The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. The Beginning of Spring is the first and falls on Feb 4 this year.
Start of Spring lifts the curtain of spring. After that everything turns green and full of vigor; people clearly see that the daytime is becoming longer and the weather is becoming warmer.
Chinese farmers celebrate the onest of spring with folk tradition such as the sacrifice of oxes, which dates back 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty.
Making a Spring Ox is a custom in Shaanxi which is practiced right before the Start of Spring. Some skilled artisans are hired by local goverment to build the frame of an ox out of bamboo strips and the legs with wood. Then they paste some paper and paint onto it??and, look! That's the image of an ox. It is said that there will be a good harvest that year if more red and yellow paper is used.
There is a traditionally practice called "biting the spring" which can help digestion and prevent illnesses. During this period, we usually make traditional food at home, such as chunpan, a mixture of vegetables, chunbing, spring pancake and chunjuan.
Besides, people would post calligraphy and paintings on their doors to welcome spring and pray for good luck on the first day of Start of Spring.
In China, it is said that the egg can be set upright on the first day of the Start of Spring, Spring Equinox day and Autumn Equinox day. So if someone can make the egg stand on the first day of Start of Spring, he will have good luck in the future. Here are some tips: the most important thing is to shift the egg's center of gravity to the lowest part of the egg. In this way, the trick is holding the egg until the yolk sinks as much as possible. For this, people should choose an egg about 4 or 5 days old, whose yolk is inclined to sink down.
