The origin of eating glutinous rice balls in the South during the Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is the extreme southward movement of the sun. On this day, the height of the sun in the northern hemisphere is at its smallest. On the winter solstice, the sun's rays shine directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, and the sun's rays are most tilted towards the northern hemisphere. Next, I will tell you about the origin of eating glutinous rice balls in the south during the Winter Solstice. I hope it will be helpful to everyone's work and study.

The origin of eating glutinous rice balls in the South during the Winter Solstice

Folk proverbs in the south say: "The Winter Festival is as big as the New Year." Like the Chinese New Year, the Winter Solstice is also a day of reunion. . Eating glutinous rice balls with your family symbolizes perfection.

Eating glutinous rice balls has been a custom in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. On the winter solstice, it is necessary to "make rice balls" or "make glutinous rice balls". These are also officially recorded in historical materials, saying "During the Winter Solstice, glutinous rice is made into balls, called glutinous rice balls." After making glutinous rice dumplings, you should offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors, and then eat glutinous rice dumplings with the whole family, which is called "increasing the age". Therefore, eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice has been a tradition since ancient times.

Eating glutinous rice balls is a traditional custom during the Winter Solstice, especially popular in Jiangnan. "Tangyuan" is a must-have food during the Winter Solstice. It is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. "Yuan" means "reunion" and "completeness". Eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice is also called "Winter Solstice Tuan". There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls makes you one year older".

Before eating the "Winter Solstice Circle", a Winter Solstice Circle must be stuck behind the doors, windows, tables, cabinets, bed lamps. People call this "Winter Solstice Circle", and they have to wait until "Send the Stove" before eating. Grilled food. If there is a pregnant woman in the family at this time, her hair will be rounded during the winter solstice, and she will give birth to a boy, otherwise she will give birth to a girl. When eating the winter solstice round, you must eat it in pairs for good luck. If there are only two pills left at the end, it means that everything will go well for the married people. If there is only one pill left, it means that everything will go well for the singles. Some families also have the habit of worshiping gods and ancestors with seasonal fruits and three animals in the evening. There are also people who "dry winter rice" on this day, that is, wash the white rice with water, expose it to the sun on this day, and store it, leaving it for people who are sick to cook porridge in the future, so that the patients can recover as soon as possible.

Whether it is eating dumplings during the winter solstice in the north or eating glutinous rice balls during the winter solstice in the south, they are all traditions passed down from generation to generation. They all express the care between family members and have beautiful meanings. It is a yearning for a better life in the future.

What kind of festival is the Winter Solstice also called?

What kind of festival is the Winter Solstice also called: Four O'clock and Eight Festivals, Winter Festival

Four o'clock: refers to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter; Eight festivals: refers to the beginning of spring, the vernal equinox, the beginning of summer, the summer solstice, the beginning of autumn, the autumnal equinox, the beginning of winter, and the winter solstice. The winter solstice is one of the four seasons and eight festivals.

Winter Solstice was called "Day Short Solstice" or "Day Short Solstice" in ancient times. The ancients believed that the Winter Solstice solar term was the starting point for calculating the twenty-four solar terms in our country, because as soon as the Winter Solstice arrives, the New Year is just around the corner, so, The ancients believed that the winter solstice was as important as the New Year. There is a saying in "Qing Jia Lu" that "the winter solstice is as important as the new year". In the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice was regarded as the "winter festival", and the government held a congratulatory ceremony called "winter greetings". ", routine holiday. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the winter solstice was a day to worship heaven and ancestors. On this day, the emperor would go to the countryside to hold a ceremony to worship heaven, and the people would worship their parents and elders on this day. Moreover, in ancient times, wanderers who wandered away would go home for the winter festival at this time, so-called "having a destination at the end of the year."

Is the Winter Solstice a traditional festival: Yes

my country’s traditional festivals mainly include the Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month), the Lantern Festival (the fifteenth day of the first lunar month), and the Dragon Heading Up (the second day of the lunar calendar). Second day of the lunar month), Sheri Festival (the second day of the second lunar month), Shangsi Festival (the third day of the third lunar month), Cold Food Festival (105 or 106 days after the winter solstice), Qingming Festival (around April 5 in the Gregorian calendar), Dragon Boat Festival (the lunar calendar) The fifth day of the fifth lunar month), the Chinese Valentine's Day (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month), the Ghost Festival (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), the Mid-Autumn Festival (the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar), the Double Ninth Festival (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month), and the Xiayuan Festival (the tenth day of the seventh lunar month). the 15th of the lunar month), the Winter Solstice (December 21-23 of the Gregorian calendar), New Year's Eve (the 29th or 30th of the twelfth lunar month), etc. Among them, the winter solstice is a traditional festival with both natural and humanistic connotations among the twenty-four solar terms. .

Folk customs of the Winter Solstice

1. Worshiping ancestors

In the early morning of the Winter Solstice, the family goes up the mountain to visit the tombs of their ancestors with glutinous rice balls, fruits, incense candles, paper money, etc. Because the Winter Solstice Festival is the last tomb-sweeping festival of the year, there are more people sweeping tombs than during the Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival, which means to be cautious about the end and pursue the future.

2. Cold-repelling activities

The winter solstice means the beginning of counting nine, and after the ninth day, some literati and scholar-bureaucrats engage in so-called cold-repelling activities, choosing a "nine" On the same day, nine people meet for a drink ("wine" is a homophony of "jiu"). Nine dishes and nine bowls are used on the banquet, and a "flower nine piece" banquet is used for the table, in order to take the meaning of ninety-nine to relieve the cold.

3. Eating mutton

In Sichuan, there is a habit of eating mutton and other nourishing foods during the Winter Solstice to "tonic". In the evening, mutton and mutton soup are eaten to warm up and ward off the cold. Praying for a good omen in the coming year. , eat winter solstice dumplings, eat brains, winter solstice dumplings, worship ancestors during winter solstice, eat bean dough, and eat mutton.

4. Eating dumplings

When it comes to the Winter Solstice, we have to talk about eating dumplings.

Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for everyone, rich or poor. A proverb goes: "On October 1st, when the winter solstice arrives, every household eats dumplings." This custom was left to commemorate the "medical sage" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.

5. Eating dog meat

The custom of eating dog meat during the Winter Solstice is said to have started in the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, ate dog meat cooked by Fan Kuai on the day of the winter solstice. He thought it tasted particularly delicious and was full of praise. Since then, the folk custom of eating dog meat during the winter solstice has been formed. Nowadays, people eat dog meat, mutton and various nutritious foods on the day of the winter solstice in order to have a good omen in the coming year.

6. Eat Winter Solstice Pills

Also known as "Winter Solstice Pills". Food for Han Chinese Winter Solstice Festival. Popular in the south. Every year on the winter solstice (around December 2 in the Gregorian calendar), glutinous rice flour is ground, stuffed with sugar, meat, vegetables, fruits, cowpeas, shredded radish, etc., rolled into a ball, called "winter solstice ball", and given to relatives and friends. There are also times when the whole family gathers for breakfast, which means reunion.

7. Eating Leiyuan

People in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province love delicious food. On the important solar term of the year, they will make special dishes and food. First, they must pay homage to their ancestors and pray for them. Wish the whole family all the best in the coming year, and then the whole family happily gathers together to drink and eat. Among them, eating "Winter Solstice Yuan" (Leiyuan, also called Hard Leyuan or Fan rough Yuan) is an old tradition in Taizhou. Leiyuan means roundness and reunion.

What are the details of worshiping during the Winter Solstice?

1. Because you are worshiping ancestors, you will inevitably go to some places where few people go. It is best to follow the routes you often take. It's best not to go outing in remote places. Firstly, it is a safety issue. Secondly, it is easy to attract evil spirits.

2. Be respectful to the graves you encounter while walking or standing. Do not touch the tombstones with your feet. In such places, you must have a serious and solemn attitude. Other adjacent tombstones Don't touch and occupy the front.

3. The ancestor’s cemetery must be carefully cleaned of weeds, loosened with soil, cleared of debris in front of the tomb, and cleaned of tombstones. You can think silently in your heart and hope that the ancestors under the nine springs will bless future generations with wealth and prosperity.

4. The best time to sweep the tomb is when the yang energy is relatively strong. Tomb sweeping is not allowed before dawn or just after dawn, in the evening or when the sun is about to set, because the resistance is weakest at this time, which is not good for grave sweepers. Generally, the best time is between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

5. If the person who goes to sweep the tomb is weak or sick or has black hair on his forehead, it means that his fortune is low. It is best if he can avoid going to the tomb; if he must go, he can wear jade with him. Or amulet such as Jade Buddha.

6. The route of sweeping the tomb should be particular. It is best not to repeat the journey to the tomb and back. Don’t go back. Don’t look back when you leave after sweeping the tomb.

7. After the tomb sweeping is completed, most people will generally feel a little weak and weak. It is recommended that you go to shopping malls and other crowded places before going home to absorb some popularity and yang energy, or go to the public bathroom to take a bath to remove the yin and evil spirits from your body. It is best to step under the brazier before entering the house. Use yellow straw paper to burn a fire and cross it one by one.

8. Pregnant women and women who are on their period are best not to visit graves. It is not recommended for mentally ill patients with severe mental illness who have not fully recovered, and children under 7 years old with weak yang energy. Patients with other serious diseases should not visit their graves.

9. The cemetery is the home of ghost spirits. When sweeping the tomb, do not cross the tomb and offerings, make loud noises, laugh and curse, speak obscene words, run around and urinate everywhere. Doing so will not only They are disrespectful to their ancestors and are a nuisance to nearby spirits. It is even more forbidden to trample on other people's graves or comment on the design of the tomb. It will be regarded as blasphemy. If you encounter a bad aura, you will get into trouble and go home.

10. When visiting graves during the winter solstice, you need to pay attention to seniority and worship in order. The order is: father, mother, eldest son, eldest daughter, second son, second daughter... and so on. After the worship is completed, the sacrifices are blessed by the ancestors, and everyone can eat the sacrifices. Finally, of course, pay attention to fire safety and wait until the incense candles are lit before leaving.

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