Rain Day
I can switch the display on my mobile phone from Chinese to English, which I do when I need to send a text in Chinese, or when I want to know the date in the lunar calendar. Most of the time the date is simply something like first month fifteenth day (today), but every now and then is a particular date, marking the beginning of a new period in the agricultural calendar. In Chinese the lunar calendar is called the nong-li, meaning farming calendar.
Over the years that we have been living in Chengdu, we have watched with interest to see how the weather changes following the Lunar New Year. The first year, on a chill, damp day about ten days after the holiday I went to buy an electric heater and was surprised when the sales girl told me they had already changed stock and didn't have any left. But it's still very cold I told her. Not for long, she replied, it's spring now. As I left the store I realised she was right, the sun was out and there was a definite feeling of spring in the air. And every year since the same thing has happened. The tenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called li-chun, the start of spring, and every year at around that time, the weather takes a turn for the better.
This year was really a test of my faith in this system, as the New Year occurred so early in the year by the solar calendar. Usually it's around the middle or end of February, sometimes even early March, but this year it was at the end of January. But sure enough, by li-chun, the birds were singing and the temperature had risen 5 or 6 degrees. Blossoms are out and, although we've had a few colder days, it feels as though winter is over. I expressed my surprise to Xiao Long that the weather had improved. "Well of course it has" she replied, "it's spring now, look on the calendar!" I realised that I need to ditch my solar calendar assumptions and read more about the lunar version: it obviously works, at least in China. Apparently not in the rest of the world, because at the same time the UK was under two feet of snow.
Yesterday, February 18th, was the 14th day of the first lunar month, called yu-shui, or rain water. Apparently it's a little bit like St Swithuns Day in the UK or Groundhog Day in the US: rain on yu-shui augers good rainfall for the next few months, but no rain on yu-shui means no rain for the next few months. This is bad news for the farmers, especially this year when the winter has been so dry thus far, and the north of China is experiencing a drought. Yesterday afternoon, Xiao Long and I peered out of the windows at the overcast but less humid than usual grey skies and agreed that yu-shui did not look promising.
But, lo and behold, as I left the school board meeting last night at around 9.30, the ground was damp and the air was misted with light rain. The Lunar Calendar comes up trumps again! But maybe not enough - when I mentioned the rain to Xiao Long this morning she was derisive. "Call that rain!" she snorted, "it wasn't even tears! I can cry better than that!"
Over the years that we have been living in Chengdu, we have watched with interest to see how the weather changes following the Lunar New Year. The first year, on a chill, damp day about ten days after the holiday I went to buy an electric heater and was surprised when the sales girl told me they had already changed stock and didn't have any left. But it's still very cold I told her. Not for long, she replied, it's spring now. As I left the store I realised she was right, the sun was out and there was a definite feeling of spring in the air. And every year since the same thing has happened. The tenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called li-chun, the start of spring, and every year at around that time, the weather takes a turn for the better.
This year was really a test of my faith in this system, as the New Year occurred so early in the year by the solar calendar. Usually it's around the middle or end of February, sometimes even early March, but this year it was at the end of January. But sure enough, by li-chun, the birds were singing and the temperature had risen 5 or 6 degrees. Blossoms are out and, although we've had a few colder days, it feels as though winter is over. I expressed my surprise to Xiao Long that the weather had improved. "Well of course it has" she replied, "it's spring now, look on the calendar!" I realised that I need to ditch my solar calendar assumptions and read more about the lunar version: it obviously works, at least in China. Apparently not in the rest of the world, because at the same time the UK was under two feet of snow.
Yesterday, February 18th, was the 14th day of the first lunar month, called yu-shui, or rain water. Apparently it's a little bit like St Swithuns Day in the UK or Groundhog Day in the US: rain on yu-shui augers good rainfall for the next few months, but no rain on yu-shui means no rain for the next few months. This is bad news for the farmers, especially this year when the winter has been so dry thus far, and the north of China is experiencing a drought. Yesterday afternoon, Xiao Long and I peered out of the windows at the overcast but less humid than usual grey skies and agreed that yu-shui did not look promising.
But, lo and behold, as I left the school board meeting last night at around 9.30, the ground was damp and the air was misted with light rain. The Lunar Calendar comes up trumps again! But maybe not enough - when I mentioned the rain to Xiao Long this morning she was derisive. "Call that rain!" she snorted, "it wasn't even tears! I can cry better than that!"
posted by Cat Platt at 11:00 am
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