Major Heat (Chinese: dà shǔ) is the 12th solar term of the 24 solar terms and the last solar term in summer. During Dashu, temperatures are at their peak. It is the time of year when the duration of the sunshine is the longest, the rainfall is the greatest, and the thunderstorms are the most frequent.

There are different customs regarding the Major Heat all over China, so let's learn more about them.

Eating Sun-Dried Fu Ginger
Originating from regions like Shanxi and Henan, this custom involves slicing ginger or extracting its juice and then mixed with brown sugar. The mixture is placed in containers covered with gauze and left to dry under the sun. Once matured, consuming this sun-dried ginger is believed to alleviate ailments such as chronic cold stomach and coughs, providing warmth and health benefits.

Drinking Fu Tea
As the name suggests, Fu Tea is a tea that is drunk during the sanfu days, the hottest summer days. This tea, specially made from various herbs, can clear heat and remove toxins. In ancient times, many places in the countryside had a custom, that is, the village people would put some tea in the pavilion at the village entrance, free of charge to passers-by to drink. Nowadays, such pavilions are rarely seen, but this centuries-old custom has been preserved in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Burning Fu Incense
The temperature is the highest in the Major Heat period, crops grow the fastest, and droughts, floods, and windstorms are frequent in different areas, so people burn incense to pray for favorable winds and rains and a good harvest of all grains. There is also a saying that burning fu incense is a type of moxibustion in Traditional Chinese Medicine, in which specific acupuncture points are smoked with medicinal incense during the vodka day to cure various stubborn diseases.

(By Yang Jiming/Qi Qian)