Happy standing egg day 立春

in culture •  7 years ago  (edited)
 The traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms. Lìchūn, Risshun, Ipchun, or Lập xuân is the 1st solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude  of 315° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 330°. It more often  refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial  longitude of 315°. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around February 4 and ends around February 18 (February 19 East Asia time). It's also the beginning of a Sexagenary cycle. 
Source : Wikipedia


立春, Lìchūn - in short means the first day of Spring in the Lunisolar calender. I used to think the first day of spring in Chinese culture is the Chinese New Year, but apparently that is based on the Lunar calender, which is slightly different (hence the term Lunar New Year). In fact, in some years a Chinese Lunar year might not even have a Lichun day in it because they are not synchronized.

In Malaysia and Singapore, some would deposit money into the bank on this day in hopes that it will bring them wealth and fortune for the rest of the year.

Anyway, the phrase 立春 can also be transliterated as 立 - standing and 春 - egg, which lead to a somewhat odd tradition on that day where people try to balance eggs to stand on their own. This in turn started the myth that it is easier to perform the feat on this day because of some pseudo-physics mumbo-jumbo about the gravitational force between the sun and earth is in perfect equilibrium to make an egg stand blah blah blah. 

So earlier today I picked an egg out the fridge and made it stand on the table, just to see if I can.

Next challenge - balance an egg while driving!! (no just kidding)

Just for the record, you can make an egg stand on any day of they year. You can also deposit money in the bank any day of the year and make a bit of money.


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Eh today ah? 🙄 fuiyo egg sifu 😬

egg sifu kepala otak ko -_-

Fuyoh! Can balance in car liao

put inside cupholder

Can but u need to make sure the egg won't break

cant do it T.T

try on tiled kitchen floor, put the egg between the tiles :D

haha better use tape if like that

I won't judge u :P

Wow, i din't know there's such a day for Chinese culture. Anyways, you do anything today also same like usual day haha.

Hmm today I made an egg stand so that's not something I do everyday lol

You just know I'm going to break a ton of eggs trying this one when we where last in Malaysia it was during the Hungry Ghost Festival.

well you know....like what @kennethtks mentioned...just use tape hahaha

That would be cheating but so broken eggs it is

Oh! I had absolutely no idea it was today. Back in uni days, me and my friends used to spend hours trying to make the eggs stand on the tiled floor. Looking back it was kinda silly but fun

Don't I wish I have hours to spend away like this nowadays, good old days eh?

Yeah..don't we all wished that?haha

I tried this year again, but as usual, still failed :(

There is always next year, and the year after next year, and the year after next.......:D

haha wow I have never heard of that particular tradition, but that's a fun one. I hear a lot of transliterations from various asian characters, and it's always fascinating - like how would a Standing Egg relate to the start of spring? Well the egg part makes sense at least...

Haha the chinese language is full of puns as well!

I love your signature @dxn it's super cool.

Yes, I've read about Lichun on another post, their tradition was more on meditation and cleaning.

But traditions about the egg is quite funny! In my culture, we have a share of those as well. Might share it one of these days. :)

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Glad you like it! :D

LiChun not strictly a Chinese tradition, I think the Japanese observe it as well and other Asian cultures. But even the Chinese themselves are very diverse in culture and practices.