What's the difference between Lantern Festival and winter solstice?

Yuanxiao is a kind of food, and the solstice in winter is a solar term. There is no connection between them, but southerners will eat Yuanxiao on the winter solstice. Yuanxiao is one of the traditional snacks in China, which belongs to the eating custom of Lantern Festival. The practice of Yuanxiao is mainly stuffing, which is mixed first, then spread into large round pieces, dried and cut into squares smaller than table tennis. Then put the stuffing into a machine like a big sieve, pour the rice flour on it and "sieve" it. As the fillings collide with each other, the rice sticks to the surface of the fillings and becomes spherical, which becomes Yuanxiao.

The winter solstice is a traditional festival in China, and it is the 22nd of the 24 solar terms. The longitude of the sun reaches 270 degrees, and it is celebrated every year on the Gregorian calendar 65438+February 2 1-23. Winter solstice, also known as short solstice, winter festival and sub-year-old, has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional folk festival in China. The solstice in winter is one of the eight festivals in four seasons, and it is considered as a big holiday in winter. There is an ancient saying that the solstice in winter is as big as a year, so the ancients called it "off-year" or "off-year".