What solar term is the winter solstice?

The winter solstice is one of the 24 traditional solar terms in China, also called "Nine Numbers". It takes about one day from the 21st to the 23rd of December every year. The sun is furthest from the earth on a day. So what are the customs of the Winter Solstice?

Winter Solstice is a very important solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar and a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. Winter Solstice is commonly known as "Winter Festival", "Chang Zhi Festival", "Yasui", etc., as early as 2500 Many years ago during the Spring and Autumn Period, China had used Tugui to observe the sun and determine the winter solstice. It was the earliest one to be formulated among the twenty-four solar terms, and it also ranked first among the twenty-four solar terms.

"Winter Solstice", as the name suggests, means that winter is really coming. The folk proverb "Light snow seals the land, heavy snow seals the river, and the winter solstice enters the ninth month" more vividly explains the weather changes after the winter solstice.

What are the customs during the Winter Solstice?

1. Sacrifice to Heaven

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Winter Solstice was a day for worshiping Heaven and ancestors. On the Winter Solstice, the emperor would personally go to the Temple of Heaven in the suburbs to hold a grand sacrifice. The Heavenly Ceremony means that the emperor has a dialogue with heaven, praying for peace and prosperity for the country and the people, and for a good harvest. People also have to pay respects to their dead relatives on this day, so people have the custom of visiting graves and burning paper on the winter solstice.

2. Counting Nine and Nine

The folk call the winter solstice "Jiaojiu" or "Counting Nine", that is, starting from the winter solstice, every nine days will be counted as a "Nine". ", *** is divided into 9 "nines", *** nine and nine are eighty-one days, and spring will enter after 81 days. After the winter solstice, counting ninety-nine is very popular all over the country. People in various places have compiled various proverbs and jingles for counting ninety-nine based on different climate conditions, scenery characteristics, agricultural weather and customs. The most representative one is the following jingle: 1929 is true, 3949 is walking on the ice, 5969 is watching the willows along the river, 79 is the river, 89 are wild geese, 99 plus one 9. Plow cattle are everywhere.

The proverbs and jingles of Jiujiu are not only people's summary of climate experience over the years, but also people's hope for spring in the harsh winter.

3. Dumplings are eaten in the north, and glutinous rice balls are eaten in the south.

"Winter Solstice Dumplings and Summer Solstice Noodles", in the past, people celebrated the Winter Solstice, and the dietary custom was mostly eating dumplings. Every winter solstice, no matter rich or poor, dumplings are an essential festive meal.

In the south, eating glutinous rice balls is popular during the Winter Solstice. There is also a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls makes you one year older". Tangyuan, also known as glutinous rice balls, is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. "Yuan" means "reunion" and "completeness", so eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice is also called "winter solstice dumplings". Tangyuan can be used to worship ancestors or as gifts to relatives and friends.

4. Giving shoes and hats as gifts

During the winter solstice, there is a folk custom of giving shoes as gifts. It is said in "Ancient and Modern China": "There were embroidered mandarin duck shoes in the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Zhao ordered his aunt to visit him on the winter solstice." As time went by, the custom of giving shoes to aunts gradually evolved into aunts giving shoes and hats to nephews. . In ancient times, hand-embroidered shoes for women were mostly embroidered with flowers and birds, and hats were often made into phoenix shapes; for men, shoes were mostly embroidered with beasts, and hats were often embroidered with tigers.

5. Tibetan winter ice

Ice has a wide range of applications. It can be kept fresh and used as medicine. In the north, people usually build cellars to store ice around the winter solstice. People use iron drills to cut ice from the river, which is more than one foot wide and two feet long, called a square.

6. Eating dumplings

On the winter solstice, various ethnic groups in northern my country have the custom of eating dumplings. It is said that eating dumplings on the winter solstice will not freeze your ears. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty, once served as the governor of Changsha. Because of his old age, he resigned from the imperial court and returned home. When he returned to his hometown of Nanyang, the wind was freezing and the snow was falling heavily. He saw many poor people who were naked, shivering from the cold, and their ears were rotten from the cold, and he felt compassion. Zhang Zhongjing ordered his apprentices to set up a tent in Guandong, Nanyang, put mutton, chili peppers and some cold-repelling medicinal materials in an iron pot and cook them, take them out and chop them into pieces with a knife, wrap them in dough to look like ears, and put them in the pot. Boil it and make it into a decoction called "Cold-Expelling Ear-correcting Decoction", which is given to poor people passing by who suffer from frostbite. After everyone ate the dumplings, their rotten ears were quickly cured. The decoction called "Warm-Bearing and Correction of Ears" gradually evolved into today's dumplings and became a delicacy on people's tables. Therefore, every winter solstice, people always make dumplings to eat, forming the custom of eating dumplings during the winter solstice to keep your ears from getting cold.