Diary of the origin of winter solstice

1. The winter solstice festival originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has been passed down to this day. Lu even said that the winter solstice is as big as a year. This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People think that the winter solstice is a natural transformation of yin and yang and a blessing from heaven. In the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice was the "Winter Festival", and the government held a congratulatory ceremony called "He Dong", which was a routine festival. There is such a record in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman was prepared for danger in times of peace, refused to listen to politics, and chose an auspicious day to save trouble." So on this day, the imperial court had a holiday, the army was on standby, the frontier fortress was closed, the business trip was closed, relatives and friends sent meals to each other, visited each other, and had a "quiet" holiday happily.

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the solstice in winter was the day of ancestor worship. On this day, the emperor went to the suburbs to hold a ceremony to worship heaven. On this day, people must worship their parents. There are still some places to celebrate the winter solstice.

After the "winter solstice", the direct point of the sun slowly moved northward, and the days in the northern hemisphere gradually became longer and the nights gradually became shorter.

Second, the custom of the winter solstice festival is a modern folk custom.

Many areas have the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors during the winter solstice, and there are still some places such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and southern Fujian that celebrate the winter solstice.

In addition, people have predicted the future weather according to the weather quality and the arrival order of winter solstice. As the saying goes: "the solstice in winter is at the beginning of the month, and it should be cold at the end of the year;" The winter solstice is at the end of the month, and the first month should be cold; The winter solstice is in the middle of the month, without snow and frost "(this is based on the arrival of the winter solstice, and it is speculated that the cold current will come sooner or later); As the saying goes: "the winter solstice is dark, and the new year's goods are rare; The winter solstice is sparse, and the New Year is dark "(meaning: if there is no sun on the winter solstice, the New Year will be sunny, on the contrary, if the winter solstice is sunny, the New Year will rain).