Yixing customs, what to eat on the winter solstice?

Yixing custom, eat pumpkin on winter solstice.

Old Yixing people would tell their juniors, "You will eat wontons on the summer solstice, and you will eat pumpkin on the winter solstice."

It is said that a long time ago, there was an old couple surnamed Xiang in the west of Fan Gongdi, who usually loved to grow pumpkins and they grew big and good. Every fall, the old couple collected a house full of pumpkins. They took the pumpkins as their treasure, but others didn't take them seriously.

One year there was a famine, and the hungry people remembered Father Sang's pumpkins, and the old couple didn't spare them, saving many lives. Since this day happened to be the winter solstice, the custom of eating pumpkins at the winter solstice was so inherited.

Expanded:

Winter Solstice Customs:

One, Eating Noodles

"Folks have been known to eat pumpkins for years. This day we have the custom of eating noodles in the southern region. Because from the summer solstice will enter the hot days, this season is prone to gastrointestinal discomfort, indigestion and other diseases, noodles are soft food easy to digest. Besides, longevity noodles have the meaning of longevity. Joyful noodles joyful noodles have the meaning of joyful celebration.

Two, support summer

Support summer is to support the chin, said the summer solstice after people like to doze off, the whole person is listless, the body thin, this day to eat chicken, there are chickens to support the chin, free from dozing.

Three, eat dumplings

In many areas of northern China, the winter solstice every year, the custom of eating dumplings. According to legend, the medical saint Zhang Zhongjing, when he returned to his hometown to see the frozen people, he used mutton and some cold-expelling herbs and dough, wrapped in the shape of an ear, made a kind of medicine called "cold-expelling ear soup", alms to the people to eat. Later, every winter solstice, people will imitate do eat, formed a custom.