Diary of winter legend on solstice

Old people often say that when the solstice of winter comes, the coldest and most difficult days of the year will come, and the diary of nine cold days will begin. But today is not cold, but it is a real winter solstice festival. The ancient solar terms have a long history. Today is a good festival!

The winter solstice, commonly known as the Winter Festival, is a very important solar term in the China lunar calendar and a traditional festival among the 24 solar terms.

China attached great importance to the winter solstice in ancient times. The solstice in winter is considered a grand festival. There is a saying that the winter solstice is as big as a year, and there is a custom to celebrate the winter solstice. "Han Shu" said: "The sun shines on the winter solstice, and you are long, so congratulations." 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. The Book of Jin records: "On the winter solstice of Wei and Jin Dynasties, people from all over the world celebrated ... its appearance was not as good as that of Zheng Dan." 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.

As the saying goes, after eating the winter solstice meal, the day becomes longer. From the astronomical point of view, the change of the length of day and night is based on the fact that the day from winter to sunrise is the shortest in a year, and the sun is almost directly on the tropic of Capricorn. After the winter solstice, as the sun moves northward, the days become longer and longer, so the winter solstice is the longest night in a year.

Now, some places still celebrate the winter solstice as a festival. Northerners have the custom of slaughtering sheep and eating jiaozi and wonton from winter solstice, while southerners have the habit of eating glutinous rice balls and long noodles on this day.

Do you know how to eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter? According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor from Nanyang, was an official in Changsha. When he retired in his later years, it was a snowy winter and the wind was biting. He was very sad when he saw the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River in Nanyang dressed in rags, and many people's ears were frozen rotten. He asked his disciples to set up a medicine shed in Guandong, Nanyang, and put mutton, peppers and some cold-dispelling herbs in a pot, fished them out and chopped them up, imaged their ears with leather bags, and then put them down in the pot to make a medicine called "cold-dispelling and ear-correcting soup" for the people. After eating it, the villagers' ears will be fine. Later, on the solstice of winter, people imitated and cooked, thus forming the custom of "pinching ears". Later, people called it "jiaozi", while others called it "flat food" and "instant noodle jiaozi". It is also said that jiaozi did not freeze after people ate the winter solstice. Ha ha. Make trouble in jiaozi Bowl on the solstice of winter, and no one will care whether your ears are frozen. Friend, did you eat jiaozi today? Go and eat, and keep your ears safe for the winter. Ha ha ha ha! ! ! ! !