Beginning of Summer Customs

Welcoming Summer was the most important official ceremony performed on the day of Beginning of Summer in ancient China. Seasonal ritual was taken extremely seriously. According to the *Book of Rites · Monthly Ordinances*, on this day the Son of Heaven personally led the Three Dukes, Nine Ministers, feudal lords, and senior officials to the southern suburbs to welcome summer. The magnificence of the ceremony expressed the ruler’s dependence upon and reverence for the proper timing of Heaven: by acting in accordance with the season, he hoped to receive Heaven’s mandate, ensure favorable winds and timely rain, and secure a prosperous agricultural year.

The ceremony followed strict ritual regulations. The *Book of the Later Han · Treatise on Sacrifices* records: “立夏之日，迎夏于南郊，祭赤帝祝融，车旗服饰皆赤，歌《朱明》，八佾舞《云翘》之舞”. The emperor and his officials wore vermilion ceremonial robes and red jade ornaments; horses, carriages, and banners were likewise red, corresponding to the fire virtue associated with summer. Sacrifice was offered to the Red Emperor, identified with the Flame Emperor, and to Zhurong, both regarded as deities governing the summer season. By the Song dynasty, the ceremonial system had become still more elaborate: in addition to the southern-suburban welcoming rite, sacrifices were offered to Mount Heng, the Southern Sacred Peak, at Hengzhou; to Kuaiji, the Southern Sacred Mountain, at Yuezhou; to the South Sea at Guangzhou; and to the River Deity at Chengdu.

The ceremony has an ancient history extending back to the Zhou dynasty. The *Book of Rites · Monthly Ordinances* gives an explicit account: “先立夏三日，大史谒之天子曰：某日立夏，盛德在火。天子乃斋。立夏之日，天子亲帅三公九卿大夫以迎夏于南郊”. Three days before Beginning of Summer, the Grand Scribe announced the approaching seasonal transition to the ruler, who then entered a period of ritual purification before personally leading senior officials southward to welcome summer.

The tradition continued from the Zhou through the Qing and formed an important part of the state sacrificial system. From the Han onward, it became a fixed seasonal rite. By the Song dynasty, the palace also observed customs in which the emperor bestowed ice and tea. Although the imperial welcoming ceremony has long since passed into history, reconstructed performances are occasionally organized at historic sites such as Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and Altar of the God of Agriculture, offering a glimpse of the grandeur of the ancient rite.

Around Beginning of Summer, visitors may follow announcements from the Temple of Heaven, the Altar of the God of Agriculture, and other historical sites in Beijing for reconstructed seasonal ceremonies. Some heritage attractions organize traditional sacrificial experiences around the solar term, with spectators watching from designated areas. Specific schedules are best checked in advance through local cultural and tourism authorities.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the passing of the beautiful spring season naturally gave rise to a sense of reluctance and melancholy. People therefore prepared wine and food as though seeing an old friend off on a journey, a custom known as “饯春”, bidding farewell to spring. Cui Yin wrote in a rhapsody: “迎夏之首，末春之垂”, while Wu Outing’s poem *Beginning of Summer* says: “无可奈何春去也，且将樱笋饯春归”—spring must depart despite our reluctance, so let cherries and bamboo shoots accompany it on its way.

Cherries and fresh bamboo shoots are the central foods of the farewell banquet. Yuan Xuelan’s Qing-dynasty record of Suzhou customs, *Wujun Suihua Jili*, contains descriptions of such farewell-to-spring feasts. At noon on Beginning of Summer, families often set a table in their own courtyard, both to send spring away and to welcome the arrival of summer. Seasonal foods such as wheat gluten were indispensable, while a large pot of rice might be cooked from glutinous rice, peas, cured pork, diced bamboo shoots, and other ingredients. The custom is therefore both a farewell and a welcome, expressing a Chinese seasonal sensibility in which every beginning is acknowledged and every ending properly completed.

The practice emerged from the sadness ancient people felt at the fleeting nature of spring. As the bright season gradually receded, friends gathered over drinks and food, conversed at leisure, and savored its final scenery, as though seeing a dear companion depart.

In Jiangnan, this sentiment gradually merged seasonal transition with the refined social gatherings of scholars. From the poetry and rhapsodies in which Tang and Song literati mourned the passing of spring to the household banquets of ordinary people in the Ming and Qing periods, bidding farewell to spring slowly evolved from an elegant literary pleasure into a popular seasonal custom.

On Beginning of Summer, a seasonal meal can be prepared in a courtyard, balcony, or home and shared with friends and family as a symbolic farewell to spring. Restaurants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang sometimes offer special seasonal banquets around the solar term, with traditional establishments in Suzhou and Hangzhou particularly associated with this style of cuisine.

The custom of weighing people at Beginning of Summer has long circulated throughout southern China. A large wooden steelyard is hung at the village entrance or inside a traditional gateway, with a stool or basket suspended from its hook. One by one, people sit inside to be weighed. As the person operating the scale adjusts the weight, auspicious phrases are spoken.

There are specific rules governing how the counterweight should be moved: it may move outward but never inward. The symbolism is that a person’s weight should only increase, never decrease; movement in the opposite direction is considered inauspicious.

Elderly people and children are weighed most often. An old verse says: “立夏秤人轻重数，秤悬梁上笑喧闺”. The practice is generally understood as a way of observing how the body changes during summer and guarding against zhuxia, the seasonal malaise traditionally associated with prolonged fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, and weight loss. The period between 10 a.m. and noon was believed to produce the most accurate measurement. At Beginning of Autumn, people were weighed again so that changes over the summer could be compared.

Several explanations are given for the origin of the custom. One story traces it to the Three Kingdoms period. According to legend, after Liu Bei’s death, Zhuge Liang instructed Zhao Zilong to escort the young Liu Adou to the state of Wu so that Lady Sun could care for him. Lady Sun looked after the child attentively and weighed him every year at Beginning of Summer, reporting his weight in writing to Zhuge Liang as evidence of her care. Later generations are said to have followed the practice until it became a custom.

Folk belief held that once a person had been weighed, they would not suffer from *zhuxia*. Gu Lu’s Qing-dynasty *Qing Jia Lu* records: “家户以大秤权人轻重，至立秋日又称之，以验夏中之肥瘠”—households weigh people on a large scale and weigh them again at Beginning of Autumn to see whether they have grown fatter or thinner during summer. The purpose was to judge how much the body had been affected by summer malaise and to recognize changes early enough for illness to be treated at its onset.

Traditional weighing can still be experienced in some villages and folk-culture sites during Beginning of Summer. Many communities organize public activities using large wooden steelyards and accompany the measurement with auspicious sayings. At home, the idea can be adapted simply by recording one’s weight at Beginning of Summer and checking it again at Beginning of Autumn.

Egg fighting is one of the most beloved Beginning-of-Summer games among children. On the day itself, households boil whole eggs in their shells, taking care not to crack them, and then cool them in water for several minutes. In some places, eggs are boiled with black tea or walnut shells and are specifically called “Beginning-of-Summer eggs.” Once cooked, they are placed in small pouches woven from colored thread and hung on children’s chests or from bed curtains. A familiar saying goes: “立夏胸挂蛋，孩子不疰夏”—with an egg hanging at the chest at Beginning of Summer, a child will be spared summer malaise.

Children gather in small groups for the contest. An egg has two ends: the pointed end is called the head, the rounded end the tail. Head is struck against head, tail against tail, and the competition continues one opponent at a time. When an eggshell breaks, its owner concedes defeat and eats the egg. The final egg whose shell remains intact is respectfully crowned the “Egg King.” Folk explanations reduce the game to a simple challenge: whose shell is hardest? Yet the amusement also carries the wish that children will grow up healthy and strong.

The custom has a long history. Folk tradition holds that eating eggs at Beginning of Summer strengthens the body and stomach and gives vigor to the legs, expressed in the exaggerated saying “立夏吃蛋，石板踩烂”—eat eggs at Beginning of Summer and you will be strong enough to tread stone slabs to pieces.

*Zhuxia* was traditionally understood as a common summer condition involving abdominal distension, poor appetite, fatigue, and weight loss, with children considered particularly susceptible. Hanging an egg on the chest was believed to ward it off, while the egg-fighting game gave children a playful way to become aware of the seasonal transition. The custom still survives in kindergartens and primary schools, where it has become a lively introduction to traditional culture.

On Beginning of Summer, eggs can be boiled at home and placed in small pouches woven from colored thread for children to wear. Communities and schools frequently organize egg-fighting contests. Visitors can also try the game at seasonal folk events: simply boil an egg, find an opponent, and see which shell survives to compete for the title of “Egg King.”

“Tasting the new” means sampling foods that have just ripened or reached the market with the new season. Jiangsu and Zhejiang preserve a long tradition of doing so on Beginning of Summer. In Suzhou, the saying “立夏见三新” speaks of seeing or tasting the “Three New Foods”—newly ripened cherries, green plums, and wheat. These are first offered to the ancestors and then eaten by the family. Another familiar expression is “立夏尝三新”, while the same idea may also be described as tasting the “Three Freshes.”

Exactly which foods make up the three varies by region. In Nanjing, they may be cherries from Xuanwu Lake, green plums from Gaochun, and shad from Zhenjiang; in Suzhou, cherries, green plums, and wheat; while Wuxi distinguishes no fewer than three separate sets: the Three Freshes of the Field—broad beans, amaranth, and cucumber; the Three Freshes of the Tree—cherries, loquats, and apricots; and the Three Freshes of the Water—sea snails, pufferfish, and shad. Whatever the precise foods, tasting what is freshest at that moment is one of the central pleasures of Beginning of Summer.

Gu Lu’s Qing-dynasty *Qing Jia Lu* records: “立夏日，家设樱桃、青梅、穗麦，供神享先。宴饮则有烧酒、酒酿、海蛳、馒头、面筋、荠菜、白笋、咸鸭蛋等品为佐，蚕豆亦于是日尝新”. The household presented cherries, green plums, and ears of wheat to the gods and ancestors, while festive meals included spirits, fermented rice drink, sea snails, steamed bread, wheat gluten, shepherd’s purse, white bamboo shoots, salted duck eggs, and fresh broad beans.

The custom of tasting newly ripened foods began in the Ming dynasty and became richer and more varied during the Qing. Around Beginning of Summer, some crops are being harvested and spring-ripening fruit trees have begun to bear. Faced with this abundance, families offered the season’s first produce to their ancestors and then tasted it themselves as an expression of gratitude for the gifts of Heaven and Earth.

The custom remains widespread in much of China. In Jiangnan, rising temperatures and more frequent thunderstorms after Beginning of Summer bring a succession of seasonal produce to the markets, and tasting newly available foods becomes a direct way of experiencing the movement of the calendar.

On Beginning of Summer, cherries, green plums, and other seasonal produce can be purchased at markets and fruit shops. Restaurants in Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, and neighboring cities sometimes offer Three Freshes menus. A small seasonal meal can also be prepared at home using new wheat, cherries, and green plums in the spirit of the old saying “立夏见三新.”

In the Jiangnan countryside, Beginning of Summer is traditionally celebrated with Beginning-of-Summer rice, a thick rice dish cooked with rice, beans, bamboo shoots, and other ingredients. The ingredients are exchanged among neighboring households, and once the pot is ready, the finished food is divided and shared. The practice expresses the wish that neighbors remain united and help one another as the demanding summer farming season begins.

During the Republican period, the outskirts of Hangzhou still preserved a vivid form of the custom: “清晨向邻家派米，露天支锅煮饭，杂以蚕豆、野笋等，熟而分食之，云不疰夏”—in the morning rice was requested from neighboring households, a pot was set up outdoors, broad beans and wild bamboo shoots were mixed in, and the cooked food was shared, with the belief that eating it would prevent summer malaise.

In Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and neighboring towns, what had originally been a social custom among adults gradually evolved into an outdoor cooking game for children. According to Hong Rusong’s Republican-era supplement to *Hangsu Yifeng*, children in Hangzhou would “抖夏夏米”, going from door to door asking neighbors for rice, beans, bamboo shoots, and other ingredients. They cooked the collected food outdoors and then returned portions to all the households from whom they had “begged,” with the hope that eating it would strengthen children and protect them from *zhuxia*. In the mountain villages of southern Zhejiang, farmers soak rice and grind it into a slurry, cook it slowly into a paste, and add bamboo shoots, wheat beans, mushrooms, and other ingredients; this is known as “Beginning-of-Summer paste.”

Beginning-of-Summer rice developed from older traditions of mutual aid among neighbors. The period around the solar term marks the beginning of intense agricultural work, so exchanging ingredients and eating from a common pot reinforced social bonds and encouraged collective support.

Although the practice gradually shifted from an adult form of neighborhood socializing to a children’s outdoor cooking game, its underlying principle has remained the same: neighbors helping one another and collectively preparing for the busy summer ahead.

Visitors to Jiangnan villages during Beginning of Summer can ask local residents about traditional methods of preparing the dish. Folk celebrations such as the Banshan Beginning-of-Summer Festival in Hangzhou often include communal rice-making activities. The custom can also be recreated at home by asking neighbors for small portions of rice, beans, or bamboo shoots, cooking them together, and sharing the finished meal with family and friends.

Seven-Household Tea is a traditional seasonal practice associated particularly with Hangzhou. On Beginning of Summer, families brew new tea, accompany it with small fruits and delicacies, and send portions to relatives and neighbors. Wealthier households once carved fruit into decorative forms, embellished them with gold leaf, and presented them in porcelain bowls. Over time, preparing the season’s new tea even developed into a form of popular tea-art competition.

During the Republican period, households around Suzhou collected small quantities of tea from their neighbors at Beginning of Summer and brewed them over charcoal left from the previous year and traditionally used to brace the door. Once the tea was ready, families brought out green plums, broad beans, kumquats, peach slices, roses, red dates, and other accompaniments. Everyone sat together drinking tea while escaping the growing summer heat, strengthening relationships among neighbors. The custom is essentially an evolution of the older tradition of tasting the new.

Seven-Household Tea grew from the meeting of seasonal tasting and neighborhood social life. Beginning of Summer coincides with the arrival of new tea, and giving it to relatives and friends was both a response to the season and a way of maintaining relationships.

Its social logic resembles that of Beginning-of-Summer rice: ingredients are gathered from several households and then shared again within the neighborhood, expressing a communal principle of taking from one’s neighbors and giving back to one’s neighbors.

During Beginning of Summer, tea-cultural activities can be found in Hangzhou, Suzhou, and surrounding areas. At home, the custom can be adapted by asking several neighboring households to contribute a small amount of new tea, brewing the leaves together, and sharing the pot among neighbors.

Wumi rice is a purple-black glutinous rice made by crushing the leaves of the *wushu* plant and soaking the rice in the dark juice. The leaves are not rare or expensive and can traditionally be gathered in the countryside; in the days before Beginning of Summer, vendors also sell them in towns.

Eating *wumi* rice requires little ceremony. No accompanying dishes are considered necessary: soft white sugar is simply scattered over the dark glutinous rice before it is eaten. Within the Banshan Beginning-of-Summer customs of Gongshu District, Hangzhou, *wumi* rice is one of the most important seasonal foods.

A legend connects the dish with Mulian, a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. In order to feed his mother, who was tormented by hungry ghosts, Mulian is said to have crushed *nanzhu* leaves and used their juice to dye rice black. The hungry ghosts did not dare eat the dark rice, allowing his mother finally to satisfy her hunger. From this story developed the popular custom of eating *wumi* rice around Beginning of Summer.

People traditionally believed that eating it could help secure safety throughout the summer. Today it remains one of the most representative Beginning-of-Summer foods of Jiangnan.

During Beginning of Summer, *wumi* rice can be bought and tasted in Banshan and other parts of Hangzhou. It can also be made at home with *nanzhu* leaves, sometimes sold as wumi-rice leaves: crush the leaves to obtain their juice, soak glutinous rice in it, steam the rice, and serve with sugar.

In northern China, Beginning of Summer coincides with the season when wheat is coming to harvest, so much of the region traditionally celebrates by preparing flour-based foods. The purpose is to mark and celebrate the wheat crop. The main seasonal foods include summer cakes, wheat flatbreads, and spring rolls.

People also use rice flour made from shoots dried in ordinary times, combine it with sugar and flour, and fry the mixture into foods of different shapes to exchange with one another. Such dishes are both seasonal foods celebrating the harvest and gifts shared among neighbors.

The northern custom of eating flour foods at Beginning of Summer is closely connected with an agricultural economy centered on wheat. Around this time, winter wheat is approaching maturity or beginning to be harvested. Preparing flour foods from the new grain is therefore both a way of tasting the new crop and a celebration of abundance.

Its cultural logic is essentially the same as that of seasonal tasting in the south: both are forms of gratitude and response to what nature has provided.

Northern households can prepare summer cakes, flatbreads, and other flour foods during Beginning of Summer. Shops in places such as Shandong and Hebei may also offer seasonal varieties, and visitors can experience them in northern restaurants and pastry shops.

The Banshan Beginning-of-Summer customs of Gongshu District in Hangzhou constitute one of the most representative comprehensive folk traditions associated with the solar term. They combine popular belief, social interaction, recreational customs, seasonal foods, and market activities, including Silkworm Flower gatherings, ancestral rites, the temple fair for the Banshan Goddess’s birthday, eating *wumi* rice, picking broad beans, weighing people, running on the hills, and painting clay cats.

The tradition of the Banshan clay cat is closely connected with the area’s once-flourishing sericulture industry. Legend says that brightly colored divine cats—black, white, yellow, and other hues—would sometimes appear before the statue inside the Banshan Goddess Temple. Popular belief held that anyone who obtained a clay cat from the temple and placed it on a silkworm tray or rack could keep mice away and secure an abundant silkworm harvest.

The clay cats are double-sided, with different expressions on either face—one joyful, the other angry. Even mice, people said, would jump in fright at the commanding sight of a cat that did not need to show anger to inspire fear. Over time, the clay cat became a treasured guardian against rodents among mulberry and silkworm farmers and came to be regarded as a protector of the silkworm crop.

In November 2016, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and Gongshu District, represented by the Banshan Beginning-of-Summer customs, became one of ten representative communities in China associated with the heritage.

Around Beginning of Summer, the Banshan area traditionally cultivated rice and practiced mulberry planting and sericulture. Through generations of agricultural production, local residents accumulated practical knowledge and gradually formed their own seasonal customs. The tradition expresses hopes of following the proper timing of nature, seeking blessing, and welcoming auspiciousness.

During Beginning of Summer, visitors can travel to Banshan Subdistrict in Gongshu District, Hangzhou, for the Banshan Beginning-of-Summer Festival. Activities may include ancestral rites, eating *wumi* rice, weighing people, running on the hills, and painting clay cats, allowing visitors to participate throughout the celebration. Specific schedules should be checked in advance through Hangzhou’s cultural and tourism authorities.

Eating eggs at Beginning of Summer is a seasonal food tradition found across much of Hunan, particularly in Hengyang, Chenzhou, and Yongzhou in southern Hunan and in western Hunan. Whole chicken eggs are boiled, peeled, and then simmered in soup with red dates; this is called “eating Beginning-of-Summer eggs.”

In southern Hunan, families rise on the morning of Beginning of Summer and boil whole chicken or duck eggs. The shells are colored red using red paper or dye, after which each egg is placed in a small net pouch and tied to the chest of a child or adolescent. The egg remains there until noon or the afternoon, when it is finally peeled and eaten.

Folk tradition holds that eating eggs at Beginning of Summer strengthens the body, benefits the stomach, and gives strength to the legs, as expressed by the saying “立夏吃蛋，石板踩烂”. In some parts of Hunan, people also believe that the custom can prevent *zhuxia* and help children remain healthy during the heat of summer.

On Beginning of Summer, eggs can be boiled and dyed red at home, then placed in small pouches and worn on children’s chests until noon or afternoon, when they are peeled and eaten. This is one of the easiest Beginning-of-Summer customs to experience.