Ice cream

The air-conditioning, cold drinks and ice cream seem to be the standard of modern summer. But in ancient times, how did people spend the long summer? In this article, we will peek at the ancient summer time through a large number of ancient paintings.   Summer Festival July 4 is the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, which has been officially designated as Tian Kuang Festival (天贶节) since the Song Dynasty, with the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and prohibiting slaughtering. At this time of the year, ancient people would expose grain, clothes and books to the sun to prevent them from getting moldy and being moth-eaten, so the sixth day of the sixth month was also called the Shai Xi Festival (晒洗节). In the Ming and Qing dynasties, people would take their pets to the river to give them a bath, officials would conduct bathing ceremonies for pets owned by the imperial family, such as elephants brought in from other countries. They are often performed during grand celebrations to show the royal majesty. During the Tian Kuang Festival, ancient people also used to store some well water for brewing sauce and vinegar, and for…