What do you eat on the solstice in winter?

Winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms and an important traditional festival. This is the shortest day and the longest night in a year. The winter solstice festival contains the richest contents and customs, so there are many aliases, such as winter festival, long solstice festival, short solstice festival, happy winter festival, Yiyang festival, and other titles, such as sub-year-old, fat winter and happy winter. Sacrificing ancestors is a common custom in many festivals in China, and winter solstice is one of them. In the records of national customs in China, there is a saying of "Winter Solstice Festival", also known as "Ghost Festival". In the eyes of China people, the significance of the ancestors' souls to the family can be compared with the strength of the God of heaven and earth to the country, and we should not be careless or neglect it. Sacrifice, whether in the temple at home or in the cemetery, is to offer delicious and delicious things to our ancestors as much as possible. In most parts of northern China, it is a holiday custom to eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter. Eating jiaozi, also known as "frozen ears", originated from a legend in the Han Dynasty. When Zhang Zhongjing was an official in Changsha, he retired to his hometown, which coincided with the snowy winter and the biting wind, and many people's ears were frozen. He was very sad, so he asked his disciples to set up a shed in Guandong, Nanyang, to cook mutton, peppers and some herbs in a pot to drive away the cold, then fish them up and chop them up, make them into ears with flour bags, then cook them in a pot and distribute them to the people. After everyone eats it, their ears will be fine. Later, on the winter solstice, people will imitate it and eat it as a "frozen ear". Later, they called it "jiaozi". Eating wonton in winter was first popular in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to legend, people in Zhao Gou, Song Gaozong love to eat the wonton cooked by the chef, because once the wonton is not cooked well, someone will send the chef to Dali Temple for punishment, but because only the chef can cook wonton, Zhao Gou pardoned him. Later, the method of making wonton spread to the people, and there were more and more varieties and patterns. During the winter solstice festival, every household eats wonton, which leads to the saying "winter solstice wonton and summer solstice noodles". The traditional custom of eating glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice festival was formed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Especially in the south of the Yangtze River, glutinous rice balls are an indispensable food in winter solstice, which means "reunion" and "perfection". Eating glutinous rice balls on the solstice in winter symbolizes family harmony and auspiciousness. On the winter solstice, people have the habit of giving children shoes and hats. Sending shoes and hats is mainly to hope that children can grow up healthily. In the past, it was mainly hand embroidery, but now most of it is bought from the market, and the form is also keeping up with the trend of the times.