The term “Grain Rain” is originated from a folk story. When Cang Jie, an official from the Yellow Emperor period, created writing characters, grain came down from sky like rainfall. Therefore, the Yellow Emperor named this day as the “Grain Rain”.
The English name of Guyu is"Grain Rain", which Gumeans grains, Yu means rains . In addition, Guyu is also known as the "6thJie qi", English called "6th solar term", Solar term is a fixedphrase. Jieqi is also sometimes referred to as "solar period",because both period and term have the meaning of time.
Guyu was originated from the ancient version "raingerminate all grains", every April 19th to 21st, the sun reaches 30degrees in longitude is Guyu, it is the so-called "Qingming off the snow,Guyu off the frost". When the Guyu is coming, it means that the coldweather has basically ended, the temperature rises faster, which is benefit forthe growth of cereal crops.
Picking tea is a custom in Guyu in the south of China. It’ssaid that drinking tea in Guyu will help people clear away heat, exorcise evilspirits and improving eyesight. So no matter what the weather is like in Guyuthis day, people will go to pick some new tea to drink. In the north of Chinapeople eat Chinese to on as a custom in Guyu, so we also say Chinese to on istender as silk in Guyu.
(By Yuan Yu/Liu Qin)
