Beginning of Spring (February 4 this year) is the first solar term of the 24 solar terms, which means the beginning of spring and the beginning of the year sequence.

The ancients summed up three landmark phenology of spring：First, the east wind thaws, that is, the east wind warms, the earth begins to thaw, and all things begin to recover; Second, the insects began to vibrate, and the insects gradually woke up in the cave; Third, the ice in the river began to melt, and the fish began to swim on the water. At this time, there were some pieces of ice on the water, as if they were floating on the back of the fish.There are many customs in the Beginning of Festival, the most representative of which are "beating spring" and "biting spring".

Spring beating refers to the use of whips to beat the earth made of spring cattle, pray for a new year's harvest. It is said that the custom of fighting spring originated from the imperial palace. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, "the Duke of Zhou started to make the local ox in spring", in the Han Dynasty, "display the local ox model", in the Song Dynasty, "display the local ox in front of the Yamen from the capital of a country to each state and county", and later generations follow this custom. Smashing the spring cattle means to urge the cattle to plough the land. People snatch the pieces of spring cattle home, especially to snatch their heads. It is said that it can promote the reproduction of cattle by scattering the returned broken soil in the cattle pen.

Biting spring means biting and eating spring cake, spring roll, radish and other food on the spring day to pray for health. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a custom of making "spring plate" in spring. Leeks and spring cakes were placed on the plate as food to welcome the new year. The custom of biting spring is also to chew radish. Biting spring is the ancient diet regimen. After the beginning of spring, the weather changes from cold to warm, warm and poisonous evil start to move, radish, leek and other ingredients have the effect of spreading Xin Gan, which is conducive to the growth and protection of positive life-energy.

Beginning of spring, carrying the good hope of the Chinese people, is a new beginning and gives birth to new vitality.

Source: overseas edition of people's daily

Time: February 4, 2020