One of the twenty-four solar terms-Lixia

"Summer" in "Lixia" means "big", which means that the plants planted in spring have grown upright. In ancient times, people attached great importance to the etiquette of Lixia. On the day of Lixia, people in ancient times held a welcoming ceremony.

Lixia also has festival activities such as tasting new ones. For example, in Suzhou, there is a proverb of "seeing three new things in summer". Three new things are cherries, green plums, and wheat, which are used to sacrifice ancestors. In Changshu, tasting new foods is more abundant. There is a saying of "nine meat and thirteen vegetarians". Nine meats are crucian carp, salted egg, snail amberjack, and extinguished (that is, simmer on a low fire; Various spices are processed to become chicken) chicken, pickled, braised shrimp, cherry meat; thirteen elements include cherry, plum, wheat silkworm (new wheat is cooked into thin strips and cooked), bamboo shoots, broad beans, spear needles, peas, cucumber, Lettuce, grass head, radish, rose, pine flower. In Nantong, eat boiled chicken and duck eggs.

Lixia is the seventh solar term in the twenty-four solar terms and the first solar term in summer. The Lixia Festival takes place from May 05 to 07 of the Gregorian calendar every year. At this time, the big dipper ’s handle points to the southeast and the solar yellow reaches 45 °. "Almanac": "Fighting refers to the southeast, the dimension is Lixia, and everything grows up to this point, so it is named Lixia." Lixia is an important solar term that marks the growth of everything into the peak season. After the beginning of summer, sunshine increased, gradually warmed up, thunderstorms increased, and the crops entered a stage of vigorous growth.


Lixia said goodbye to spring, is the beginning of summer. Spring is born, summer is long, autumn is harvested, and winter is stored. Due to our vast territory and large north-south span, natural rhythms vary from place to place. In the summer season, only the area south of the line from Fuzhou to Nanling in China is truly a summer of "green trees thick and overcast in summer, and the reflection of the terraces into the pond"; while parts of the northeast and northwest have just entered spring. According to the standard of modern climatology (average temperature in China) in China, the average daily temperature rises steadily above 22 ° C for the beginning of summer.