The Origin and Customs of Start of Summer - The ancients believed that eggs, being round and smooth, symbolize a perfect life. Eating eggs on the Start of Summer day was a way to pray for peace in the summer and to withstand the test of "Zhu Xia" (a kind of seasonal ailment). The Start of Summer usually falls in the fourth month of the lunar calendar, and as the saying goes "In the fourth month, eggs are as cheap as vegetables." People would put eggs into the leftover "Seven Family Tea" to boil, thus creating "tea eggs". Later, people improved the cooking method by adding...