What does the winter solstice mean? How to celebrate it?

The winter solstice (December 21 or 22 on the solar calendar) is the beginning of the ninth month. Ancient people believed that the winter solstice is an auspicious day because the day is longer than the day and the yang qi rises. Therefore it was worth celebrating. Ming and Qing emperors had a ceremony, called the "winter solstice suburb of heaven". Palace officials to the emperor to present the ceremony of congratulatory table, but also to cast each other to congratulate, like New Year's Day. But the people do not take the winter solstice for the festival, but some of the activities of the season. Southerners in Beijing in guest travel, also have a feast to worship ancestors. At the same time, they also invite their colleagues or close friends to gather together for meals and catering. Yan custom does not emphasize the winter festival. Old Beijingers did not do this.　On the day of the winter solstice, there is a grand puja at all the major Daoist temples in the capital. Taoist priests recite sutras and make a list to celebrate the birth of the First Heavenly Father. According to Taoism, Yuan Shi Tian Zun symbolizes the first century when the chaos was not yet divided and the Taoist qi was not yet revealed. Therefore, it is customary to eat Kun-Tun. Yenching times and seasons" cloud: "the shape of the wonton is like a chicken egg, quite similar to the chaos of heaven and earth, so in the winter solstice day to eat." In fact, "Wet Tons" and "Chaos" harmonize, so the folk will eat wontons extended to break the chaos, open up heaven and earth. Later generations no longer nine days to eliminate cold charts to explain its original meaning, only the so-called "winter solstice wontons summer solstice noodles" proverbs, it is simply seen as a seasonal diet.　After the nine, some literati, the scholarly stream, engage in the so-called cold activities, choose a "nine" day, meet with nine people drinking ("wine" and "nine" harmonized), the table with nine plates and nine bowls, the table with "flower" and "nine", the table with "nine", the table with "nine". Table into the table with "flower nine pieces" seat, in order to take the meaning of nine to eliminate cold.　Folk also popular to fill in the nine nine cold map for fun. Nine nine to eliminate cold is usually a double hook red calligraphy, on the traditional "willow in front of the court to cherish the spring breeze" nine words, nine strokes per word, ***81 strokes, from the winter solstice every day in accordance with the order of the strokes to fill a stroke, every one over nine filled with a good word, until after the return of spring after nine, a nine nine to eliminate the cold to be considered a great success. Fill the daily strokes of the colors used according to the day's weather decisions, sunny is red; cloudy is blue; rain is green; wind is yellow; snow fill white. In addition, there is also a pictorial version of the Nine Nine Chillers Map, also known as "Yatou", which is a drawing of nine branches of cold plums on white paper, each branch has nine blossoms, one branch corresponds to nine, one corresponds to a day, and each day a plum blossom is filled in with a specific color according to the weather conditions. In the Yuan Dynasty, Yang Yunfu wrote in "Luanjing Miscellaneous Songs": "Try to count the nine nine drawings in the window, the remaining cold is gone and the warmth returns to the beginning of the day. Plum blossom points introduce no remaining white, see this day is the apricot plant."　The most elegant of the nine nine cold map is to make nine body couplets. Each nine words, each word nine strokes, every day in the upper and lower couplet each fill in a, such as the upper couplet written "spring spring spring willow spring dyeing spring beauty"; the lower couplet to "autumn yard hanging autumn persimmon autumn send autumn fragrance", known as the nine nine cold to welcome the spring couplet. However, no matter which kind of nine-nine cold elimination drawings, while spending time and entertaining the body and mind, they also simply record the meteorological changes. It is said that experienced old people can predict the amount of rainfall, abundance and failure of the year based on the nine nine days of cold elimination charts. Local Customs Winter Solstice Dumplings </B> also known as "winter solstice pill". Han Chinese winter solstice food. Popular in the southern region. Every year on the winter solstice (around December 2 on the solar calendar), glutinous rice flour is ground and stuffed with sugar, meat, vegetables, fruits, cowpeas, and shredded radish, and then wrapped into a ball called "winter solstice ball", which is given to friends and relatives. It is also eaten by the whole family at breakfast, which means reunion.　Suzhou people over the winter solstice - eat wontons memory of Xi Shi Due to Suzhou 2,500 years ago is the capital of the state of Wu, Wu ancestor Taibe, Zhongyong is the descendants of King Tai of Zhou, had inherited the Zhou calendar as the beginning of the year, so far the ancient city of Suzhou still have "winter solstice is as big as the year" of the legacy of the custom, and every year the winter solstice, the winter solstice is the year, the winter solstice is the year, the winter solstice is the year, the winter solstice is the year. So far, the ancient city of Suzhou still has the custom of "winter solstice is as big as a year", and the "menu" on the night of winter solstice every year is even more elaborate, which continues the far-reaching flavor of the Wu region and forms a unique meaning different from that of other cities. In the supermarkets along the streets of the ancient city of Suzhou, winter wine is piled up like a "mountain". Brewed only once a year, winter wine is fragrant with osmanthus flowers, sweet and refreshing. There is a saying in Suzhou that if you don't drink winter wine at the winter solstice, you will freeze overnight.　When the "old Suzhou" people return home, the "round night meal" set out on the table is not only sumptuous but also "meaningful", whether it is a cold pot of hot fried or fish, meat, livestock and poultry, have changed their elegant name into a "lucky dish". "Auspicious dishes", "Yuanbao" (egg dumplings), "reunion" (meat dumplings), "chicken" (pouncing), "golden chain" (golden chain) "Golden Chain" (vermicelli), "Ruyi Vegetables" (soybean sprouts), "Eat Yau Yue" (fish), etc., are similar in shape and color, and are permeated with the joyfulness and symbolism of the traditional festivals in Gusu.　Since ancient times, the Taihu Lake area has been rich in rice, and various kinds of cakes made of glutinous rice flour are the most common snacks in the area. The round winter solstice dumplings are a must-have snack. It is said that in Suzhou, the January Lantern Festival, the February 2nd Dumpling, the March Green Dumpling, the April 14th Immortal Dumpling, the May Fried Dumpling with Pork Filling, the June 24th Dumpling, the July Cowpea Dumpling, the August Patty Dumpling, the September 9th Chrysanthemum Dumpling, the October Turnip Dumpling, the November Winter Solstice Dumpling, and the December Osmanthus and Lard Sugar New Year's Cake are all twelve kinds of snacks that are eaten, so that a new year will come again.　It is said that Suzhou people also have the custom of eating wontons on the winter solstice. Legend has it that at a banquet in the Spring and Autumn Festival of Wu and Yue, the king of Wu, who was tired of eating delicacies from the sea and the mountains, did not have an appetite, so the beautiful Xi Shi went into the imperial kitchen and wrapped up a kind of dustpan-type dim sum and offered it to the king of Wu. The king of Wu ate a big bowl, and asked, "What kind of snack is this, so delicious?" Xi Shi thought to herself, "This dim king is muddled and chaotic, so she casually replied, "Chaos." In honor of Xi Shi's wisdom and creativity, Suzhou people made it a seasonal delicacy for the winter solstice.　"Taking tonic at the winter solstice and fighting tigers in spring" is a folk saying widely circulated in the Wu region. Suzhou people also start to launch a big tonic from the day of winter solstice, which also forms the highest peak of eating mutton after fall. The lamb business at the famous Wuzhong Zangshu Mutton Shop has boomed even more. A small book of mutton store owner revealed that the winter solstice in his mutton store can sell eight sheep, for the eater, whether it is burned, stewed, stewed, boiled, are both enjoying the blessings of the mouth and make up for the body, it is a two-in-one beauty. Mutton powder soup Ningxia: winter solstice to eat "mind" Yinchuan has a custom, winter solstice this day drink powder soup, eat mutton powder soup dumplings. Yinchuan people on the winter solstice day to the mutton noodle soup called an odd name - "mind".　On the fifth day of the day when the house was busy early, the purple mushrooms on the pine mountain wash, simmering soup, simmering well after the mushrooms out; mutton diced pot cooking and frying, steam frying dry after the release of ginger, onion, garlic, chili pepper stir-fry, after the taste of cut mushrooms in the diced meat and then fry a little more, and then a marinade in vinegar (to remove the poisonous taste of wild mushrooms), and then into the seasoning and noodles, refined salt, soy sauce; after the meat is rotten after the release of fungus, gold needles (yellow cauliflower), slightly stir-fried, will be cleaned and added to the mushroom soup. Will clear the good mushroom soup to join, soup boiling into the cut pieces of flour, soaked noodles, and then add leeks, garlic, cilantro, so that a pot of mutton noodle soup is done. This pot of soup red chili, yellow cauliflower, green garlic, parsley, white powder block, vermicelli, black mushrooms, fungus, red, yellow, green, white and black colors, the aroma, let a person mouth-watering.　Winter solstice, the people called the ghost festival, powder soup dumplings after the first bowl for up, but also to the near neighbors on a bowl. Can't eat the dumplings in the morning, you buy a three-pronged cake, fennel cake soaked in powder soup to eat. Mutton noodle soup dumplings filled with yellow radish, Yinchuan people are commonplace meal, outsiders ate a but rave. Rarely seen in the field of such spicy and delicious dumplings, which is also regarded as a special flavor of Yinchuan snacks it.　Fujian: "Winter Solstice All Night" Rolling Pills "Winter Solstice frost, moon mother light; cypress leaves red, pills hold." This is a children's song for the winter solstice in Fujian.　Minzu Tongzhi - Xinghua Province Customs - Winter Solstice", "the early glutinous rice for the pill, is the day of early maturity, and recommended to the ancestors of the test." This is the "winter solstice all night", "rolling pills" and the winter solstice early cooked "sweet pills" to ancestors of folklore.　 The night before the winter solstice, Putu custom called "winter solstice all night". In the evening of this day, red candles are lit up in the halls of every house, signifying a brilliant career. The red citrus on the table is "fruit Yue" (i.e. the red citrus is stacked into a small mountain, hence the name). The top of the red citrus inserted "three spring" (i.e., folk paper cutters with red paper cut into the paper flowers of fortune, luck and longevity) one, with red paper strips sealing the waist of a pair of chopsticks (ten pairs) and ginger, board sugar each one, the family washed their hands face, the parents lighted candles on the incense, set off firecrackers, began to "rub the ball! The family washes their hands and face, parents light candles and incense, set off firecrackers and start "rubbing pills". The rubbing of the "pills", is white, such as the year of the newlyweds, is rubbing the red pills, to show that the family added, the family will be more prosperous. At this time, the woman put on a red shirt, dazzling in the light, children smiling mouth, innocent and lively. Everyone gathers around the big dustpan (commonly called "big hat arc"), and the children sit on high stools, "eager to try". The housewife grinds glutinous rice into powder (commonly called "rice offering") and kneads it into a round strip with boiling water, picks it into a large grain of round blanks, and then each person rubs it with the palm of his hand into a grain of "pills" of the size of a katsuragi core, and this is the "winter solstice night rubbing pills. Winter Solstice All Night Pill Rolling". One of the most interesting is: some adults are pinching Yuanbao, Jubao basin; some are pinching puppies, piglets, to take "good luck, the dog chit Yuanbao" and "do dog, do pig, do Yuanbao" proverb, implying that there is a "wide source of wealth, It means "prosperity of wealth and six animals". The children were most interested in the puppies and pigs, cheering, "Grandpa is making a dog," "Dad is making a dog," "Mom and Grandma are making a pig!" The whole family laughed. Some of them make "magpie balls" (commonly called "guest bird balls") the size of a grain of bean. The children could not stop rubbing them, some were flat, some were long, and even he himself found them funny. Some of them make rice offerings on their eyebrows and noses, which is really funny and cute. If a child drops pills on the ground, ask the child to pick him up and blow off the dust, or else he will grow ugly in the future. The intention is to educate children from an early age to cherish food. "Rub pills" after the "pills" in the "big hats alone" in the middle, buckle the lid, placed in front of the "stove Gong" stove The night of the winter solstice is the longest.　The longest night of the winter solstice, and children love to eat "pill soup", can not sleep, before dawn, will be noisy mother want to eat "pill soup", so there is "love to eat pill soup, looking forward to ah day is not yet light" nursery rhyme. The housewife puts the dumplings in the soup. The housewife poured the "pills" into a pot and boiled them with ginger and sugar (ginger and sugar can dispel cold and stimulate the appetite) together with water to make the fragrant, sweet, sticky and hot "sweet pill soup". After offering it to the ancestors, the whole family will eat it. The pills are stuck to the doorframe to honor the "door chancellor" and keep the family safe. Also put "(feed) magpie pills" thrown on the roof (usually 12, leap year for 13, meaning the whole year, month after month peace), and so on magpies to compete for food, the noise, commonly known as "Annunciation of good news", meaning the five blessings of the family.　Early in the winter solstice, the family took "pills", fruits, incense and candles, paper money and so on up the hill to visit the ancestors' graves. Because the winter solstice is the last tomb sweeping festival of the year, so sweeping the tomb of the family than the Qingming and Chungyang two festivals for more, meaning the end of caution to catch up with the meaning of the past.