Why do we eat dumplings on the winter solstice?

The winter solstice, also known as the "winter festival", "long solstice festival", "YaYu", is a very important festival in China's lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival. Since it is a festival, there should be a festival like, eat dumplings for the festival, this is the old tradition of the Chinese people ah. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're doing and how you're doing it. In fact, ah, winter solstice to eat dumplings is not so simple, there is also a big story.

01 Ancient people are the "winter solstice" as an important holiday

The roots of the "winter solstice" as a holiday from the Han Dynasty, the prevalence of the Tang and Song dynasties, and continue to this day. The "Qing Jia Lu" even has "winter solstice as big as the year", which shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice.

People believe that the winter solstice is the natural transformation of yin and yang, is a blessing from heaven. In the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice was known as the "Winter Festival", and the government held a congratulatory ceremony called the "Winter Festival", which was a routine vacation.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty has this record: "Before and after the winter solstice, the gentleman is in peace and quiet, all the officials are not listening to the government, choose the auspicious moment and then save the matter." So this day the court up and down to take a holiday, the army on standby, the border closed, the business travelers stop business, friends and relatives with food gifts, visit each other, happy to have a "peace and quiet body" holiday.

To the Tang and Song dynasties, the winter solstice is the day of sacrifice to the ancestors, the emperor on this day to the outskirts of the ceremony held in heaven, the people on this day to the parents of the elders of worship, and now there are still some places in the winter solstice this day to celebrate the festival .

02 "winter solstice" why eat dumplings in the north, the winter solstice day to eat dumplings, but many people do not know why dumplings. In fact, dumplings in the earliest days was called "Jiao Er", the inventor is the Eastern Han Dynasty medical sage Zhang Zhongjing.

Legend has it that when Zhang Zhongjing returned to his hometown of Baihe, he saw that there were many people on the banks of the river who were starving due to poverty, and many of their ears were frozen, so he decided to save these poor people.

After some research, Zhang Zhongjing made a soup called "Cold Dispelling Jiao Er Tang", in which he used chili peppers and some cold-repelling medicines to cook mutton, and then fished out the ingredients and chopped them up, and wrapped them in a dough shaped like an ear, which he named "Jiao Er", and then distributed them after cooking. "

After cooking, they were given to the patients to eat, with two jiao ears for each person and a bowl of soup.

After eating this bowl of Jiao Er soup, the body is warm and the blood flows smoothly, and after a period of time, the frozen ears will be fine. Zhang Zhongjing continued this process of distributing the Jiao Er soup until the 30th day of the Lunar New Year. Later, people decided to celebrate the healing of their ears by eating dumplings every winter solstice and the first day of the Lunar New Year.

03 What are the auspicious meanings of various dumpling fillings?

Celery stuffed dumplings: The meaning of "diligent wealth". The meaning of the word is "diligent", which means diligent and hard-working, and "frequent", which means a constant flow of money. It is a blessing for the constant flow of material wealth and a wish for diligence and pragmatism.

Dumplings stuffed with leeks: The meaning of "Jiu Cai" is taken. The word "jiu" means "long" or "long-lasting". Jiu Cai is a prayer for long-lasting material wealth, and even more so, a prayer for a long and lasting future.

Dumplings stuffed with Chinese cabbage: The meaning of the word "Bai Cai" is taken. Hundred is a quantitative word meaning "hundred kinds" or "hundred sorts". The word "Bai Cai" means "hundred kinds of wealth", which is a blessing for a hundred kinds of wealth, or a good wish for the newlyweds to grow old together.

Dear friends, on the last winter solstice, did you eat dumplings? What kind of stuffed dumplings did you eat?