From today, we enter the 12th lunar month 腊月 (Làyuè)，exactly one month away to the most important Chinese traditional festival and culture event Spring Festival( Chinese New Year)!

In ancient China, the year-end lunar December 腊月 (Làyuè) belonged to the "Month of Sacrifice". The reasons for its formation: 1. Years change, one must offer sacrifices to ancestors and gods; 2. The weather is cold and the farming is idle and labor is abundant, time to prepare for spring plowing and sowing; 3. The wild animals hibernate and hunting opportunities, time for hunting and make processing food. 

All those activities are connected to one important reason "Cold/ 冷(Lěng). This is a very frequent used character, and also represents two frequent used components. On the left side of "Cold/ 冷(leng) is "冫"=ice, on the right side is "令"= season, order. together, it gives very clear visual picture of the meaning, the season of ice is  "Cold/ 冷(Lěng). 

Look at style evolution of character "Cold/ 冷(Lěng) below: does the character itself look like a person sheltered under a roof from the icy weather outside? 

See how easy Chinese language is! As long as remember the composition rules of character and words,  it is really like a fun Lego game. 

Let's see an example of word composition. 

In the old days,  12th lunar month 腊月 (Làyuè) was also a good time for food processing. The hunted animals that are dried or smoked with curing salt are called "cured flavor/ 腊味làwèi", such as cured fish/腊鱼là yú, cured meat/腊肉làròu, 、 cured chicken/腊鸡là jī, cured duck/腊鸭là yā, and sausage/腊肠là cháng.

Until today, Chinese people still follow this tradition. Though we can buy those food in super market any time of a year, the authentic home made "cured flavor/ 腊味làwèi" by grandparents during 12th lunar month 腊月 (Làyuè) is still the flavor smoothing out the homesickness.

Isn't it like a construction game?

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In our blog: read Chinese Lesson: is there humor in Chinese language? by Joël Bellassen  

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keep warm in the 12th lunar month 腊月 (Làyuè)!