The Summer Solstice was the earliest of the 24 solar terms to be fixed. As an old text explains: “The sun reaches its northernmost point, the day is longest and the shadow shortest — hence ‘the extreme of summer.’” On this day the sun’s overhead position reaches its northernmost point of the year, almost directly above the Tropic of Cancer (23°26’N), making it the longest day of the year throughout the Northern Hemisphere — and the higher the latitude, the longer the daylight.
Since ancient times there has been a Chinese saying, “wontons at the Winter Solstice, noodles at the Summer Solstice.” In the Jiangnan region, eating noodles at the Summer Solstice is an important custom in many areas, and folk wisdom holds that “after the Summer Solstice noodles, each day grows a thread shorter.” The south has many kinds of noodles — plain “Yangchun” noodles, dry-broth noodles, shredded-pork noodles, three-delicacy noodles, “crossing-the-bridge” noodles and sesame-oil cold noodles — while the north favours gravy noodles and fried-sauce (zhajiang) noodles.
By old Beijing custom, once the Summer Solstice arrives people feast on fresh greens and cold noodles, for in the hot weather such cool, raw foods clear “heat” and whet the appetite without harming health through excess cold. On this day Beijing’s noodle houses are busy: Sichuan cold noodles, dandan noodles, braised-pork noodles, fried-sauce noodles — every kind sells well.
Across Shandong, people commonly eat cold noodles — “water-rinsed noodles” — on this day, in keeping with the proverb “dumplings at the Winter Solstice, noodles at the Summer Solstice.” Around Laiyang the new wheat is offered, while around Huang County (today’s Longkou) people boil and eat the new wheat grains; children weave a small dipper from wheat straw and scoop the grains from the broth to their mouths again and again — both eating the grain and playing a game, full of rural charm.
Because the new wheat has just come in by the Summer Solstice, eating noodles then also means tasting the new harvest.
