Have you heard about The 24 Solar Terms, 24节气 Jié qì?
What is the 24 Solar Terms?
The 24 Solar Terms were created by ancient Chinese people and used to indicate the changes of climate and its phenomenon. Ancient Chinese divided the traditional lunar calendar into the 24 Solar Terms based on the observation of Sun’s position and movement to guide people for agricultural activity at the time.
立春 Lì chūn, Start of Spring ( Feb. 3rd)
立春, the first solar terms of the year, indicates the beginning of Spring.
<习俗> Xí sú, What would Chinese people do?
On the day of 立春, Chinese people have traditions of 咬春 Yǎo chūn and 摸春牛 Mō chūn niú. 咬春 means to eat either Chinese spring rolls or spring pancake, and 摸春牛 means to pat a spring cow indicates that it’s time to get ready to work!
<中医食补> Zhōng yī shí bǔ, What would Chinese people eat?
According to Traditional Chinese medicine, it suggested that people may add ingredients, such as 大枣 Dà zǎo、豆豉 Dòu chǐ、葱 Cōng、香菜 Xiāng cài and 花生 Huā shēng into their dishes starting from the day of 立春 to enhance your energy and metabolism. It also suggested that people may take some Chinese herbs, such as 郁金 Yù jīn、枸杞 Gǒu qǐ、丹參 Dān shēn、and 元胡 Yuán hú to re-activate your body from the cold weather.
The 24 Solar terms, the fifth great invention of China, was added to the list of intangible culture heritage of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2016.