The meaning of the vernal equinox

About the meaning of the Vernal Equinox

Regarding the meaning of the Vernal Equinox, there are twenty-four different solar terms in our country. The Vernal Equinox is one of the twenty-four solar terms and is a traditional Chinese festival. It is the fourth solar term among the 24 solar terms. The vernal equinox falls in the mid-spring month and has very important traditional significance. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the vernal equinox. The meaning of the Vernal Equinox 1

The Vernal Equinox is one of the twenty-four solar terms. In ancient times, it was also called the "Sunday Equinox", "Day and Night Equinox", and "Mid-Spring Moon". It occurs around March 21 every year ( 20th to 22nd), the lunar calendar date is not fixed. At this time, the sun reaches 0° of ecliptic longitude and vernal equinox.

According to the "Collection of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order": "In the middle of February, the division is half, and this is half of the ninety days, so it is called the division." Another "Spring and Autumn Fanlu·Yin and Yang" "The Vernal Equinox" says: "The vernal equinox means that yin and yang are half in phase, so day and night are equal in temperature and cold and heat are equal." "History of the Ming Dynasty Li Yi" says: "The equinox is the point where yellow and red intersect. When the sun travels here, day and night are equinoxed. "So, the meaning of the vernal equinox, firstly, means that day and night are equally divided into 12 hours each; secondly, in ancient times, spring was from the beginning of spring to the beginning of summer. The vernal equinox was in the three months of spring and divided the spring equally.

In ancient China, the vernal equinox was divided into three periods: "The first period is when the primal bird arrives; the second period is when thunder makes its sound; and the third period is when lightning begins." That is to say, after the vernal equinox, swallows fly from the south, When it rains, there will be thunder and lightning in the sky. The record of the vernal equinox in the ancient Chinese calendar is: "Three days before the vernal equinox, the sun enters the equator."

The meaning of the vernal equinox: day and night are almost equal.

The vernal equinox is one of the solar terms that reflects the changes in the four seasons. The vernal equinox is the fourth solar term among the 24 solar terms. In ancient my country, it was customary to use the Beginning of Spring, Beginning of Summer, Beginning of Autumn, and Beginning of Winter to express the beginning of the four seasons. The spring equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice are in the middle of each season. On the day of the spring equinox, the sun shines directly on the equator, and the day and night time are equal in all parts of the earth. Therefore, in ancient times, the spring and autumn equinoxes were also called "day and night equinoxes."

As the saying goes: "When the wheat rises on the spring equinox, fertilizer and water must follow closely." A spring rain brings warmth, and after the spring rain, we are busy plowing the fields. The busy spring season is about to begin, and spring management, spring plowing, and spring planting are about to enter a busy stage. After the vernal equinox, overwintering crops enter the growth stage, and field management must be strengthened. Because the temperature is rising rapidly and water demand is relatively large, farmers must strengthen water storage and moisture conservation.

Whether the weather is warm or cold at the Spring Equinox: It’s not cold anymore

The Spring Equinox is here, the weather is no longer cold, it’s past the hibernation, and bright spring has arrived in most areas. At this time, day and night are equal, but we cannot relax completely, as there is still the possibility of late spring cold.

During the spring equinox, except for the alpine mountainous areas where winter lasts all year round and the areas north of 45° north latitude, the daily average temperature in all parts of China rises steadily above 0℃. At this time, the severe cold has passed, and the temperature has risen rapidly, especially in North China and the Huanghuai Plain. The daily average temperature has risen above 10°C almost at the same time as the rainy areas south of the Yangtze River and entered the bright spring. In the vast land, willows are green on the banks, warblers are flying and grass grows, wheat is jointing, rapeseed flowers are fragrant, peach blossoms are red and plums are white and spring is yellow, and South China is a scene of late spring.

"At the vernal equinox, yin and yang are half in phase. Therefore, day and night are even and the cold and heat are equal." The word "fen" expresses the boundaries between day and night, cold and heat. It is recorded in the lunar calendar that "Dou Zhi Ren is the vernal equinox, which travels around the sky. Day and night are equally divided in the northern and southern hemispheres. It is also the half of spring, so it is called the vernal equinox."

In ancient times, the vernal equinox was also a tradition. The festival has left behind many customs, such as the beginning of spring eggs, eating spring vegetables, spring festivals, erecting eggs, etc. Among them, the most bizarre one is "erecting eggs".

The Four Principles of Health Preservation during the Spring Equinox

The yin and yang of food complement each other

There are five types of food: cold, hot, warm, cool and flat. property. For example, when cooking fish, shrimp, crab and other cold foods, it is necessary to add warm seasonings such as onions, ginger, wine, and vinegar to prevent the dishes from being cold or cold; and when eating leeks, garlic, papaya and other dishes, they should be served with Eggs and other yin-nourishing foods can achieve the purpose of complementing yin and yang.

Eat more seasonal vegetables

Each season has seasonal vegetables that grow in line with its climate conditions. They capture the essence of heaven and earth and have high nutritional value. Eating leeks, which have yang-nourishing effects, can enhance the body's spleen and stomach energy; bean sprouts, bean sprouts, lettuce and other ingredients can help activate the body's growth function; and eating mulberry, cherry, strawberry and other nutritious late spring fruits can moisturize the lungs Produces fluid and nourishes the liver.

Of course, in addition to paying attention to your diet, the key to maintaining good health is to improve your own immunity. You should maintain a relaxed, happy, and optimistic mental state mentally. In terms of daily life, you should insist on appropriate exercise and maintain normal sleep time. Pay attention to replenishing water and electrolytes to promote blood system circulation, help maintain body balance, and achieve the best health effects.

The weather conditions during the Spring Equinox are unstable, with low temperatures in the morning and evening. For "sub-healthy people" who have been in high-intensity work and high-stress conditions for a long time, attention should be paid to preventing "pre-diseases" that may appear in the future. If you try to avoid crowded places, you can use your living environment to do simple fitness exercises.

Eating sour food increases sweetness to nourish the spleen.

It is reported that there are many folk rumors about the spring diet, and Chinese medicine also pays much attention to it. It is commonly known as eating "spring". Experts suggest that during this season, you can eat more spleen-nourishing sweets such as red dates, honey, leeks, spinach, etc., and eat less sour and spicy foods. In addition, nut foods, such as walnuts, peanuts, almonds, peach kernels, etc., should be supplemented at least three times a week, which can help refresh the mind, relieve dryness, and relieve itching. In the daily lunch, it is also suitable to supplement stewed foods, such as carrot rib soup, ginkgo black chicken soup, etc., which can not only supplement the water needed by the human body during the seasonal transition, but also increase protein intake, which helps to enhance the body's resistance. force.

Pay attention to nourishing the liver

Traditional Chinese medicine theory believes that spring should be in the liver, summer should be in the heart, long summer should be in the spleen, autumn should be in the lungs, and winter should be in the kidneys. Spring is the season when liver diseases are most common, so you need to pay attention to nourishing the liver and coordinating the balance of yin and yang in the liver. Sweet foods can nourish the liver and kidneys, such as wolfberry, walnuts, peanuts, jujubes, longans, etc. Alcohol can damage the liver, so it is not advisable to drink alcohol in spring. Brewing some chrysanthemum tea and mint water can clear liver heat, or drink electrolyte-rich drinks such as Pocari Sweat, which is also a good drink in spring. The meaning of the vernal equinox 2

In the Zhou Dynasty, there was a sun worship ceremony on the vernal equinox. "Book of Rites": "Sacrifice the sun on the altar." Kong Yingda Shu: "It is also called the vernal equinox." This custom has been passed down from generation to generation. Pan Rongbi of the Qing Dynasty wrote in "Records of Success in the Imperial Capital": "Sacrificing the sun at the spring equinox and the moon at the autumnal equinox are the great ceremonies of the country. Scholars and people are not allowed to worship without permission."

The Sun Temple is located on the east side of Sun Temple Road in the southeast outside Chaoyang Gate in Beijing. , also called Chaori Altar, it is the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshiped the Great Ming God (the sun) on the vernal equinox. The morning sun was set at Mao Ke on the vernal equinox. In every year of Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng and Ren, the emperor personally offered sacrifices, and in other years officials offered sacrifices on his behalf.

The "equinox" of the vernal equinox has two meanings. One refers to "the spring and autumn equinoxes, the equinoxes of day and night." On the vernal equinox, the sun shines directly on the equator, and day and night are almost equal in length all over the world, that is, the length of day and night is equal, both 12 hours. At this time, the North Pole will see the sun for the first time after half a year of darkness, while the corresponding South Pole will say goodbye to the sun on this day.

After the Spring Equinox, the position of the direct sunlight moves northward, and the days in the Northern Hemisphere begin to become longer and the nights become shorter. The difference is that in the Southern Hemisphere, the days become shorter and the nights become longer. The second refers to the "equal division of seasons". If the period from the beginning of spring to the beginning of summer is regarded as spring, the vernal equinox is the midpoint of spring, which exactly divides spring. There are exactly ninety days from the beginning of spring to the beginning of summer. The vernal equinox divides it into two, hence the name vernal equinox.

On the spring equinox in February, we begin to visit tombs and worship ancestors, also called Spring Festival. Before sweeping the tomb, a grand ancestor worship ceremony must be held in the ancestral hall. Pigs and sheep are slaughtered. Drummers are invited to play. The ceremonial student reads the sacrificial text and leads the three offerings. When the spring equinox tomb sweeping begins, the tombs of Kaiji ancestors and distant ancestors are first swept and paid homage to. The whole clan and the whole village are mobilized. The scale is large, and the team often reaches hundreds or even thousands of people.

After the tombs of the founding ancestors and distant ancestors have been swept, the tombs of the ancestors in each house will be swept and worshipped, and finally each family will sweep and worship the private tombs of the family. In most Hakka areas, spring ancestor worship and tomb sweeping begins at the Spring Equinox or earlier, and must be completed by the Qingming Festival at the latest. There is a saying in various places that the tomb doors will be closed after the Qingming Dynasty, and the ancestors' spirits will no longer be used.

During the spring equinox, except for the alpine mountainous areas where winter lasts all year round and the areas north of 45° north latitude, the daily average temperature in various parts of China rises steadily above 0℃. The severe cold has passed and the temperature has risen rapidly. Especially in North China and the Huanghuai Plain, the daily average temperature rises above 10°C almost at the same time as the rainy areas south of the Yangtze River and enters the bright spring. The meaning of the Vernal Equinox 3

Special delicacies of the Vernal Equinox

Donkey Roll

According to the custom of old Beijing, one has to eat donkey rolls on the Spring Equinox in order to ward off evil and pray for blessings. Donkey Rolling has an extraordinary origin. Judging from its processing materials, it includes rhubarb rice noodles, soybean noodles, red bean paste, white sugar, sesame oil, osmanthus, green and red silk and melon kernels, which is enough to meet the nutritional dietary guidelines for diversification of ingredients. Its production is divided into three processes: blank making, filling and shaping. The outer layer of the prepared "Donkey Rolling" is covered with bean flour, which is golden in color. The bean-flavored filling is sweet, soft in the mouth and has a unique flavor. It is a delicacy suitable for all ages.

Donkey rolling is also called bean flour cake. There is no doubt that bean flour cake uses soybean flour as the main raw material. Plus typical protein-complementing foods like bean paste. Every 100 grams of donkey rolling contains 194 kcal of heat energy, 8.2 grams of protein, 0.2 grams of fat, and 41.8 grams of carbohydrates. In addition, it also contains vitamins, calcium and other micronutrients.

However, I would also like to remind everyone here that although donkey rolling is delicious and has good nutritional value, don’t eat too much. After all, it contains a lot of sugar. Eating too much will cause excessive energy and may easily increase blood sugar. . In addition, the soft and waxy ingredients are difficult to digest if taken in too much. Therefore, donkey rolling, as a traditional delicacy, can be tasted briefly during festivals and left with endless aftertaste.

Sun Cake

"Sun Cake, step by step." According to old Beijing customs, on the day of the Spring Equinox, the Sun God is worshiped and "invited" to eat sun cakes. Sun cake is not only a tribute to the Spring Equinox festival, but also a seasonal food, which means "the sun is high". Not only does the "sun cake" have a beautiful meaning, but the arrangement of the glutinous rice and fillings also conforms to the spring health concept of "saving sourness and increasing sweetness".

Sun cakes are generally made from glutinous rice and sugar, with a red yeast watermark on the top showing the image of a three-legged chicken star (golden rooster) with its head raised, or a mold is used to emboss a "golden bird round light" on it to represent the sun god. There are five pieces of sun cake in a bowl, and there is a little noodle-shaped chicken inserted on the top, which is very festive.

This kind of "sun cake" is made of glutinous rice and filled with jujube paste. White melon kernels and secret osmanthus are also added to the filling to pray for a good harvest in the new year. During the Spring Equinox, the climate is mild and the sun is bright. You should eat glutinous rice, red dates, etc. appropriately to adjust the balance of body functions and adapt to the changes in solar terms.

Spring vegetables

The Xie surname in Cangcheng Town, Kaiping, which used to be one of the four counties (now including Heshan as the five cities), has an unruly custom called "Eat spring vegetables on the vernal equinox." "Chuncai" is a kind of wild amaranth, which the locals call "Chunbi Artemisia". On the vernal equinox, the whole village goes to pick spring vegetables. When searching in the fields, most of them are green and thin, about as long as a palm.

The collected spring vegetables are usually boiled with fish fillets in soup at home, which is called "spring soup". There is a jingle that goes: "Spring soup fills the internal organs and cleanses the liver and intestines. The whole family, old and young, is safe and healthy." Since spring, people pray for peace in their homes and health.

The custom of eating spring vegetables has continued to this day. The spring vegetables eaten in different places are different. Spring vegetables, as the name suggests, are spring vegetables. Eating more vegetables in this season can not only supplement nutrition, but also It can play a role in health care. Spring seasonal vegetables include leeks, which are used to nourish Yang; bean sprouts, lettuce, green onions, bean sprouts, garlic sprouts, etc. that promote vitality.

Radish

Yangzhou people also have the custom of eating radish or steamed stuffed buns and spring rolls stuffed with shredded radish during the Spring Equinox. Eating radish at this time can not only ventilate the air up and down, but also have the effect of removing diseases and relieving spring sleepiness.

Among the various vegetables for health care in spring, radish has the best effect. White radish has the functions of clearing away heat and promoting fluid production, regulating qi, digesting and reducing phlegm. When eaten raw, it clears away heat and promotes fluid production, while when cooked, it promotes qi and promotes digestion. When eaten in spring, it can be used to prevent and treat phlegm-rich coughs, sore throat, bloating, constipation and other symptoms. Modern medicine believes that radish has a good diuretic effect, and the fiber it contains can also promote defecation and help lose weight. If you want to use radish to detoxify, you can choose to eat it raw, make it into juice, eat it cold or pickle it.

Folks believe that "radish tops are spicy, tails are dry, and waists are just right." Experts also remind that radishes should be eaten in segments with different nutrients: the top of the radish contains the most vitamin C and is suitable for stir-frying and soup; The segment has a high sugar content and can be cut into shreds and eaten cold; the tail is spicy, contains amylase and mustard oil, and is suitable for pickling and mixing... When the family is small, one large radish cannot be eaten at one time, so you can cut it vertically and eat half of the radish. The head, waist and tail are all in the dish, and the nutrition is balanced.