Abstract: Solar terms originated in China. A solar term is any of 24 points in traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars that matches a particular astronomical event or signifies some natural phenomenon. Lichun refers to the spring and new life.
| | It is the 1st solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 315° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 330°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 315°. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around February 4 and ends around February 18 (February 19 East Asia time). It's also the beginning of a Sexagenary cycle. |
Lichun was frequently mentioned in literature. The most famous reference is probably Du Fu's poetry, simply titled Lìchūn:
Spring refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, and regrowth. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth to "spring forth," In climates that have no snow and rare frosts, the air and ground temperature increases more rapidly. It is the time to actively develop the agriculture.
Chinese Agriculture:
Introduction:
Due to China's status as a developing country and its severe shortage of arable land, farming in China has always been very labor-intensive. However, throughout its history various methods have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. They also utilized the seed drill to help improve on row farming.
Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only about 15% of its total land area can be cultivated. China's arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world's population. Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square kilometers are irrigated. The land is divided into approximately 200 million households …….Click to view more
Health Maintenance
It is very important to maintain a balance among protein, carbohydrate, vitamin, mineral substance and other nutrients. The temperature is still cold in the early spring and the body consumes more calories. Dietary appropriate is warm not cold. Remember to avoid fat, raw or cold food and excitant food. Drinking more water contributes to nourishing the liver and excreting waste. A warm, soothing mug of scented tea can make you feel refreshed. Besides, it is necessary to eat some fresh vegetables and fruits in order to keep the balance of nutrients and supplement the deficient-nutrients.
Recommend Food
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| Chinese Dates | Peanuts | Black Fungus | Medlar |
Inappropriate Food
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| Ocean Fish | Mutton | Shrimps | Crab |
Customs
Lichun traditionally signifies the beginning of spring in East Asian cultures. Chinese New Year is celebrated around this time. Farmers often celebrate the beginning of Lichun with special village events, worship and offerings to the gods and ceremonies for a blissful and prosperous new year. In the lunisolar calendar, New Year's Day might be before or after Lichun. A year without Lichun is called no spring year. No spring year is also known as widow year in northern China or blind year in southern China. Marriage is believed to be unlucky in a year without Lichun.
Spring Pancake(chun bing)
In China, people eat chūnbǐng on this day. Spring-pancake is a traditional Chinese food unique to the northern regions. People eat spring pancakes on the day called lichun to celebrate the beginning of the spring.
| The spring pancake took its rise from the Jin dynasty and has prospered since the Tang dynasty. The lichun was valued by both Chinese ancient kings and civilians. Unlike kings’ great celebrations, civilians celebrated the lichun by eating spring pancakes wrapped around fresh vegetables and meat, which is called bite-the-spring. Bite-the-spring implies that civilians are praying for a good harvest year through eating the fresh vegetables and meat at the beginning of spring. In the Qing dynasty, spring pancakes became a fried pancake wrapped around a filling that included ham, chicken, pork, black dates, scallions, walnuts and sugar. In addition, spring pancakes were one of the nine desserts for the regal banquet of Qing dynasty.. | |
The traditional belief holds that the vegetable sprouts will help people cater to the natural tendency of growing. So the spring pancake has a variety of tender vegetable sprouts wrapped inside, such as soybean sprouts, baby leek, spinach and shallot. These are complemented by flavorful fried egg and braised pork slices. The pancake wrapping is just like that of a Peking roast duck, only bigger.
Chun Fan
| In the Republic of China, Lichun has been Farmer's Day since 1941. Chun fan, which is kind of couplet, can be seen on the sides of doors leading to people's homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior. It is used as a new spring's decoration that expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year.Couplets displayed as part of the Chinese New Year festival. These are usually purchased at a market a few days before and glued to the doorframe. | |
Celebrating the coming spring
People go outside to show their passion for the spring. Villagers usually whip soil cattle during the lichun. Before that day, people set a soil cattle outside the east gate of the town, together with a dummy holding his strap. It means the start of the spring and tells farmers they should start to prepare the farm work. On high noon of that day, farmers whip the soil cattle to show their enthusiasm for spring.
The other way is that one boy will be chosen to dress up as an officer. On that day, he wears paper palace suit and riding a cattle, leading people to build altar to hope in the New Year the good crop weather, the grain and multiply it. On their way, people bang drums and sing songs to celebrate the coming spring.
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Written by Nicolas Yang
