What did the ancients do in the cold?

The ancients would collect ice cubes in the great cold.

In ancient times, there was no ice-making technology. In ancient times, wealthy families and royal families had special ice rooms to store ice cubes. When it freezes in the icy river, they ordered people to collect ice cubes for summer use. In hot summer, ice cubes are needed to cool off the heat. The custom of picking ice in cold weather lasted from Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Zhou dynasty picked ice at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, and the Ming and Qing dynasties picked ice three or nine days before and after the great cold.

According to the "Yanjing Times" written by Fu Cha Dunchong in Qing Dynasty, "it is difficult to meet March 9 in winter. If you chisel it at night, it will sound like a stone, and the ice will hit it every day. After March 9, although ice is hard to use. " As the saying goes, "the cold is in the March 9th", and it is the hardest to freeze at this time, which is in line with the requirements of the royal family.

The custom of cold solar terms:

1. Every cold season, people are busy removing old cloth, pickling new year's vegetables and preparing new year's goods. During the great cold, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is also a festival for offering sacrifices to stoves, and people have the custom of offering sacrifices to stoves. When offering sacrifices to the stove, cremate the Guandong sugar and put it on the mouth of the kitchen god. It means "God says well, and the next one will be safe".

2. Many areas in our country will eat eight-treasure rice, because the shape and sweetness of eight-treasure rice have the meaning of fullness and sweetness. Nanjing people will also choose to use old hens, add ginseng, medlar, black fungus and other stewed chicken soup, as a special life enjoyment in cold season.

People in Beijing have the custom of eating "Lianggao". The pronunciation of "rice cake" in Chinese is the same as that of "rice cake", so it symbolizes good luck and continuous promotion. In Anqing, Anhui, there is a tradition of eating fried spring rolls in the cold season. Spring rolls are wrapped in fillings such as vegetables and meat, and the taste can be salty and sweet. People in Nanjing, Jiangsu like to drink soup in the cold season. They usually stew old hen soup with ginseng, medlar and black fungus.