Start of Spring

Today is 立春, lìchūn, the Beginning of Spring by the lunar calendar. Interestingly, the Spring Festival, AKA Chinese New Year, does not begin for another 12 days. It starts on February 16 this year, and traditionally lasts 15 days.

I haven't really figured out yet how New Year is calculated in relation to the end of winter and beginning of spring.

Back to the solar term though, today we move into the 18 days during which Earth Flourishes Between Seasons 土旺四時 tǔ wàng sì shí, and then into the season proper. We are moving from the season of hibernation into the season of moderate outdoor exercise, through a transition period where digestion is dominant. Nice, that one of our biggest holidays falls right in the middle of it, the better to digest all that sticky rice cake.

According to the Sùwèn Chapter 2, in the three months of Spring it is good to:
clean out/express the dusty old clutter of our lives
sleep late, rise early
stroll in the courtyard (i.e. exercise outdoors)
let the hair down
wear looser clothing
generate new ideas (like New Year's Resolutions? or just ideas in general?)
live and let live
create instead of revise
give instead of take
reward instead of punish

This reflects the qì of Spring and is the Way to cultivating life.