Frost Surrenders to Seedlings

In 2026, April 25th marks the start of the second micro season of "Grain Rain", which is the sixth solar term of the year. This micro season is known as Frost Surrenders to Seedlings 霜止出苗 (Shimo yamite nae izuru). Overall, it is the 17th micro-season of the year. 

Some people call this micro season "Last Frost, Rice Seedlings Grow" in English, which is more descriptive of what this micro-season is about. As the name suggest, we see the last frost of the year around this time, because the weather is really warming up now. And the rice seedlings start to grow in the paddy fields. At this time of the year, we can hear the water being pumped into the paddy fields around Japan.

We don't just see growth in the paddy fields, other seedlings start to develop with the lack of frost and the warming of the weather and 'April showers' to aid their growth. You can see many different spring flowers around this time in Japan too.