When the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 105 degrees, it's the time for "Slight Heat", usually happening on July 7 or July 8. Slight heat means it's hot but not thehottest. The continuous rainfall season for cities along "Yangtze River" will soon stop and enter summer days. On the other hand, the north and north-east of China will enter the rain season. Therefore, when "Slight Heat" arrives, people in north should pay attention to waterlogging, but in the south, drought. As mentioned earlier, three periods of the hot season come one by one after "Summer Solstice". In the Chinese, it's called the three "Fu", meaning that the weather is so hot and people better lie down than to move. Around the "Slight Heat" period, it's the first "Fu" period. The wind comes withhot wave, the cricket starts to crawl from the field into the yard and young eagle starts to learn how to fly and hunt.
Traditional Customs
In ancient times, emperors used to give out ice and fried noodles to his officials and people on the first "Fu" period. Nowadays, people eat Jiaozi on the first "Fu", noodles on the second and eggs with baked pancake on the third. In Xuzhou, the tradition of eating lamb can be traced back to thousands of years ago. At that time, there already had been the saying that "Having a bowl of lamp soup, no need to see the doctors."
Healthy Living Tips
On the eleven's solar term, the Yang Qi in human's body is the most vigorous. People should pay attention to work and life balance and eat food which can help release the hotness. A very good dish is Chinese porridge, cooked with materials such as lotus leafor hyacinth bean. Another proverb is "Don't sit on rocks in the winter and woods in the summer". This is because wood can obtain wetness after rain. Although it may look dry,it still diffuses humidity after sunshine. Sitting on wood may cause piles, rheumatism and arthritis.