How did the custom of eating glutinous rice in winter come from?

In Jiangnan water town, there is a custom that the whole family get together to eat red beans and glutinous rice in the evening from winter to Sunday.

According to legend, there was a man named Gong. His son was incompetent and evil. He died on the Winter Solstice. Become a plague ghost after death and continue to harm the people.

However, this epidemic ghost is most afraid of red beans, so people cook red bean rice from winter solstice to drive away the epidemic ghost and prevent diseases.

Extended data:

Winter solstice correlation

As an important node of the 24 solar terms in China, the winter solstice is called "winter solstice is as big as a year", which also means entering "cold weather".

In ancient times, people thought that the winter solstice was a natural transformation of Yin and Yang and a blessing from heaven. This day is an auspicious and festive day, which indicates whether it will be lucky and worth celebrating. Therefore, winter solstice is also called winter festival, Asian festival and Yiyang festival.

On the solstice after beginning of winter, "counting nine", commonly known as "crossing nine", means entering the coldest season of the year. The so-called "number nine" means that from the date of the "winter solstice", nine days is a unit, which is called "nine". After nine "nines", it is exactly 8 1 day, which is called "nine". From "September 19th" to "September 9th", the cold winter turned into a warm spring.