双语版24节气|【顺时而生】立春了！| 双语版

立春是二十四节气中的第一个节气，标志着春天的到来。今年立春自2月4日开始到2月19日结束。和立夏、立秋、立冬一样，立春也是反映季节更迭的节气。通常，从立春开始，天气开始回暖，人们逐渐可以嗅到早春的气息。
The Spring Begins, Lichun (立春) in Chinese, is the first solar term in the 24 solar terms, and marks the coming of spring. The date for Lichun begins this year on February 4th and ends in February 19th. Like the Summer Begins, the Autumn Begins and the Winter Begins, it is also a solar term reflecting the changing of seasons and is a transitional solar term. Generally, from the Spring Begins, the weather becomes warm again and people will gradually smell the scents of early spring.

文章插图
作者：程璨
随着温度升高，光照时间延长，雨水也会增多。对于中国的大部分地区来说，立春只是春季到来的征兆，真正的春天还尚未来临。
【双语版24节气|【顺时而生】立春了！| 双语版】As the temperature will be higher, the sunshine will be longer and the rain will be more. But for most parts of China, such phenomena is just a sign of spring, the true one has not yet to come.
许多研究表明病毒的确在寒冷天气状况下更为活跃，在温度较高时则相反。据此，我们希望随着立春的来到，疫情会逐渐平息。
Studies have shown that the virus can be strengthened by colder weather , and be adversely affected by higher temperatures.
According to this, we hope that the infections will by decrease for the Spring Begins is coming.
习俗 Customs
“打春牛”，在中国古代，立春这一天，各地官吏会立一个春牛塑像供人们“鞭打”，意在唤醒耕牛并提醒人们开始春耕。同时，许多地区还有“咬春”的习俗，就是在立春第一天吃春饼、春卷，或者吃萝卜。
“Beating the cattle”. In ancient China, the administrators would set statues of cattle for beating on this day to wake up the cattle and remind people start farming again in the start of spring. In some parts of China, people still have the custom of “Biting the spring” on the first day of Spring Begins. They eat food represent spring like pancakes, spring rolls, or a few mouthfuls of turnips.

文章插图
观察物候 What to observe
立春观三候 Three phenomena of the Spring Begins
中国古人总结了不同节气变化的主要物候来判断节气的变化，立春也有三种典型的物候可以观察。
The Spring Beginsis divided into three pentads with three phenomena to observe:
第一候“东风解冻”。立春后，暖气流东移，气温回升使大地解冻。春风送来了暖风，这温暖不仅包含春风本身的和煦，还包含着一种讯息，即春天来了，大地开始解冻，万物即将苏醒。
The firstpentad,east wind contact cold.（一候东风解冻）After the Spring Begins, the warm air flow moved east and the temperature rose to thawthe earth. The spring breeze brings warm wind, which is not only warm initself, but also contains a message that spring is coming, the earth is beginningto thaw, and everything is about to wake up.
第二候“蛰虫始振”。立春后，冬天蛰伏的虫类，因为天气变暖、土地回软，慢慢从洞中苏醒过来。
The secondpentad, dormant bugs begin to wake up.（二候蛰虫始振）After the Spring Begins, insects that hadbeen hiding in caves in winter slowly came to life as the ground became softerdue to warmer weather.
第三候“鱼陟负冰”。在北方，盛寒时水面虽结冻，水底比较暖和，鱼儿潜伏在水底静候春天的到来。开春后，水面温度升高冰雪融化，鱼儿争先恐后在尚未完全融化的冰块和冰片缝隙间游动，因此古时称为“鱼上冰”。
The third pentad, the fish bears the ice.（三侯鱼陟负冰）In the north, the surface of the water freezes during the peak cold, but the bottom seems warmer, where fish lurk and wait quietly for spring. In spring, the ice on the water surface begins to melt.Fish quickly sense the change and scramble to the surface of the water to swimin the cracks between the ice and the ice that has not completely melted.Therefore, it is called "ice on fish" in ancient times.
饮食养生 What to eat
★ 春卷/春饼 Spring roll/Pancake (Chun juan/bing)
在中国北方，人们会在立春吃春饼，而南方人则会吃春卷。
In Northern China, people eat chun bing (春饼) at this day to celebrate the Spring Begins. While in Southern China, people eat spring rolls (春卷) instead.
The spring pancake took its rise from the Jin dynasty and has prospered since the Tang dynasty. People celebrated the Spring Begins by eating spring pancakes wrapped around fresh vegetables and meat, which is called bite-the-spring (咬春). Bite-the-spring implies that people are praying for a good harvest year through eating the fresh vegetables and meat at the Spring Begins. In the Qing dynasty, spring pancakes became a fried pancake wrapped around a filling that included ham, chicken, pork, black dates, scallions, walnuts and sugar.