Chunfen, the Amazing Spring Days (Photos)

Chunfen，is the 4th solar terms in traditional East Asian calendars.
It begins when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 0° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 15°, which usually falls from March 20 to April 4 in the Gregorian calendar. According to Chinese calendar, Chunfen has 3 pentads:
the 1st pentad – the dark birds arrive (the swallows return)
the 2nd pentad – thunder makes sounds (spring thunderstorm is coming)
the 3rd pendad – lightning begins (thunderstorms start,daytime is longer)

However, Chunfen often refers to its start day, March 20 or 21, when the sun is exactly at the equator, equalizing the day and the night. It used to being celebrated as a holiday in ancient China, followed with the imperial ceremony to worship the sun. Chinese folks considered it the real beginning of spring walk to the beautiful nature, holding activities like kite-flying for women and children, wearing flowers in the hair for some drinking party, going to countryside to pick the wild herbs with family or friends then cooking those veggies at home to share the fresh taste of spring. What a charming time! So many poets got inspired by the beauty of spring and wrote down numerous great poems, which no doubt created a fortune in Chinese literature.

It’s kind of pity that now only 2 solar terms (Qingming, Duanwu)remain Chinese holidays among 24 terms, while Chunfen and Qiufen are still national holidays in Japan.Imagine how terrific it would be to take a spring walk in the beautiful sakura woods during the day of Chunfen! Lighted up at night, the white, pink blossoms become as surreal as a fantastic dream. Further more, in Iranian calendar, the same day turns to be Nowruz (known as the Iranian New Year or the Persian New Year), celebrated in Iran and other 15 countries of Western Asia & Central Asia which have been influenced by ancient Persian culture,such as Turkey, Afghanistan, Irag, including some ethic groups of India and Chinese Xinjiang Area. What impress me are some decorative tables,basically requiring 7 items starting with the letter S or seen in the Perso-Arabic alphabet, which mostly contains greenery, apple, sweets, dried fruit, berries, garlic and vinegar. Along with the candles, fine mirror, decorating coins & eggs, the elegant table cloth and Persian carpet, hooray, the whole table setting just looks like an amazing oil painting of still life…

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002 The lupine flowers

003 Chinese hydrnagea

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Interested in Japan’s sakura? Check this amazing blog post: Atop Mt. Matsuda

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