What does the winter solstice symbolize?

The solstice in winter symbolizes the coming cold.

As an important node of the 24 solar terms in China, the winter solstice has the shortest day and the longest night in the north of the equator. The winter solstice is the limit of the sun's southward travel, and the height of the sun in the northern hemisphere is the smallest on this day. On the solstice of winter, the sun shines directly on the tropic of Capricorn, and the sun is most biased towards the northern hemisphere. The solstice in winter is the turning point of the sun's southward movement. After this day, I went back, and the direct point of the sun began to move northward from the Tropic of Capricorn (23 26' s), and the daytime in the northern hemisphere (China is located in the northern hemisphere) increased day by day.

From winter to around, the earth is located near the perihelion, and its running speed is slightly faster, resulting in that the time for the sun to shine directly into the southern hemisphere is about 8 days shorter than that in the northern hemisphere, so the winter in the northern hemisphere is slightly shorter than that in summer.

Meteorological change

After the winter solstice, although the height angle of the sun gradually increases, it is a slow recovery process. The heat lost every day is still greater than the heat received, showing a situation of "making ends meet". On the third and fourth days, the accumulated heat is the least, the temperature is the lowest, and the weather is getting colder and colder.

China has a vast territory, and the climate and landforms vary greatly from place to place. Although the days from winter solstice are short, the temperature from winter solstice is not the lowest; It won't be very cold before the winter solstice, because there is still "accumulated heat" on the surface, and the real cold winter is after the winter solstice. Due to the disparity of climate in different parts of China, this astronomical climate feature is obviously late for most parts of China.

The solstice in winter marks the rebirth of the sun and the round-trip movement of the sun into a new cycle. The solstice in winter is an auspicious day. After the winter solstice, the days get longer and the sun rises, which is the beginning of the round-trip cycle of the direct point of the sun and should be celebrated.