Children show their eggs decorated with colored drawings in a kindergarten in Lianyungang city, East China's Jiangsu province, on Monday. Lixia, or "Summer begins", is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar and this year it falls on Monday. It is a custom in China to paint on eggs on that day. [Photo/icpress.cn]

Start of Summer: Egg Competition

Among the 24 solar terms in China, Start of Summer is the one that is most attractive to children. There are many customs on the day of Start of Summer and the egg competition is one which helps children prevent summer inadaptability. There is an old Chinese saying which says. "hanging an egg on children’s chest can prevent them from getting summer diseases". In the summer, along with increasing temperature, the weather becomes torrid. It is easy for children to feel weak in their limbs and lose their appetite. It is said eating eggs on the day of Start of Summer can prevent such syndromes.

On the day of Start of Summer, parents prepare boiled eggs for their children; they soak the egg in cold water for a few minutes, put the egg in a knitted bag and hang the egg on the chests of their children. When at school, children gather together to hold the egg competition. There are two ends of an egg; the pointed end is the top and the round end is the bottom. In the competition, children let the pointed end of their egg to collide with the pointed end of their competitor’s egg. The children battle one by one and those whose eggs are broken will lose the game. The person who has the hardest egg is the champion.

Start of Summer: A time to check one’s weight

The custom to check one’s weight on the Start of Summer originated from the Three Kingdoms Period (220-180) and prevails in South China today. It is said that in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-180), when Liu Bei died, Zhu Geliang left Liu Bei’s son, A Dou, to Zhao Zilong. Zhao Zilong then left the child to Mrs. Sun in Wu State on the day of Start of Summer. Mrs. Sun weighed A Dou in front of Zhao Zilong and planned to weigh him again on the same day the next year to see if A Dou became stronger. It is said if one weighs oneself on this day, they will have a strong body during the whole summer or else they may catch some diseases. On the day of Start of Summer, after the meal is finished, parents will hang a big steelyard on a beam and weigh their children. The children sit in the basket which is suspended on a hook. The increased weight is called “fafu”, while the decreased weight is called "xiaoro".

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