Guyu, is one of 24 solar terms. And it is the unique custom of the fishermen residing along the coast of the Huanghai Sea to spend their Grain Rain season the same way they spend the Spring Festival.

“The arrival of Grain Rain foretells the arrival of hundreds of varieties of fish.”

With the annual Grain Rain season approaching, each and every fishing family will busy themselves with buying meat and packing wine, as well as killing chickens and ducks. The returning fishermen will save the biggest and best fish for a gathering with their family and friends to have with some side dishes and wine.

The gathering normally begins with the boatman’s sacrificial ceremony in memory of the Dragon King, by way of giving a toast. After that, the fishermen play drinking games and eat dinner. For the fishermen in the Huanghai Sea, Grain Rain season is a time for catching prawn, yellow croakers, hairtail, herring, abalone, and other fish which normally reside in the warmer waters of the deep sea or the southern sea in winter to swim back to the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea to find food and spawn. That is exactly as the fishing saying goes, “The arrival of Grain Rain season foretells the arrival of hundreds of varieties of fish.”