Lixia Solar term - Beginning of Summer

Lixia – means “The Beginning of Summer”. Xia is a holiday, so it's a celebration of growth. Summer only comes into its own right, but gradually the weather is getting warmer, the day length increases.

Lixia is the seventh lesser season of the 24 seasons of the Chinese calendar. The first summer month - the month of the Snake - comes annually on May 5-7; its first half is the season of the Lixia. The Lixia season lasts until about May 20, when it gives way to the Xiaoman solar term - Small Sprouts..

The seventh lesser season of the Chinese agricultural calendar is an important season for the revival of nature and the beginning of the active growth of agricultural crops.

CLIMATE

Summer is just coming into its own, the weather is gradually becoming warmer, and the length of the day is increasing. At the same time, air humidity increases due to more frequent rains.

TRADITIONS

The beginning of summer according to the lunar calendar in China has been celebrated since ancient times. According to historical records, during the Zhou dynasty, on the day of the Lixia offensive, the emperor, personally leading a procession with hundreds of civil and military officials, headed to the southern outskirts of the capital to welcome summer, where a ceremony of worship of the Sun deity Emperor Yan Di and the deity of the element of Fire Zhuyun took place ( Zhuyong is also known as Zhuzhong (Chinese: 祝诵，祝融). All members of the procession, including the ruler, subordinates and servants, had to be dressed in bright red outfits, decorating not only themselves, but also the horses with jade pendants in red shades. The main part of this ceremony was the sacrifice and worship of the legendary emperor, patron of agriculture and medicine Shennong, the deity of the element of Fire - Zhuyun, in the hope of not only saving crops from drought and floods, but growing a rich harvest.

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In some regions of China, residents celebrate this holiday with mandatory tea drinking. In other regions, variegated rice is eaten.

Another ancient Chinese tradition is to eat more chicken or duck eggs. Moreover, it sounds like this: “If there are eggs at the beginning of summer, all the stones will be trampled into the ground.” In other words, it will help improve your overall fitness and help you cope with the heat more easily.

Since ancient times, eggs in China have been a symbol of well-being. They even served, in a sense, as amulets. Therefore, on this day, a boiled egg was placed in a knitted or wicker openwork bag and hung around the child’s neck, in the hope that the child would not get sick with any of the summer illnesses and would happily spend this difficult season. After all, all adults must certainly work in the field. This is not winter, when everyone is at home and will be able to monitor the health of the children. In this regard, there is a children's game - Doudan - the battle of eggs on the Lixia.

Another ancient Chinese tradition was to weigh people for good luck. The re-weighing had to be carried out on the first day of the small season of Liqiu - the beginning of autumn. It is believed that this was originally done to determine how much weight a person had lost after a difficult agricultural summer, but eventually it turned into a mandatory event, a kind of prayer to heaven for good luck on the day of the onset of the lesser solar term of Lixia.

An ancient Chinese poet described the order of meeting this time of year in the following way: “First to welcome the hot summer, Then to be sad about the past spring”... Sadness for the past spring is usually drowned in young plum wine, which is opened in May. On this day, boiled eggs must be present on the table. In China they say that an egg looks like a pig's heart. Therefore, eating an egg at the beginning of summer means protecting yourself from possible heart problems during periods of extreme heat.

HEALTH

From the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine, Summer is associated with Yang, with the element Fire and therefore with growth and lush flowering, the heart, blood vessels, joy.

In summer, it is very important to maintain free blood circulation in the blood vessels, preventing it from stagnating. To do this, it is advisable to eat less fatty and high-calorie foods, alcohol, not to overwork, rest more often and spend as much time as possible in nature. The length of the day in summer increases significantly, therefore, Chinese medicine also recommends, if possible, a short midday rest.

DIE

The best diet for summer is fresh herbs, vegetables and cereals from various grains. It is also believed that you should increase your intake of certain spicy foods such as ginger and onions during the summer. The pungent taste of these foods helps prevent or eliminate stagnation of Qi and blood. In addition, their pungent taste and heating properties warm the stomach and help dissipate pathogenic cold from the surface of the body. These functions may be useful in the summer, when people increase their consumption of soft drinks, eat various foods with cool and cold properties (for example, watermelons and ice cream), which leads to the accumulation of internal pathogenic cold in the stomach, and also bathe in cool water and turn on air conditioners, which can cause the perception of external pathogenic cold.

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When choosing tea for tea drinking this season, you should focus on your inner feelings and preferences; on hot, sunny days, green teas from a fresh harvest will be good, and if the weather is windy and rainy, it is better to warm up with shu pu-erh, highly fermented oolongs and red tea.