Grain in Ear 芒種

What it marks

Bearded grain ripens and the busiest stretch of the farming year begins — harvesting one crop and sowing the next at the same time.

Traditionally favours

• hard work
• handling two things at once
• harvest
• sowing

The traditional read is simply: this is the busy season. Expect to be stretched, and plan for it.

These are the tradition’s tendencies, not guarantees — and a solar term describes a stretch of weeks, so for a specific day check today’s almanac, which reads the day’s own 宜 and 忌.