Chinese Solar Calendar: Minor Heat

Chinese Solar Calendar: 小暑 Minor Heat

You may have heard about the Chinese Lunar calendar, but what's the solar calendar?

The Lunar Calendar is based on the phases of the moon, divided into 12 months. It's used for determining festivals e.g. Spring Festival/Chinese New Year.

The Solar Calendar however, is based on the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and it's divided into 24 phases, each lasting around 15 days.

Historically, this has been used for agriculture and specific seasonal activities, as each new season would be an indicator of a change in the weather and allow farmers to plan and prepare accordingly.

Currently we're about to enter 小暑 (Xiǎoshǔ) Minor Heat, so here are some customs and interesting information about this upcoming time period!

小暑 Minor Heat is the 11th solar phase and it starts approximately from July 6-8. Minor Heat, like its' name, has relatively hot and humid weather, with thunderstorms and monsoons being quite common. The weather and rainfall may vary, as northern regions in China tend to be colder with their rainy seasons starting later.

Food:

Eel, Mung bean soup, lotus roots and lotus leaf porridge, watermelon rind dew.

Customs:

"Eating New Food Custom" 食新习俗 (Shíxīn xísú). This is an old custom where some regions would use newly harvested rice and wheat to make flour, from which they would make various breads and noodles and share them with friends and family for good fortune and a good harvest.

"Eating Dumplings" 吃饺子 (Chī jiǎozi). Relatively self-explanatory. This period of time is quite hot and people tend to be not as hungry, which is why dumplings are considered to be the best food to stimulate hunger. I for one can't think of an occasion where I would refuse dumplings, so this may indeed be true.

Drying things on the 6th day of the 6th lunar month. Drying paintings and clothes is believed to prevent them from being by insects

Proverbs:

雨打小暑头，四十五天不用牛 (Yǔ dǎ xiǎoshǔ tóu, sìshíwǔ tiān bùyòng niú): If it rains at the start of Minnor Heat, no cattle will be needed for 45 days.

小暑交大暑，热得无处躲 (Xiǎoshǔ jiāodà shǔ, rè dé wú chù duǒ): From Lesser Heat to Greater Heat, it's so hot that there's no place to hide.

yes make the playlist!

Consider it in-progress anon!

Insect season is now in full swing.

Almost every dorm floor has complained about the flying roaches, and now our dorm just issued a notice warning us about ants and to keep everything closed. Fun times ahead.

Life in China #13 Summer

Summer means insect season, which has now apparently expanded to includes wasps as I discovered when walking to pick up my parcel, and having a wasp just randomly crash into my forehead and then nonchalantly buzz off on it's merry little way.

Life in China #14 Milktea

Having tried out quite a few milk tea brands, I can confidently say that KFC does the best milk tea by far (yes I'm aware that there is an abundance of milk-tea and tea stores in China but KFC's just has that something)

I don't know why, maybe it's the simplicity or the almost-perfect sugar balance but whenever I want milk-tea I order from KFC, one of the many things that I will miss once I go back home, to a land of milktea-free KFC's.

In a rewatching Бригада (Law of the Lawless) for the nth time kind of mood.