The origin and secret of the winter solstice

The winter solstice is the last solar term in a year. At this time, the weather is cold, and life activities begin to turn from prosperity to decline, from dynamic to static. No matter where you are, winter solstice is an important node of traditional health care. Pay attention to the following points in daily life: go to bed early and get up late, take good care of five parts, drink plenty of water when it is cold, exercise at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, drink some hot sugar water after exercise, and drink a bowl of hot porridge/soup before meals.

The winter solstice is as big as a year, so it is delicious. As we all know, jiaozi is eaten in the north and Tangyuan is eaten in the south.

The former, we take Henan as an example. "Pinch frozen ears" is a common name for eating jiaozi in winter. According to legend, when Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor from Nanyang, returned to his hometown, it was snowing heavily and the wind was biting. When he saw the villagers naked and many people's ears were frozen rotten, he was very sad. He asked his disciples to set up a medicine shed, put mutton, pepper and some herbs for removing cold in a pot, took them out and chopped them up, imaged their ears with leather bags, then cooked them in a pot and distributed them to the people. After eating it, the villagers' ears will be fine. Later, on the solstice of winter, people imitated cooking, so they had the custom of eating jiaozi, and there was a saying that "if you don't eat jiaozi, you will lose your ears".

The latter takes Zhejiang as an example. In winter solstice, people in Zhejiang eat "winter solstice yen". In Taizhou, rounding is the highlight, which means "reunion" and "perfection". Rolling is made of glutinous rice flour. First, knead glutinous rice flour and warm water into dough, and then pick it into a ball the size of a vinegar dish. After cooking, they are rolled up and mixed in soybean flour. Because this process is called "rolling" in dialect, the winter solstice yen is called "rolling round", and soybean flour is fried and ground into powder.