Jing Zhe 惊蛰

Jing Zhe 惊蛰 marks the third solar term 節气 of the year. It has been a Chinese tradition that on the third solar term 節气, people would go to worship the White Tiger God to seek for safety and ward off backstabbers or troublemakers for the year. This day is known as Jing Zhe 惊蛰 or Qi Zhe 启蛰, which means awakening from hibernation, direct translation from Chinese.

It normally falls on the 5th or 6th of March of the year. This year, in the Year of Tiger, Jing Zhe falls on 5th March 2022, 22:44 Hour.

It was believed that on this day, all insects and animals will be awaken from their hibernation when a loud band of thunder strikes onto the earth and soon after, the insects will harm the crops and the hungry tigers will hurt lives to feast. Hence people start praying for safety and good harvest by offering food to the Tiger God.

And today, whoever wants to ward off backstabber and troublemakers will visit the temple to give offering to the Tiger God. A nice piece of fat pork, green beans, sesame seeds, some duck eggs, joss sticks and incense paper of Guardian of nobility is used for the ceremony.

The generous piece of raw pork will be stuff into the Tiger statuette to symbolize it is well fed. Green beans and sesame seeds are then thrown on the tiger statuette's mouth.  Some will throw and scatter some green beans and at times sesame seeds on the ground is to get rid of problems and trouble created by troublemakers. To complete the offering, raw duck eggs is offered by displaying near the statuette, follow by burning of joss sticks and incense paper to seek mentor luck and ward off backstabbers.

If you are encountering backstabbers or are in some legal difficulties, you may want to try this out.