Thursday, May 21, 2009

小満(sho man)

Today is sho man(小満), one of nijyushisekki(二十四節気), the 24 solar terms. Last one was rikka (立夏) on May 5, and the next one is boshu(芒種)on June 5.
Sho man(小満)literally means small full, acutually means the term when everything grows gradually and reaches at the certain size, or the term when the wheat which were seeded in the fall bear the ears and people feel relieved a little bit. The time when people earned the foods by cultivating fields, the amount of harvests was a matter of life or death. Therefore if the wheat bore the ears, people felt relieved a little bit to know that for the time being it seemed OK.

Sho(小) means small. Chu(中) means middle. Dai(大) means large. Tokudai (特大) means extra large.

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