24 Solar Terms: 5 things you may not know about the Spring Equinox

Farm Cattle, by master Xu Beihong. [Photo/artron.net]

Reward farm cattle

This practice is popular in the southern area of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. As the Spring Equinox comes, farm work starts and both the farmers and the cattle start to become busy. Farmers will reward cattle with sticky rice balls to express their gratefulness. Meanwhile, people will also make sacrifice to birds, to thank them for bringing signals for farm work and to ask them not to eat grains later in the year.