Winter Solstice means

The meaning of winter solstice: On this day, the day in the northern hemisphere reaches its shortest, and the days get shorter as you go north.

Introduction to the Winter Solstice Solar Terms:

Winter Solstice, also known as Day Solstice, Winter Festival, Sub-Sui, etc., has both natural and humanistic connotations and is an important one among the twenty-four solar terms. It is also a traditional Chinese folk festival. The winter solstice is one of the four seasons and eight festivals, and is regarded as a major winter festival. In ancient times, there was a saying that "the winter solstice is as big as the new year", so the ancients called the winter solstice "sub-year" or "small year". Winter Solstice customs vary in content or details depending on the region.

The winter solstice is the 22nd solar term of the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms". The sun's yellow longitude reaches 270°, and it is celebrated every year from December 21st to 23rd in the Gregorian calendar. The winter solstice marks the minimum height of the sun and the shortest daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere, but the temperature on the winter solstice is not the lowest.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest daytime and the longest night in all parts of the northern hemisphere, and the days get shorter as you go north. After the winter solstice, the direct point of the sun gradually moves northward, and the days in the northern hemisphere begin to gradually become longer; Therefore, the ancients believed that the winter solstice is the day when Yang Qi is the weakest in the year, and then the Yang Qi gradually picks up. At the winter solstice, people begin to count nine to calculate the cold weather. Folk proverb goes: "The summer solstice is three Geng, and the winter solstice is Ren, count nine."

? Reasons for eating dumplings during the winter solstice:

The proverb goes: “October 1st, the winter solstice arrives, and every household eats dumplings. "This custom was left in memory of the "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.

It is said that when the Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing retired and returned to his hometown in Nanyang, it was a snowy winter. He saw Nanyang Many of the villagers' ears were rotten by the cold, and they felt very sad, so they asked their disciples to set up a medical tent in Guandong, Nanyang, put mutton, pepper and some anti-cold medicinal materials in a pot, cook them, take them out and chop them into pieces. /p>

Wrap it in dough to look like an ear, put it in a pot and cook it, and make a medicine called "Cold-Expelling Ear-correcting Soup" and give it to the people. After taking it, the villagers' ears will be cured. Okay. Later, people imitated making and eating dumplings every winter solstice, thus forming the custom of eating dumplings.