'Slight Cold' is the 23 solar term and happens on January 5 to January 7 when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 285 degrees. To China, “Slight Cold” indicates the weather starts to enter the coldest days. When “Slight cold” comes, the wild goose all move to north and magpie starts to build their homes. The average temperature in Beijing during this period is around minus 5 degree Celsius and some places in north China can reach minus 30 degree Celsius. Temperature around Qinling Mountain and Huaihe River is kept at around 0 degree Celsius.
Traditional Customs
In Nanjing, people often eat vegetable-rice. Traditional Nanjing people cook vegetable-rice on this day with different ingredients. Some cook it with green vegetables, bacon, sausage or dried salted duck, together with some ginger and boil with glutinous rice. In Guangdong province, people eat glutinous rice in the morning. Usually the rice consists of 60 percent of glutinous rice and 40 percent of fragrant rice. People fry some preserved meat and peanut and eat it together with the rice.
Healthy Living Tips
To prevent from the coldness, it’s better to eat food that can provide heat and energy to human’s body, for example, food with hot natures including trout, hot pepper, cinnamon and pepper, and food with warm nature such as glutinous rice, chives, fennel, caraway, asparagus, leaf mustard, pumpkin, ginger, spring onion, garlic, apricot, peach, dates, longan, leechee, papaya, cheery, pomegranate, plum, chestnut, almond, lamb, pig’s liver, chicken, goose egg, eel, chub, prawn, sea cucumber and so on.
