"The dawn herds invade the stars in the summer, and the day looks for fragrant trees to sleep in the green shade. Cherish the cattle, don't rush the remnant of the sun, and return to take the dusk to drink Xiaochuan." Song Dynasty Huang Shu's song "second rhyme and true long four seasons shepherd boy" depicts a picture of shepherd boy taking a rest in the shade on a hot summer day. The "great summer day" mentioned in the poem is the last solar term in summer among the 24 solar terms - great summer. "Heat" means heat, and "great" means extreme heat. The great heat Festival is held from July 22 to 24 of the Gregorian calendar every year. At this time, it is in the middle of the "three volts", which is the hottest time of the year. Therefore, sending and relieving the heat has become the theme of life. There are various ways to spend summer among the people, such as bamboo shadow between flowers and herbal tea bean cake, in order to drive away the heat and leave cool. The fishing village in Jiazhi, Jiaojiang, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province has the custom of "sending summer boats". This activity is held every summer, mainly to welcome and send the local "five saints" gods. The "five saints" are the five gods of plague spread among the people in Taizhou Bay, Zhejiang Province, and the "great summer ship" is a model ship carrying the "five saints" to sea. This ship is shaped like a reduced version of a three masted sailboat, about 10 meters long, about 3 meters wide, and weighs nearly 2 tons. In the cabin, there are shrines, incense tables, water tanks, tables, chairs, benches and other supplies on board, as well as various wine, food, rice noodles, as well as knives, spears, guns and other self-defense weapons. The summer festival coincided with the fishing moratorium in the East China Sea. Fishermen took advantage of this leisure to hold a grand ceremony to send the "five saints" to sea in order to drive away epidemics and bless peace. In the early morning of the great heat day, the mighty God sending team set out from the local wusheng temple to jiaojiangkou with the carefully made great heat ship. On both sides of the road, there are a sea of people, and the audience is like a tide. There are gongs and forks in front of the team, and drums and horns make the sky loud; In the middle are fragrant pavilions, stilt floats, lion dragon leaps, and martial arts vaudeville. At jiaojiangkou wharf, the team dispersed automatically, timed the time of the ebb tide, pulled the summer boat out of the fishing port, and let the boat float to the sea to take advantage of the ebb tide and take away the epidemic and summer heat. Today's "ship to send the great heat" is not the tense and mysterious atmosphere of the old "ship to send the God of plague", but a festive atmosphere full of joy and peace. People came to participate in the wonderful folk art performances with great interest, and they also devoted themselves to it, giving full play to their "dormant" artistic talents on weekdays. As the summer heat approaches June 24 of the lunar calendar, there is a folk lotus viewing festival in Jiangnan, commonly known as "Lotus birthday". Fengmen Lotus Garden in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province has been a well-known place for appreciating lotus since ancient times. Zhang Dai wrote in his dream of Tao an: lotus at the gate of Feng, that on June 24 of the Apocalypse renxu (1622), he occasionally came to Suzhou and saw "scholars and women pouring out of the city", gathering outside the gate of Feng to watch the lotus. The building boats, the painting boats, and even the boats were all rented out. The boat is full of silk and bamboo, singing and dancing. People feast and listen to music, enjoy flowers and cool off. "The splendid scenery is indescribable.". The lotus is not far from the Suzhou ice cellar. When appreciating the lotus, it is accompanied by bursts of fragrance, and you can also eat iced watermelon, which is refreshing. In the summer, the weather is very hot, and the human body sweats a lot and consumes a lot. Seasonal diet generally includes nourishing and relieving summer heat. People think that in the summer, heat accumulates in the human body. At this time, eating mutton and drinking mutton soup can make you sweat all over, which can eliminate heat accumulation and toxins in the body and is beneficial to health. In the south of Shandong Province, you need to drink sheep soup on the summer day, which is commonly known as "drinking summer sheep". People in Putian, Fujian Province have the custom of "over the summer". Today, the family should eat litchi, mutton and rice grains to nourish their vitality. Relatives and friends often give litchi and mutton as gifts to each other. In addition, many places pay attention to eating cool food to relieve summer heat and detoxify. For example, Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan have the custom of eating fairy grass before and after the summer heat. Fairy grass is a kind of herb. Its stems and leaves can be boiled into "burning fairy grass" after drying, which is a summer dessert. There is a local proverb that "if you eat fairy grass in the summer heat in June, you will live like a fairy and will not grow old". People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are used to drinking Fu tea, which is a specially prepared summer tea. It is often made of Artemisia annua into the tea, and then mixed with orange peel, June cream, white chrysanthemum and ten drops of water to make tea bags to clear away heat and detoxify. In addition, mulberry chrysanthemum lotus leaf tea, erdou drink, honeysuckle drink, cassia seed tea, burnt barley tea, etc. are all good summer products with both medicinal value and cool taste. (outlook new era)