Week 17: “Last Frost”

April 22 to April 28 is the 17th week of 2024.  This week, we are in the Solar Term of Grain Rain (Apr 20 -May 04). The micro-seasons for this week are “First Reeds Sprout” (Apr 20 – Apr 24) and “Last Frost, Rice Seedlings Grow” (Apr 25 – Apr 29).

Basho, Issa, Buson, Reichhold, Rosenstock, and Zaishiki wrote the poems selected for this week.  

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The 24 Solar Terms 

The 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China  (206 BCE and 24 CE) to help guide their agricultural activities. Each solar term is 15 days long and is based on the climate around Xi’an, the capital of China during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). ⁽¹⁾

Grain Rain

Grain Rain is the sixth Solar Term of the year and the sixth Solar Term of Spring. Guyu(谷雨) is the Chinese name for this season. “Guyu means “Grain crops grow fast because of rain”’.⁽²⁾  

Grain Rain Festival

The Grain Rain festival is celebrated in fishing villages in northern China  This festival began over 2,000 years ago and marks the beginning of the fishing season. At the festival, villagers perform various ceremonies during which they ask the God of the Sea for safe passage and a successful fishing season.

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The 72 Seasons

The 72-season calendar was established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai.  Each season lasts for about 5 days and offers “a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.”⁽⁴⁾

The micro-seasons for this week are “First Reeds Sprout” (Apr 20 – Apr 24) and “Last Frost, Rice Seedlings Grow” (Apr 25 – Apr 29).

Frost and Farming

Frost typically occurs overnight when the temperature falls below freezing and the atmospheric moisture solidifies into small ice crystals. However, frost may also “occur even when air temperatures are just above freezing due to open exposure to the clear night sky, which exposes surfaces to radiative cooling.”⁽⁷⁾

When the temperature drops enough to create frost it also has the potential to freeze the water found within the plant tissue.  Frost, which can occur during a “light freeze” (29° to 32°F), may kill or damage new and delicate plants.   However, if you experience a moderate freeze (25° to 28°F) or severe freeze (24°F and below), most plants will be severely damaged or die.⁽⁷⁾ 

Because of the potential damage that frost can cause to plants, farmers have established systems to identify the last frost dates.  Last frost dates are calculated using historical weather data to predict future weather patterns.  It should be noted that predictions can only give estimates and should not be taken as definite dates. The Almanac estimates there is a 30% chance that the last freeze will fall outside the predicted dates.   

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Astronomical Season

April 28, the last day of week 17, is 40 days past the spring equinox and 53 days until the summer solstice (June 20, 2024).  

April’s Full Moon

April’s full moon arrived on April 23.  This full moon is sometimes referred to as the Pink Moon.

Catherine Boeckmann at The Farmer’s Almanac explains that the name Pink Moon comes from the early blooms of the Phlox subulata, more commonly known as creeping phlox or moss phlox. Phlox subulata can also be called “moss pink”.

Other names for April’s full moon include:

• Breaking Ice Moon from the Algonquin
• Moon of the Red Grass Appearing from the Oglala
• Moon When the Ducks Come Back from the Lakota
• Frog Moon from the Cree

For more information about the Pink Moon, read Boekmann’s full article here.

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Haiku and Kigo 

The kigo, or season word, is one of the key parts of the haiku.  The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society provides us with the following explanation for why we use kigo in haiku. 

“A kigo is a poetic device used in haiku to denote a season; it’s a powerful word or phrase that can conjure up many allusions, historical references, spiritual meanings, and/or cultural traditions. Its use in haiku, a poem of few words, is especially effective because of this power to expand its meaning beyond the literal and to create a larger aura of seasonal mood, historical/ literary context, and/or cultural implications.”⁽⁹⁾

Visit The Haiku Foundation’s “New To Haiku: What is a Kigo?” for more information

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This Week’s Kigo

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “still cold”, “end of snow”, and “last frost” are relevant kigo. 

 In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, “lingering cold” and “snow” are relevant kigo. “Earth Day” (April 22) is also a relevant kigo listed in the Occasions section of the Dictionary.

Now, let’s read some haiku. 

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Basho

arrowroot leaves
with their face exposed: 
morning frost.
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

during the night 
the bamboo freezes 
a morning of frost 
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

Issa

mountain village--
every day, day after day
the last frost
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

keeping company
with the plum tree--
the gate's last snow
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

the stray cat
sharpens his nails..
last snow pile
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

Dandelions —
forgotten flowers
in the frost’s path
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Reichhold

snow mixing
my breath
with spring

earth day
my pencil bounces
as a tree falls

Rosenstock

frosty morning
a robin bares his breast
to the whole world

Zaishiki

frost on the grass;
fickle form
there and not there

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Haiku invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu referencing last snow or last frost.

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your page and link back. I can’t wait to read what you write! 

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Thank You!

About the Haiku

Basho’s haiku were retrieved from “Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations” Editor: Gábor Terebess.  Issa’s haiku were retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s Haiku Guy. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation by Allan Persinger. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from the Dictionary of Haiku. Rosenstock’s and Zaishiki’s haiku was retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock.

1. “The 24 Solar Terms”; China Educational Tours
2. “6 Solar Terms of Spring”; China Educational Tours
3. “24 Solar Terms: 5 things you may not know about Grain Rain”; ChinaDaily.com
4. 72 Seasons App
5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
6. “Frost”: National Geographic’s Resource Library
7. “2024 First and Last Frost Dates”; The Almanac 
8. “Pink Moon: Full Moon in April. The Almanac