Slight Heat(Xiao Shu)小暑

Introduction
When the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 105 degrees, it’s the time for “SlightHeat”, usually happening on July 7 or July 8. Slight heat means it’s hot but not the hottest. The continuous rainfall season for cities along “Yangtze River” will soon stopand enter summer days. On the other hand, the north and north-east of China willenter the rain season. Therefore, when “Slight Heat” arrives, people in north shouldpay attention to waterlogging, but in the south, drought. As mentioned earlier, threeperiods of the hot season come one by one after “Summer Solstice”. In the Chinese, it’scall the three “Fu”, meaning that the weather is so hot and people better lie down thanto 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 startsto learn how to fly and hunt.

Traditional Customs
In ancient times, emperors used to give out ice and fried noodles to his officials andpeople on the first “Fu” period. Nowadays, people eat Jiaozi on the first “Fu”, noodleson the second and eggs with baked pancake on the third. In Xuzhou, the tradition ofeating lamb can be traced back to thousands of years ago. At that time, there alreadyhad 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. Peopleshould pay attention to work and life balance and eat food which can help release thehotness. 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 thesummer”. 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, rheumatismand arthritis.