Small Coldness:

This usually falls around January 5th or 6th. After the winter solstice, the sun gradually moves northward in the sky, slowly bringing down the temperature. The terms Small Coldness and Great Col- dness, like Small Heat and Great Heat, are obviously relative to one another; this day is so named because, although chilly, it is not as cold as what follows.

Great Coldness:

Falling around the 20th or 21st of January, this marks the coldest period of the year, the furthest extremity of winter. Around this time, the twelfth month of the lunar year, everyone is busy preparing for the New Year's celebration in happy an- ticipation of the imminent arrival of the begin- ning of spring, which will come as soon as the preiod begun by the Great Coldness has been endured to the end. Then a new year and the reappearance of life will have come.

Start of Winter:

This day, falling on the 7th or 8th of November, marks the beginn- ing of winter, as its name indicates. It is customary on this day to eat restorative Chinese foods and medicines, as a renewal and revivification after the exhausting labors of the year, and, more practically, as a pro- tection against the coming cold or winter.

Small Snow:

By this day, falling around November 22nd or 23rd, the temperature has usually fallen below 0 degrees Cen- tigrade, leading some of the moisture in the atmosphere to gradually freeze into crystalline solids which fall from the sky; that is, snow begins failing around this time, giving this day its name.

Great Snow:

This dav falls around the 7th or 8th of December. The temperature in northern China after Small Snow is generally below freezing, marked by bitterly cold air and a frozen earth, as well as heavy snowfall, from which this day gets its name. Chinese farmers have a saying, "Small Snow seals the earth, and Great Snow seals the rivers." That is to say, by Small Snow, the earth is already frozen over, hard and impenetrable as a block of ice, but by Great Snow, even the rivers are frozen.

Winter Solstice:

On this day, falling around December 21st or 22nd, the sun's rays shine directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, and the northern hemisphere gets less sunlight and heat than on any other day. It marks the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, and just the opposite in the southern. After this day, the hours of daylight get longer and longer, but the weather gets increasingly colder. The ancient's considered this day of great importance, and called it "the small New Year."