four seasons, and it is much easier to heat the dry air in the north than the moist air in the south, so temperatures in some northern places can easily rise out of nowhere and rise very quickly at Xiaoman, further narrowing the temperature difference with the south. The northern region is dryland agriculture, food crops to grow wheat. In the north the name Xiaoman means, because wheat and other summer crops seeds have begun to full, but not yet completely full, about quite late milk ripening.

Characteristics of the phenomenon of physical climate:

"A wait for the bitter vegetable show, the second wait for the death of wuzhao, the third wait for the arrival of wheat in autumn." It means that after the Xiaoman Festival, the bitter vegetables have already flourished with their branches and leaves; after that, some grasses with thin and soft branches that like shade begin to die under strong sunlight; in the last period of Xiaoman, wheat begins to ripen.

Customs of Xiaoman Festival:

1. Sacrificing three carts

Sacrificing three carts, i.e., water carts, oil carts and silk carts. People's farming and life can not be separated from these three cars, so in order to pray for the wind and rain, days of prosperity. Legend has it that the water car "car god" for the white dragon, farmers in the car before the water on the car base on the fish, incense and candles, etc. to worship, the special place for the offerings in a cup of white water, the sacrifice poured into the field, there are wishing the water source Chunwang meaning.

2, the sacrifice of silkworm

Anciently, people regarded the silkworm as a heavenly creature. In order to pray for the forgiveness of heavenly creatures and have a good harvest of silkworms, the silkworm festival was held when the silkworms were released. Pray for silkworm festival has no fixed date, only according to the family silkworm in which day on which day held. However, the difference is only two or three days. Silkworm farmers go to the "Silkworm Lady Temple" and the "Cicada God Temple" to offer fruits, wine, and sumptuous dishes to kneel down and worship, and especially to put the "noodle cocoons" made of noodles on the "straw mountain" to pray for the release of silkworms. The "mountain of straw" is used to pray for a good harvest of silkworm cocoons.

3, three cars

Small full of festival in early summer, cocoon formation, is waiting to be picked to renew the silk, this is the busiest season of the farmers, the proverb says "small full of three cars," said the silk car, the oil car, the field car.

Silkworms cook cocoons, refurbish the silk car, ready to embellish the silk, day and night operation. The rapeseed flowers in the fields also bear seeds, and the rapeseed will be picked, and the oil will be ground in the workshop, to be sold. The rice-planting people, ready to bring the soil to split the seedlings.

4, see the yellow wheat

In Guanzhong region, every year when the wheat is about to ripen, married daughters have to visit their parents' home, to ask about the preparation of the summer harvest. This custom is called "seeing the yellow tops of the wheat," and is extremely poetic. Son-in-laws and daughters bring gifts such as oil spinning molds, yellow apricots and cucumbers as if it were a festival. They go to the mother's family to pay their respects. Farmer's Proverb: "The top of the wheat is yellow. Daughter to see the mother, unloaded bar yoke, mother to see the wrongdoer." The more for more busy before the daughter went to ask her mother's family about the preparation of the wheat harvest, and after the busy, the mother then visited her daughter, concerned about her daughter's drudgery.

5, grab the water

"Grab the water" is the old folk farming customs, spread in the area of Zhejiang Haining. Hold this ceremony, more than by the elder deacon summoned the households, in the determined date of the dawn torches, in the water car based on eating wheat cake, wheat cake, wheat dumplings, to be the deacon to drums and gongs for the number, the group of people to hit the instrument and, stepping on the small river Han on the pre-installed water car, dozens of vehicles all stepped on the river to lead the irrigation of the human field to the river water dry party stops.

6, eat bitter bitter vegetable

Spring wind blowing, bitter vegetable long, the deserted beach is a granary. Bitter bitter vegetable is one of the earliest Chinese people eat wild vegetables. The book of Zhou said: the day of the small full of bitter vegetables show. The Book of Songs says: Cai Bitter Cai Bitter, under the first sun. It is said that in order to survive, Wang Baochuan had eaten bitter vegetables in the cold kiln for 18 years. In the old society, every spring when the green and yellow does not last, the farmers have to rely on bitter bitter vegetables to fill their hunger. Bitter bitter vegetables, with bitter taste, although against the mouth, better than the empty intestine. When the Red Army on the Long March, had to bitter bitter vegetables to fill the hunger, through a difficult time, the Jiangxi Soviet Union has a song: bitter bitter vegetables, flowers yellow, and when the wild vegetables and when the food, the Red Army ate on the battlefield, valiantly kill the enemy to win the war. The bitter bitter vegetable is known as the "Red Army vegetable", "long march vegetable".

7, busy planting

Small full of festival weather is the time of busy farming. The Yellow River Basin provinces, the fourth month of the lunar calendar has just been busy harvesting wheat playing field. Pearl River Basin sowing autumn rice, the Northeast is cotton, wheat and soybean under the period, sorghum has just grown, and must be hoed to weeds, cut the poor seedlings.