What does Xiaohan and Dahan mean?

Xiaohan is the 23rd solar term among the twenty-four solar terms and the fifth solar term in winter. The festival falls on January 5-7 in the Gregorian calendar. Xiaohan marks the official start of the winter season. Cold air accumulates for a long time and becomes cold. Xiaohan means that the weather is cold but not extremely cold.

Dahan is the last solar term among the twenty-four solar terms. Like Xiaohan, Dahan is also a solar term that indicates the degree of cold weather. In some areas of our country, the major cold is not as good as the minor cold, but in some years and in a few coastal places, the lowest temperature throughout the year will still occur during the major cold solar term. Minor Cold and Major Cold are the periods with the least rain in the year.

Extended information:

The development of the twenty-four solar terms

The Ganzhi calendar, also known as the solar term calendar or the Chinese solar calendar, is a calendar with 60 different groups. A calendar in which the heavenly stems and earthly branches mark the year, month, day and time. The Ganzhi calendar has a long history, is profound and unpredictable, and contains profound cosmic astrological codes.

The stem and branch calendar mainly consists of four parts: stem and branch year, stem and branch month, stem and branch day, and stem and branch time. "Twelve months of construction" and "twenty-four solar terms" are its basic contents. Wan Minying, a famous historian in the Ming Dynasty, determined that the stems and branches were invented by the emperor based on clear records in ancient Chinese documents.

The current twenty-four solar terms are a knowledge system formed by observing the annual movement of the sun and understanding the changing patterns of seasons, climate, phenology and other aspects throughout the year. It divides the sun's annual motion trajectory into 24 equal parts, which correspond to a certain position that the sun reaches every 15° on the ecliptic. Each equal part is a "solar term".