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The Twenty-Four Terms
The first fifteen days of the Chinese lunar month makes the first term, namely:
Beginning of Spring
usually starting from the fourth or fifth of Febrary. And the first day is the Chinese New Year's Day or the onset of the Spring Festival. Incidentally, the New Year's Day of 1995 is January 31st.
The second fifteen days are named:
Rain Water
from the nineteeth or twentieth of Febrary, a time when rainy seasons are setting in.
In order come the following terms:
Waking of Insects
from the fifth or sixth of March, as the earth awakes from hibernation;
Spring Equinox
from the twentieth or twenty-first of March;
Pure Brightness
from the fourth or fifth of April;
Grain Rain
from the twentieth or twenty-first of April;
Beginning of Summer
from the fifth or sixth of May;
Grain Full
from the twentieth or twenty-first of May;
Grain in Ear
from the fifth or sixth of June;
Summer Solstice
from the twenty-first or second of June;
Slight Heat
from the sixth or seventh of July;
Great Heat
from the twenty-second or third of July;
Beginning of Autumn
from the seventh or eighth of August;
Limit of Heat
from the twenty-third or fourth of August;
White Dew
from the seventh or eighth of September;
Autumnal Equinox
from the twenty-third or fourth of September;
Cold Dew
from the eighth or nineth of October;
Frost's Descent
from the twentieth-three or fourth of October;
Beginning of Winter
from the seventh or eighth of November;
Slight Snow
from the twenty-second or third of November;
Great Snow
from the seventh or eighth of December;
Winter Solstice
from the twenty-second or third of December;
Slight Cold
from the fifth or sixth of January; and lastly
Great Cold
from the twentieth or twenty-first of January which brings the 24-term cycle to an end.
Dragon Boat Festival
Boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival commemorate the attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan, who drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Unable to save him, the people threw bamboo stuffed with cooked rice into the water so that the fish would eat the rice rather than the body of their hero. This evolved into the present custom of eating tzungtzu, rice dumplings filled with ham or bean paste and wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Since antiquity the Chinese have believed that the fifth lunar month is a pestilential, danger-fraught period. Sanitation is emphasized, medicines are added to food, aromatic branches are hung above doors, and beautifully embroidered protective amulets or sachets containing spices or medicines are fastened to the clothing of children.
Large crowds attend the festive boat races in Taipei, Lukang, Taiwan, and Kaohsiung. Teams from all over the world compete in the races as excited observers cheer form the river banks. |
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发表于 2004-6-23 18:56:06
发表于 2004-6-23 23:04:14