Lichun: The Start Of Spring

What about getting a breath of fresh air outside today? Because today, Feb 3rd, is Lichun, or the Start of Spring, and is the first solar term of the 24 Chinese solar terms.

As a solar term, the Start of Spring had already entered people’s lives in the Spring and Autumn Period, or 770 to 476 BC. At that time, instead of 24, there were only eight solar terms. Experts say that the 24 solar terms were used for the first time in books during the Western Han Dynasty, 206 BC to AD 24, when it got set as the Spring Festival. In 1913, the Spring festival was moved to the first day of the first lunar month. Of course, don’t forget to eat the famous spring rolls today.

Spring is also the best time to fly kites, a traditional folk activity of a history of more than 2,000 years. It can help build one’s health and prevent diseases, which, in the ongoing time of the pandemic, we need. So maybe a breath of fresh air can’t hurt, and can even promote, our health after all.