May I ask, what are the customs of winter solstice in Henan?

There are many folk cultures included in our traditional festivals. As one of the twenty-four solar terms in our lunar calendar, the winter solstice is also celebrated as a very important festival. According to the different customs and habits of different parts of the country, the way to celebrate the winter solstice is not quite the same everywhere. Henan is located in the center of China and is considered the center of China and the hub of the world. Today we will take stock of how to celebrate the winter solstice in Henan, and we will all learn to learn together.

The winter solstice is a very important festival in the Chinese lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, the winter solstice is commonly known as the "winter festival", "long solstice festival", "sub year" and so on. The winter solstice is commonly known as "winter festival", "long solstice festival", "sub year", etc. As early as two thousand five hundred years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, China has been using the earth gui observation of the sun, determined the winter solstice, it is the twenty-four solar terms in the earliest developed one. It is also customary in most parts of northern China to eat dumplings on this day, and in the south to eat soup dumplings and pumpkins, with the proverb: "When the winter solstice arrives, eat dumplings." There are many other poems and movies about the festival.

Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, the people of Henan, rich or poor, dumplings is an essential holiday meal. As the proverb goes, "On October 1, the winter solstice arrives, and every family eats dumplings." This custom was left behind in honor of Zhang Zhongjing, the "Sage of Medicine," who gave medicine on the winter solstice.

"Pinch frozen ears" is the winter solstice in Henan people eat dumplings commonly known. The reason for this food custom?

Zhang Zhongjing is Nanyang Wudong people, he wrote "Typhoid Miscellaneous Diseases", the collection of medical practitioners of the great, by successive generations of medical practitioners as a classic. Zhang Zhongjing famously said, "Advance to save the world, retreat to save the people; can not be a good prime minister, but also should be a good doctor." During the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was the governor of Changsha and practiced medicine in the lobby. Afterwards, he resolutely resigned from his post and returned to his hometown to cure his neighbors. When he returned to his hometown, it was winter. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were yellow and skinny, starving and cold, and many of them had their ears frozen. He asked his disciples to set up a medical hut in Dongguan, Nanyang, and set up a big pot to cure frostbite on the day of the winter solstice with "Cold-expelling Jiao Ear Soup". He put lamb, chili peppers and some cold-expelling herbs in a pot of boiling, and then the lamb, drugs out of the chopped, breaded into an ear-like "Jiao Er", cooked, distributed to the people who came to seek medication for each of the two "Jiao Er", a big bowl of broth. People ate "Jiao Er", drank "cold soup", warm body, two ears heat, frostbitten ears are cured. Later generations followed the example of "Jiao Er" and wrapped it into food, also called "dumplings" or "flat food".

Dumplings are eaten on the winter solstice, not forgetting the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing, the "Sage of Medicine," who made the soup to dispel cold. To this day, there is a folk song in Nanyang, Henan Province, which says, "If you don't eat dumplings on the winter solstice, no one will take care of you if you freeze your ears off".

Henan dumplings with various fillings are big and stuffed, which is the best thing for the people of Henan on the winter solstice. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, is also known as the "city of chow mein," and in the chow mein restaurants, especially the old ones, you can order a bowl of lamb chow mein or a bowl of chow mein with three kinds of fresh noodles, and perhaps you'll be able to get a better look at the Henan people as a species.

So you can see that eating dumplings on the winter solstice is also a rich festival in Henan?