Winter Solstice of Jiangyin Customs

The winter solstice festival began in the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. The shortest days are getting longer and longer. There are folk sayings in Jiangyin that "the winter solstice is as big as a year" and "the winter solstice is as small as a year". The winter solstice is called "winter solstice night". As usual, people will break fast at home to worship their ancestors. On the solstice night in winter, some people invite relatives and friends to dinner. In the past, landlords laid off long-term workers on this day, so there was a folk song "In winter, you can eat all night if you have money, but you can freeze all night if you don't have money". There is another custom in Xixiang, Jiangyin and Qingyang. There must be a dish of green onions and tofu for dinner in winter. As the saying goes, "If you want to get rich, you should eat a bowl of green onion and tofu overnight in winter." "Onion" means lush and fluffy, and "tofu" is homophonic with "heap" in Jiangyin dialect. "Clean winter to dirty year", when there is rain and snow around winter, the night will clear up; On the contrary, there will be rain and snow, and the roads will be muddy.