Grain in Ear Arrives and the Hundred Flowers Begin to Fade: How Much Do You Know About the Folk Custom of Bidding Farewell to the Flower God

"Where the marsh grass grows, grain in ear is sown."

At 1:29 on June 6, the third solar term of summer arrives.Grain in Ear。

The arrival of Grain in Ear also heralds the opening of the hot midsummer.

The so-called "Grain in Ear" refers to wheat beginning to ripen, with plump grains and long awns growing on the stalks.

This is a harvest solar term of summer growth and grain returning full to the granary. It is also a solar term of inner meaning, when flowers begin to wither and the Flower God is sent back.

Flowers fading means the next blooming.

In ancient China, whenever the Grain in Ear season came, the common people would hold a grandceremony to sacrifice to the Flower God, bidding farewell and sending the Flower God back to her place, expressing people's gratitude for the Flower God's blessing of beauty upon the human world and their hope of meeting again next year.

The grand scene of the Grain in Ear season sacrifice to the Flower God is vividly described in Chapter 72 of "Dream of the Red Chamber":

"On the day of the Grain in Ear Festival, all kinds of gifts must be set out to sacrifice to and bid farewell to the Flower God, for once Grain in Ear has passed, it is summer, all flowers fade, and the Flower God abdicates, so a farewell must be given."

"Those girls, some weaving sedan chairs and horses from flower petals and willow branches, some folding pennants and banners from damask, brocade, gauze and silk, all tied them with colored threads. On every tree, on every branch of flowers, they tied these things.

Throughout the garden embroidered ribbons fluttered and flower branches were displayed fetchingly, and moreover these people were dressed so beautifully that they put peaches to shame and made apricots yield, made swallows envious and orioles ashamed, and for a time it could not be fully described."

The era has passed, and the custom of sacrificing to the Flower God has long ceased to exist. But in the heart of every flower lover, they will not forget the countless kinds of flowers that nature has bestowed upon us, letting us be fortunate enough to have flowers as friends and companions.

Grain in Ear arrives, and it is the plum rain season. Every year at this time, the green plums of the south begin to ripen.

People process the freshly picked green plums into refreshing green plum wine to dispel summer heat and dampness.

A cup of green plum wine, idly watching fallen flowers drift, as the long summer gradually grows.

Tomorrow is Grain in Ear. With summer heat and restlessness, flower lovers must take good care of their health, eat reasonably, keep to a regular schedule, and spend this beautiful summer together with our flowers and plants.

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