How to explain the origin and customs of winter solstice to kindergarten children

Winter solstice, also known as "Winter Festival", "Dragon Solstice Festival" and "Asian New Year", is an important solar term in the China lunar calendar and a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. The winter solstice is the earliest of the 24 solar terms, which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period. In ancient China, the earth gauge was used to observe the sun and determine the winter solstice. The time is between 65438+February 2 1 and 23 in the Gregorian calendar every year. From winter to sunrise, the sun's direct ground position reaches the southernmost point of the year, almost directly to the Tropic of Capricorn (23 26' south latitude); The northern hemisphere has the least sunshine, 50% less than the southern hemisphere; In the northern hemisphere, the shortest day, the farther north, the shorter the day.

In winter solstice, different places have different customs, and most places in northern China have the custom of eating jiaozi in winter solstice. After thousands of years of development, a unique seasonal diet culture has been formed from winter solstice to Sunday. Eating jiaozi has become the winter solstice custom of most northerners in China. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the custom of drinking mutton soup from winter solstice in Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, which means driving away the cold.

The ancients celebrated the winter solstice. Although many people don't think it is a festival today, in any case, the winter festival is one of the "eight major festivals of the year", and foodies will not miss this festival with various winter solstice specialties, such as jiaozi in the north, Chaoshan glutinous rice balls, Mazi in the southeast, Yuan Lei in Taizhou, Hefei pumpkin pie, Ningbo sweet potato soup, Tengzhou mutton soup, Jiangnan rice, Suzhou wine making and so on.

Jiaozi is widely eaten in the north. Every year, during the winter solstice of the Lunar New Year, jiaozi is an indispensable holiday feast for both the rich and the poor. As the saying goes: "On October 1st, when the solstice of winter comes, every family eats jiaozi."

This custom was left in memory of Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", who gave up medicine from the winter solstice.