han-shih-tsieh

Updated: May 7, 2025

In China every year, about the beginning of April, certain officials, called Sz'hüen, used of old to go about the country armed with wooden clappers. Their business was to summon the people and command them to put out every fire. This was the beginning of a season called Han-shih-tsieh, or "eating cold food."

Sir James George Frazer - Balder the Beautiful, Volume I.: A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The: Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul