I like the concept of the small season. Originally, I think, it came from somebody noticing that in Japan the year traditionally had a rhythm that beat once every two weeks or so; they translated this list of "small seasons" into English and provided the traditional associations for each subdivision.
This is great, as far as it goes, but most of us don't live in Japan (and Japan itself has a diversity of climate regions). The rhythm of the year in Arizona is utterly different from that in Seattle, which is different from Victoria, BC. In fact, among the Coast Salish, the year was traditionally recognized as having thirteen "moons"; but exactly which moons depended on which group you were talking to and what kind of activities their traditional territories supported. Upriver (and inland) Stó:lo had different concerns from the Snuneymuxw of Penelakut Island, and the S'Klallam on the Olympic Peninsula lived differently still.
So: each of us should take the 24 Japanese small seasons as an inspiration, and come up with our own small seasons.
I know the small seasons as the solar terms (节气 jiéqi) but I have to admit, 'small seasons' is a much more evocative phrase for them. Following them through the turns of the year is rewarding, even though they were calculated for a rather different climate than the one where I live. Perhaps it's the ADHD time blindness—I do enjoy anything that helps make the passage of time a little bit more perceivable. The small seasons website has a link to add them to your online calendar, and I jumped at the chance.
Not mentioned in the site is the fact that the three 5- to 6-day periods, or pentads, within each solar term also each have a name. For example, we are currently in the middle of the solar term 小雪 Xiaoxue, or small snow, which (according to Wikipedia) has the following three pentads:
- 虹藏不見, 'Rainbows are concealed from view'.
- 天氣上騰地氣下降, 'The Qi of the sky ascends, the qi of the earth descends'
- 閉塞而成冬, 'Closure and stasis create winter'.
The Japanese page for 小雪 Shōsetsu has alternate names for the second and third pentads:
- 朔風払葉, 'North wind takes the leaves'.
- 橘始黄, 'Mandarin oranges turn yellow'.
(Fandom interjection #1, MDZS-specific: please note, it's 小雪, not 晓薛.)
(Fandom interjection #2: referring to the solar terms is one of my secret tips for writing fic in a historical Chinese setting. It makes more sense, contextually, than referring to a 'big' season or using English month names, and it's more interesting than 'first month', 'second month' and so on. The phenological month names are quite evocative, too. Both they and the solar terms give an idea of what the time of year actually means for your characters, which helps me, at least, in imagining what happens in the whole story. Referring to solar terms also makes my head hurt far less than trying to figure out what dates would be in heavenly stems and earthly branches... yes, I am the kind of person who would try that despite the pain, so I am glad that there are small seasons to help me out.)