Li Chun (立春), 2023

Li Chun (立春) or the Coming of Spring comes around but once a year and for this year, it will arrive upon our doorsteps, or rather, our rice bucket, at 10.44am on 4 February 2023. This will correspond with the 14th day of the first Chinese lunar month. The Hokkien and the Baba Nyonya communities in Penang will invariably refer to this first day of Spring as Jip Chun instead of Li Chun. 

But what's so special about Jip Chun or Li Chun? It has no religious significance but we Chinese acknowledge this date as the day when the sun crosses the 315° longitudinal line in the sky. Of course you don't see this imaginary line but it is there, all right. For astronomical and perhaps astrological purposes as well, this longitudinal line has always been there.

Right after this time on Jip Chun day, it is traditional for me to paste a new Chun (春) character on the rice bucket and then fill it up to the brim with rice to signify abundance for the coming year. 

This year, however, I had to really clean out my rice bucket to rid it of the rice weevil and its eggs. The last packet of rice must have been really infested with the eggs because although I didn't see any sign of any weevil at all when I purchased it from the supermarket. But soon enough, I noticed that the rice was gradually being attacked and the weevil came crawling to the surface whenever I opened the lid. It reached a stage where we decided to throw away the rest of the uncooked rice. To my horror, the bottom of the bucket was coated with a thick crust of rice dust. So everything went off into the washroom where I gave the bucket a good wash followed by drying it out under the sun and subjecting it to a good vacuum subsequently. Hopefully, my new stock of rice will be spared this infestation.

By the way, I've been writing diligently about Jip Chun in this blog since Year 2007 and if anyone wants to find the historical dates and time, the information is all here:

Li Chun, 2022
Li Chun, 2021
Li Chun, 2020
Li Chun, 2019
Li Chun, 2018
Li Chun, 2017
Li Chun, 2016
Li Chun, 2015
Li Chun, 2014
Li Chun, 2013
Li Chun, 2012
Li Chun, 2011
Li Chun, 2010
Li Chun, 2009
Li Chun, 2008
Li Chun, 2007