What are the customs of Hainan winter solstice

Haikou, Chengmai eat sweet potato milk

In the northern part of Hainan Qiongbei region, especially Haikou, there is a winter solstice to eat sweet potato milk folk customs. The milk is made from Hainan's unique coarse grain, sweet potato, with cabbage, meat, wolfberries and other flavors, both sweet and salty. A bowl of steaming sweet potato milk is a must-try food for many travelers who left Hainan and came back to visit relatives on the winter solstice.

Ding'an Eating Vegetable Rice

Eating vegetable rice is a folk custom in Ding'an. On the winter solstice, people mix meat, vegetables, and rice together and eat them with their hands wrapped in vegetable leaves. The whole family get together to eat rice wrapped in vegetables, there is a collection of family wealth does not lose the meaning of a year's wealth gathered here, the whole family happiness and well-being.

Wenchang, Qionghai tomb sweeping, dinner group

Hainan East, especially in Wenchang, the winter solstice tomb sweeping custom is more obvious. Tomb-sweeping in Wenchang is divided into Qingming Tomb-sweeping and Winter Solstice Tomb-sweeping, but the theme is the same to honor the ancestors. So on the day of the winter solstice, people will go to their ancestors' graves to get rid of weeds, depict red inscriptions, set up white chopped meat, rice balls, wine, light candles, firecrackers, burn paper money, and their hearts are full of respect and thoughts for their ancestors.

"Rice balls" is Wenchang Qionghai area of the unique food, Hainanese words commonly known as "Cup of Jane", is cooked rice hand wrapped into a round rice ball. Round rice balls dipped in peanut oil, with hard-boiled eggs, it can become a meal. Hainan eat rice balls drink northern eat soup dumplings is the same symbolism, is the meaning of family reunion.

Wanning Cattle Feeding Festival

Wanning people call the winter solstice "Cattle Feeding Festival", as the name implies, in the winter solstice this day, the people of Wanning will stop all the farming activities, to give the cattle a day of rest, and cut some good grass for the cattle to eat, so that the cattle will be able to save energy, and to pray for the next year, a good harvest.

Meanwhile, the winter solstice is also a day of reunion. People would prepare a table at their ancestral home to honor their ancestors. On the table are ten bowls of rice, ten glasses of wine, ten pairs of chopsticks, three plates of vegetables and meat, one pair of candles and three sticks of incense, one kerosene lamp, and betel nut, money treasure and so on. After the preparations are complete, incense and wax are lit, and wine is poured for the ancestors. After the men perform the ritual of worship and make a wish, burn money and firecrackers, followed by the family to eat a reunion dinner together.

Tunchang, Qiongzhong to eat Job's tears

"Bua" is simply the classic Hainan snacks! Tunchang people have the custom of eating barley on the winter solstice. There's also a touching legend about "Bua". According to legend, a mother and her son were dependent on each other, and when the son grew up, he left his hometown to defend himself against foreign invasions. The mother missed her son so much that she made her son's favorite food, bua, during festivals and prayed for his early return. Thirty years after leaving home, her son finally returned. Since then, this kind of bua has been named "薏粑", representing reunion and longing.

Miao people eat mountain orchid cake rice

Every year on the "winter solstice" festival, Hainan Miao households will use mountain orchid glutinous rice made of a kind of cake to eat to celebrate the year's harvest joy. This cake eaten with homemade sugar syrup, a moment to eat can be stored for a few days. In winter, when the weather is cold and the food is easy to become hard, this cake is put on the charcoal fire and roasted on the hot expansion after softening, it is even more sweet and delicious.