What does the winter solstice mean?

The winter solstice is the day of the year in the northern hemisphere when the sun rises the latest and sets the earliest.

The winter solstice, is the most important of the 24 solar terms. According to the Gregorian calendar, the winter solstice is on December 22-23 every year, the day the sun runs to 270 degrees of yellow longitude, the southernmost latitude, the sunlight direct sunlight on the Tropic of Capricorn, the northern hemisphere day is the shortest, the longest night (within the Arctic Circle is 24 hours of darkness).

The winter solstice, the northern hemisphere, the height of the sun at noon is also the lowest, for example, in Beijing, the sun's height is only 26 ° 42 ′, because of this day at noon the longest shadow of the table, so it is also known as "long solstice day". Ancient China attached great importance to the winter solstice, stipulating that the month of the winter solstice for the "son month", is the first of the twelve earthly branches order. Therefore, the winter solstice is also a traditional festival, commonly known as the "Winter Festival" "long solstice festival" and so on.

Expanded

Traditional customs of the winter solstice:

1, worship: the winter solstice in a sense is the traditional Chinese teachers' day. Mr. Zuo told reporters that there were many private schools in ancient times, and China has respected teachers since ancient times, and on the day of the winter solstice in ancient times, students would pay special tribute to their teachers and send some gifts for them.

2, sacrifice: the ancient winter solstice this day, the emperor will hold a grand ceremony of sacrifice to heaven.

3, nine nine cold map: folk entertainment games, the literati painted eighty-one plum blossoms, every day to Zhu pen dots and dyes, ninety-nine eighty days after the completion of the plum blossom map, is the time of the spring blossoms. There are also crossword puzzles, nine characters are nine strokes, one stroke per day, to be completed after all, spring comes. For example, the commonly used nine words "willow in front of the garden to wait for the spring breeze".

People's Daily Online - Winter Solstice - Night is Longer, Day is Shorter, and the Sun is Beginning to Grow (Seasonal Events)