Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - Characteristics and customs of solar terms in winter solstice

Characteristics and customs of solar terms in winter solstice

Characteristics of solar terms in winter: Winter is the solar term with the shortest day and the longest night in a year, and it is also the season when the yang begins to recover gradually. After the winter solstice, the days get longer, the nights get shorter and the weather gets colder. Customs: Sacrifice, pray, eat jiaozi, keep out the cold in September, eat jiaozi, eat sesame seeds, etc.

Winter solstice, also known as solstice, winter festival, child year, etc. It has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional folk ancestor worship festival in China. The winter solstice is the 22nd solar term in the "24 solar terms", and the solar calendar reaches 270 degrees. Every year, the festival is held on 65438+February 2 1-23 in the Gregorian calendar.

In the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, Suzhou and Hangzhou attached importance to winter festivals. The so-called "fat winter and thin year" means that you would rather be frugal during the New Year than waste it on the winter solstice. People give each other all kinds of food, which is called "winter solstice dish" and celebrate each other, which is called winter worship. Until now, the winter solstice festival is still popular among people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan Province and Guangdong, where ancestors are sacrificed, glutinous rice products are eaten and banquets are held, among which there are many interesting food activities.

For example, eat more winter solstice meat, winter solstice fish and Jiangsu and Zhejiang chickens and ducks. Winter solstice meat is cooked with pork and soy sauce. The solstice fish in winter is to separate the fish, leave the head and tail, and put them in a bowl in a rice bucket, which is called "leftovers" to get enough food. This is similar to eating fish on New Year's Eve, which means "more than a year".

Some northern regions, such as Beijing and Tianjin, eat jiaozi or wonton on the night of winter solstice. As the saying goes, "winter solstice wonton, summer solstice noodles." Folklore is to commemorate Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in Henan. Later generations eat jiaozi as a souvenir on the winter solstice.

Meteorological change

From winter to the future, although the solar altitude angle gradually increases, it is a slow recovery process, and the heat lost every day is still greater than the heat received, showing a situation of "making ends meet". On the day of "March 9 and April 9", the accumulated heat is the least, the temperature is the lowest, and the weather is getting colder and colder. China has a vast territory, and the climate and landforms vary greatly from place to place.

Although the days from winter solstice are short, the temperature from winter solstice is not the lowest; It won't be very cold before the winter solstice, because there is still "accumulated heat" on the surface, and the real cold winter is after the winter solstice. Due to the disparity of climate in different parts of China, this astronomical climate feature is obviously late for most parts of China.