Summer · No.7
Beginning of Summer
Li Xia
Summer opens with longer days, crops racing upward, and frogs and thunderstorms arriving together.
Beginning of Summer ends the spring. Days keep lengthening, the air warms sharply and thunderstorms become ordinary. Winter wheat fills its grain, early rice is transplanted, and cotton and maize put on height. Frogs call in the ponds all night, earthworms turn the soil, and a cucumber vine can climb a hand's width in a day. Many places weigh people on this day, hanging a scale from a beam to see how much heavier they are than last year, and children knock boiled eggs together until one shell cracks. The south cooks a mixed bean rice. Naps matter once noon heat makes everyone sweat.
Three pentads
- 1
Mole crickets start calling from the fields
- 2
Earthworms surface and loosen the wet soil
- 3
Cucumber vines climb their trellises
What people eat now
boiled egg
On the first day of summer families boil eggs and hang them in braided nets around children's necks for knocking games.
broad beans
Broad beans fill out around the start of summer; shelled and fried with pickled greens, they appear daily on tables in Jiangnan.
black rice
In Jiangnan people eat black rice at the start of summer, grains soaked in leaf juice and steamed dark with sugar.
What people wear
After the start of summer the days stretch and the sun has bite. Switch to short sleeves or a light shirt, but keep a thin cardigan in your bag for air-conditioned rooms. Thin long trousers are fine; hold off on shorts. Wear a hat and avoid standing in direct sun at noon.