The origin and custom of the simple winter solstice

As solar terms and festivals, the winter solstice plays a very important role in people's minds. Every family will celebrate the winter solstice from winter solstice to Sunday, and the most obvious custom in winter solstice is eating. Every household will prepare local winter solstice food, such as jiaozi in the north and Tangyuan in the south, which all have the expectation of reunion. What are the characteristics of winter solstice?

Brief introduction of winter solstice in the twenty-four solar terms

The winter solstice is the earliest of the 24 solar terms, and it ranks first among the 24 solar terms. The traditional calendar takes five days as a period, three periods as a section or breath, and a year is divided into twelve sections and twelve gases, which are collectively called twenty-four solar terms. As for the solstice of winter, The Episode of July 72 says: The last hidden gas is extreme at this point. On the day of winter solstice, the sky is south, the days are short and the shadows are long, so it is called winter solstice.

Astronomy also regards the winter solstice as the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. The solstice in winter marks the extreme of yin and the beginning of yang, but the temperature will continue to drop in the short term because the heat radiated from the sun to the ground is less than that radiated from the ground to the space. Therefore, the solstice of winter is also the beginning of cold. During the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, it was stipulated that the day before the winter solstice was the end of the year. Because the first month of the week calendar is 1 1 month of the summer calendar, there is no difference between New Year's greetings and Chinese New Year's, so the winter solstice is also called "Asian New Year", which is essentially equivalent to today's Spring Festival.

The ancients believed that the solstice in winter was an opportunity for chaos and recovery. After winter is the beginning of a year, and Lu even said that winter is as big as a year, which also shows that the ancients attached importance to winter. It was not until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the summer calendar that the first month was separated from the solstice in winter. It can be said that the "Winter Festival" only existed after the Han Dynasty. In order to distinguish it from "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new" on the eve of the Spring Festival, the day before the winter solstice is called Xiaozhi or Xiaodong, and some of them are called "adding years" and "dividing years". The solstice winter is called the long winter. The day after winter, the solstice and even the day are named.

Festival custom

1, ancestor worship

China's southern coastal areas, such as western Guangdong, Chaoshan and parts of Zhejiang, continue the traditional custom of ancestor worship. Every household is dedicated to ancestor statues, memorial tablets, etc. Go to the hall at home, place an altar, set up incense burners, offerings, etc. In some places, while offering sacrifices to ancestors, they also offer sacrifices to gods, land gods and deities, so as to make the next year's weather favorable and the family prosperous.

Step 2 eat barbecue and ginger rice

Cantonese people eat barbecue and ginger rice on the solstice in winter. On this day, most Cantonese people have the custom of eating meat and "adding vegetables" during the winter solstice. In Chaoshan area, there is a folk saying that "Winter Festival Pills, once eaten, celebrate the New Year", commonly known as "Adding New Year". Hakkas believe that the taste of water is the most mellow in winter solstice, so it has become a custom for Hakkas to make wine in winter solstice.

Step 3 eat rice cakes

People in Hangzhou eat rice cakes on the solstice in winter. From the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to the present, people in Hangzhou like to eat rice cakes on the solstice in winter. In winter solstice, you can cook rice cakes with different flavors, eat rice cakes in winter solstice and get old, which is auspicious. In Sichuan, it is the solstice to eat mutton soup in winter, and mutton is the first tonic in winter. In the area around the two lakes, red beans and glutinous rice must be eaten on the solstice in winter.

4, eat the winter solstice group (winter solstice pill)

In some areas in the south, eating the winter solstice ball is more popular, which means reunion. On the morning of winter solstice, every household grinds glutinous rice flour, and uses sugar, meat, radish, fruit and shredded radish as stuffing to make winter solstice meatballs, which are not only eaten at home, but also given to relatives and friends as a symbol of blessing. In fact, eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter is a traditional custom in China, which is more common in Jiangnan. There is also a folk saying that "eating jiaozi is one year older".

5. Eat jiaozi and drink mutton soup.

In many parts of northern China, it is a custom to eat jiaozi every winter solstice. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, saw a frozen person when he retired in his later years, so he wrapped mutton, some cold-dispelling herbs and dough into the shape of ears, made a medicine called "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction" and gave it to the people. Later, on the solstice of winter, people imitated eating and formed a custom.

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