Customs of Dashu
Dashu, also called Great Heat (the 12th term of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms in the Chinese calendar to guide farm work), falls on July 23 this year when the sun moves to the celestial longitude of 120 degrees. As with the Lesser Heart, they are both the solar terms to reflect the scorching summer heat. During the Great Heat which indicates the hottest period in a year, it is customary for Chinese people to sunburn ginger, burn incense, and drink tea and mutton soup.
Folk customs of the Great Heat are mainly shown in eating habits, which are roughly divided into two types. One is to eat food with cold natures to relieve the summer heat. For example, there is a saying in the southeastern part of Guangdong that “Eating Xiancao (grass jelly) in June and the Great Heat makes the life as youthful and energetic as the immortals.”
A folk proverb goes that “Eating Xiancao (grass jelly) in June and the Great Heat makes the life as youthful and energetic as the immortals.” which tells an eating custom prevalent in the majority of Guangdong. In addition, herbal jelly and hot grass jelly are also common summer foods for cooling off in Xiamen.
In contrast to that, people in some places are used to eating food with hot natures during the Great Heat. For example, lychee, lamb and rice dregs are commonly seen in Putian City of Fujian Province. There is a traditional method for nourishing the body in central and northern Hunan, which is to eat young chicken on Great Heat. In southeastern Hunan, however, eating ginger is more prevalent, with the byword spreading that “Radish in winter and ginger in summer will keep the doctor away.”
Cooling Drinks in Old Beijing for Dashu
Snowflake Ice
Snowflake Ice is one of the classic ice-cold drinks in summer in the old Beijing, enjoying a popularity equivalent to today’s ice cream. Hawkers crushed ice into flake ice with a special ice shaver and put it into a large wooden barrel, and fill half a bowl of this sand-like ice to buyers.
Various ingredients then will be added including fried peanut kernels, shelled melon seeds, raisins, hawthorn scraps, sweetened bean paste, and wheat kernels, and topped with different flavors of juice. A bowl of Snowflake Ice is finished which is appetizing and tasty and served with a small spoon. Merely a mouthful of it can bring you freshness and sweetness that can beat the hotness.
Sour Plum Drink
In the streets of old Beijing, cart peddler selling sour plum drink can be seen everywhere in the summertime. The cool and delicious sour plum drink is made by first soaking chopped smoked plum and hawthorn in boiling water, then adding some sugar and sweet-scented osmanthus, and finally putting it in a big jar and placing the jar into an ice bucket. Peddlers slam two small copper bowls instead of touting by their voice, making a crisp squeak. Dried fruit shops also sells sour plum drink at this time, as well as other cold drinks such as glass shards-like ice and almond curd in syrup.
Sheshutang (Almsgiving Summer Drinks)
On burning summer days, in front of the doors of big businesses, drugstores or temples in Beijing are large pots or wooden barrels filled with cooked mung bean soup or juncus (a kind of Chinese herb) made drinks, with a few spoons and bowls aside. It is free for pedestrians, hence the name of “Sheshutang”, a sort of almsgiving.
Health-care Eatables
After entering the Dog Days (the three ten-day period of the hot season) of summer, many Beijingers also keep the eating customs that have been passed down from the old Beijing, such as “the first ten days for dumplings, the second ten days for noodles, and the third ten days for baked pancakes with eggs.” Old Beijingers love dumplings all year round, while in the first ten days, they savor dumplings in great diversities including boiled, steamed, fried, and pan-fried.
Eatables in old Beijing for Dog Days exclude rich food. Alternatively, seasonal food featuring more plain and light in mouthfeel is more favored, which is worth to be inherited as a health-care eating habit.
