What is the winter solstice festival?

The origin and custom of winter solstice

The origin of winter solstice:

According to legend, the Central Plains of China began to use the soil gauge method to measure shadows more than 3,000 years ago, and its position in the world was measured in Luoyi, Henan Province, and it was designated as soil. The first of the 24 solar terms determined by Duke Zhou is the "winter solstice" determined by standard chart mapping, and is considered to be the first of the 24 solar terms.

The essence of the method of Tuguitu is that "the tree is eight feet long and the summer solstice is five inches long; On the solstice of winter, the scene is one foot, three feet and five inches long, measuring the depth of the soil, the sun shining, looking for the ground and testing for four hours.

Winter solstice, also known as short solstice, winter festival, year-ending, winter worship, etc., has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional folk festival in China.

The solstice in winter is one of the eight festivals in four seasons, and it is considered as a big holiday in winter. There is an ancient saying that the solstice in winter is as big as a year, so the ancients called it "off-year" or "off-year". The custom of winter solstice varies in content or details due to different regions.

In northern China, there is a custom of eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, saw frozen people when he retired in his later years, so he wrapped mutton, some cold-dispelling herbs and dough in his ears and made the medicine of "cold-dispelling glue ear soup" for the people to eat. Later, every winter solstice, people imitated eating and formed a custom.

The solstice in winter is the extreme point of direct sunlight spreading to the south. From winter to the sun, the sun shines directly on the tropic of Capricorn, and the sun is most inclined to the northern hemisphere, and the elevation angle of the sun is the smallest. In all parts of the northern hemisphere, the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest. The solstice in winter is also a turning point for the sun to return directly to the north. After this day, there will be a "turn back", and the direct point of the sun will move northward from the tropic of Capricorn (23 26' s), and the daytime in the northern hemisphere will increase day by day. The winter solstice marks the beginning of the cold season, so people begin to count nine to calculate the cold weather (folk proverb: "The summer solstice is three Geng, and the winter solstice is nine for everyone).

There is a folk proverb that "the solstice in winter is as big as a year", but during the solstice in winter, different places have different customs. Most northerners have the custom of eating jiaozi, while most southerners have the custom of eating sweets.