Holiday customs in early winter

Festive customs in early winter include offering sacrifices and making up for winter.

Beginning of winter is one of the "four seasons and eight festivals" in ancient society, and it is a very important festival. In some parts of China, there are customs such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, holding banquets to predict the elderly, and offering sacrifices to ancestors with the best seasonal products, so as to fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of future generations and pray for a good year from God.

After beginning of winter, it means that this year's winter is officially coming, plants and trees are dying, and the insects are dormant. Although there is no such thing as hibernation, there is a custom to make up for winter in beginning of winter. The proverb "beginning of winter fills the winter with an empty mouth". In ancient times, migrant workers worked for a year, so they took advantage of beginning of winter to rest and rewarded their families for their hard work. On this day in early winter, chickens and sheep are slaughtered or supplemented with other nutrients.

In northern China, there is a custom of eating jiaozi in beginning of winter. In early winter, you can improve your life, but it is not as delicious as jiaozi. In the north, the rule in beginning of winter is to eat jiaozi, because jiaozi looks like ears. People think that if you eat them, your ears will not be frozen in winter. In addition, jiaozi's homonym "cross" means that beginning of winter is the turn of autumn and winter.

Historical origin

Beginning of winter is the first solar term in winter, representing the beginning of winter and the beginning of March. Beginning of winter, beginning of spring, Changxia and beginning of autumn are collectively called "four stands", which are spring planting, Xia Yun, autumn harvest and winter storage. Everything germinates in spring, grows in summer, harvests in autumn and hides in winter. Beginning of winter means that life begins to shut down, everything enters a state of recuperation, plants wither and insects hibernate. For example, Xiao Jingwei said, "Fighting is dry, and insects hibernate."

As for the division time of the four seasons, China traditionally takes "Li Si" (beginning of spring, Changchun, beginning of autumn and beginning of winter) among the "24 solar terms" as the beginning of the four seasons, and "Bi Fen" (vernal equinox and autumnal equinox) and "Two Fingers" (summer solstice and winter solstice) as the midpoint of the four seasons, which has obvious astronomical significance.