How do Chinese people mark 'Great Heat'

According to the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, a year is divided into 24 solar terms. Great Heat, or Da Shu in Chinese, is the 12th term of the year and the last one of the summer. It arrives when the sun moves to the celestial longitude of 120 degrees. This year's Great Heat begins on Monday, July 23.

Great Heat marks the most sweltering days in a year, hotter than weather during Little Heat, or Xiao Shu in Chinese. In the days of Great Heat, crops grow most rapidly, fireflies come out, soil gets more humid, and heavy thunderstorm come from time to time. The Chinese people have developed various customs to preserve their health and celebrate the term during Great Heat.

[File photo: IC]

1. Having herb jelly

In south China's Guangdong province, there is a tradition of eating herb jelly in Great Heat days.

Herb jelly is a sweet dessert made of divine grass, a kind of plant belonging to lamiaceae and used as medicine in ancient times. The herb has a special effect for relieving the summer heat. Stems and leaves of the grass are usually dried in the sun before being made into jelly. Because of the magical efficacy of relief from the summer heat, it is praised as "immortal grass".

[File photo: VCG]

2. Eating pineapples

People in Taiwan eat pineapples during the Great Heat days. The locals believe the pineapple during this period tastes best.

[File photo: VCG]

3. Eating Mizao, mutton, litchis

In the city of Putian, southeast China's Fujian province, people eat Mizao, mutton and litchis to celebrate Great Heat as a festival.

Mizao is made of fermented and pickled rice and usually cooked with brown sugar. Putian people believe Mizao can reinforce vital energy in the human body.

Drinking warm mutton soup on the first day of Great Heat is a custom for Putian locals. People in southern region of Shandong province also have this custom and they call the mutton "summer mutton."

People believe that litchis in Great Heat are as nourishing as ginseng and usually soak litchis in cold water before eating.

These special cuisines thus become the festival's favorite gifts given among friends and relatives.

[File photo: VCG]

4. Eating spring chicken

People in central China's Hunan province eat young chicken, the chicken that has just matured and hasn't mated yet. They believe that eating food with a hot nature can drive away the dampness. The spring chicken contains certain growth hormones which are good for children who are still growing and developing, and old people whose hormone levels have decreased.

People offer “Great Heat Boat” in the city of Taizhou, east China’s Zhejiang province on July 23, 2009. [File photo: VCG]

5. Offering "Great Heat Boat"

Along the coast of Taizhou, east China's Zhejiang province, the locals maintain a custom of offering "Great Heat Boat", which is a tradition lasting hundreds of years.

The Great Heat Boat is a boat filled with sacrificial offerings. When the ritual begins, over fifty fishermen carry the boat to a parade along the streets, where large crowds bless their good fortune and firecrackers are set off. The Great Heat Boat is then carried to the port and burned on the sea, symbolic of a good harvest and happy life.