Chinese winter solstice customs around

People's winter solstice: winter is bigger than the New Year

"Winter solstice is as big as the New Year": experts explain winter solstice folklore

Among China's traditional festivals. Mid-Autumn Festival, the Spring Festival may be the most important festivals for the people of China, but in the eyes of the Cantonese people, the winter solstice is just as important a festival, and even more important than the Spring Festival, the Cantonese people have a saying called "winter is as important as the New Year", which shows that the winter solstice in the minds of the Cantonese people's status.

While there is no long vacation on the winter solstice, and the Spring Festival does not have its own national, joyful, and cheerful atmosphere, Cantonese people will make a great deal of fuss on this day, and eat a big meal of fish and meat after a family reunion to worship their ancestors, in order to pray for good luck in the coming year, and all the luck in the world.

Traditional old Cantonese people, every traditional festival will fry some big fish and meat dishes to worship ancestors, for the winter solstice, is even more important, in this day, the old Cantonese people not only do some big fish and meat meat meat dishes, but also cook some vegetarian dishes, make up nine plates of dishes, neatly discharged on the table, but also add fruit, soju and home-made snacks and so on, used to worship the ancestors.

Quanzhou people "winter festival does not go home without ancestors"

Every year in the middle of November on the lunar calendar, about when the calendar November 22 (or a day before or after), is the winter solstice festival, also known as the Winter Festival. The winter solstice is one of the 24 festivals, especially for people to pay attention to, Quanzhou people called the winter solstice "winter festival small year pocket", the degree of importance seems to be a little less, but the festival is also very grand.

Winter solstice food, varying from place to place, the north ate wontons, more dumplings around the northwest, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and eat dumplings and mochi. Suzhou people eat at the winter solstice festival of soup dumplings, also known as the "winter solstice group", divided into two kinds of powder dough and powder round, "Qingjia Records" said: "filled and large for the powder dough, the winter solstice night offerings for the first product; no filling and small for the powder round, the winter solstice towards the gods also." The "Winter Festival Pills" eaten by the people of Quanzhou is actually the Suzhou people's food for the festival introduced in Qingjia Records. On the eve of the festival, every family should "roll balls". There are two colors, red and white. "Rubbing pills" craftsmanship, Jinjiang Shamshu, Shishi Xiangzhi, Hui'an Chongwu fishing village women, rubbing pills fast, good quality, grains as small as fisheye beads, it is amazing to see, in rubbing the winter festival pills at the same time, but also pinch the rice pills material to do some small and exquisite fruits and animals and ingots and silver treasures, in order to symbolize the prosperity of the auspicious kind of money, commonly known as the "do chicken bitch boy".

Quan custom has "winter festival does not go home no ancestor" said, so go out, will go home as far as possible to visit their ancestors for the festival. In the morning of the Winter Festival, sweet pill soup is cooked to honor the ancestors, and then the family sweet pill soup for breakfast. Some people also leave a few grains of rice pills after the meal, sticking on the door, said "to the God of the door". Quanzhou people eat pills, said the Lantern Festival pills for the "head pills (round)", the Winter Festival for the "tail pills (round)", so that the head and tail are round, it means that the whole family throughout the year from beginning to end of all complete. But the Qing Jiaqing "Hui'an County Records. Customs" on the winter festival to eat pills is explained in this way: "November, the winter solstice, Yang Qi began to sprout, food pills, is sticky pills in the door. Where the sun is still round, the yin is still square, May Yang began to be born, corn first grain and cooked, and for the corner of the corn, to the image of the yin, the corner, the square is also. Winter solstice Yang began to be born, then for the rice pills, like Yang, pills, round; each to its class like. The summer solstice is not thought of as a festival, suppressing the yin." Noon offerings to ancestors, offerings with meat and vegetarian five flavors, into the night, and held a family festival such as New Year's Eve, the offerings must have tender cake dishes. Quan custom New Year's Eve, only winter festival, New Year's Eve and Ching Ming Festival to prepare tender cake dishes, are said to have a "package of gold and silver" meaning, aimed at praying for family prosperity. In the old days, such as belonging to a large clan, but also on this day, open the temple word hall door, held an ancestral ceremony, and the Qingming Festival of that ancestral sacrifice, known as the spring and winter two sacrifices. Sacrifice rituals are very strict, the participants reverence to sincerity.

In Hui'an, the Winter Festival in addition to ancestor worship, there are some of the same customs as the Qingming Festival, such as the day before and after the top ten on the mountain tomb offering money to repair the graves to relocate the ground is also no taboo.

The winter solstice as an important festival, the relevant proverbs are also many. Such as "eat winter festival, on the winter; eat Qingming, under the bitter pit". Astronomical provisions of the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere, the beginning of winter, after the winter festival, the temperature continues to fall, agricultural work is also very little, into the idle season, said "on the winter". And by the Qingming Festival, the climate is warm, grass and trees sprouting, agricultural production is busy with spring plowing and planting, is the most tiring stage of farmers, so it is called "into the bitter pit". But farming is not to forget busy farming, the proverb and timely reminder of farmers: "winter solstice six days is Qingming." After the winter solstice 106 days is Qingming, should be early preparation for farming. In addition, there is "dry winter festival, wet year pocket". "Winter solstice at the beginning of the month, the cold in the year pocket; winter solstice at the end of the month, the cold is February." "Before the winter solstice, the price of rice is long, the poor child to be long raised; before the winter solstice, the price of rice falls, the poor child to the depression", and so on.

Changsha people winter solstice to do "cat milk"

Changsha folk to the winter solstice as a starting point, nine days for a period of time, made a "number of nine songs," said: "the first nine of two nine, meet not out of the hand (hands inserted in the sleeves or pockets); three nine of the twenty-seven, inverted pen before the eaves (icicle); four nine of the thirty-six, pedestrians on the way to the road, and the first nine of the twenty-six, the first nine of the thirty-six, the second nine of the forty-six, the first nine of the thirty-six, the last three of the thirty-six. Four nine thirty-six, pedestrian road host (home for the Spring Festival); five nine forty-five, the poor man step before the dance (praise spring, send God of Wealth); six nine fifty-four, dead branches hair tender thorns; seven nine sixty-three, pedestrians on the road to take off their clothes; eight nine seventy-two, hemp abducted by (frogs) hiccups in the field; nine ninety-nine eighty-one, take off the straw raincoat wearing a bucket hat."

Because the winter solstice was the first agricultural festival, has its own special connotation, the history of the winter solstice for the "age", Changsha, Changsha, commonly known as the "winter solstice is as big as the year". The day before the winter solstice called "small solstice", small solstice night, the old family reunion dinner, called "two except night" or "winter except"; some dinners eat wontons, wontons and "Chaos" resonance, meaning that the winter solstice for the anniversary of the opening of the sky and the earth, take "Chaos began to open, the beginning of the Qiankun Dian" said.

The winter solstice, also known as the "Winter Festival", Changsha, the old custom of gathering clansmen at the ancestral shrine to worship their ancestors, then kill pigs and slaughter goats, and do the "winter solstice wine". When the ceremony was held, the older people traveled long distances to their hometowns to pay homage to their ancestors at the ancestral shrine. Eat winter solstice wine because of male superiority and female inferiority custom, only men can participate, women can not enter the table. Married women go back to their mother's home on this day and must rush back to their in-laws' home at night. On this day, each family also ate glutinous rice custom, which can be said to moisturize the skin, to prevent the hands and feet from freezing and cracking.

Changsha urban and rural residents are used to the winter solstice before and after the production of preserved fish and bacon, fish and meat salted for four or five days after hanging when the wind place to dry, and then with wood chips, hulls, orange peel, peanut shells smoked, or hung on the woodstove smoked smoke, to its color gold and red, called the "winter bacon," which can be stored to the following summer does not rot. Winter solstice to make moldy tofu, commonly known as "cat milk", one of the local specialties of Changsha. The mulberry leaves harvested on this day are authentic winter mulberry leaves, which can relieve fever and improve eyesight.

Ningxia Yinchuan winter solstice this day "mind" can also eat!

Suzhou people winter solstice menu exquisite dessert fancy

Suzhou 2,500 years ago is the capital of Wu, Wu ancestor Taibo, Zhongyong is a descendant of the King of Zhou Tai, had inherited the Zhou calendar as the beginning of the year, so far the ancient city of Suzhou is still "winter solstice is as big as the year" of the legacy of customs, and the night of the winter solstice every year! The "menu" on the night of the winter solstice is even more elaborate, continuing the far-reaching flavor of the Wu region, forming a unique significance different from that of other cities.

In the ancient city of Suzhou, winter wine is piled up like a "mountain" in the supermarkets on the streets and alleys. The winter wine, which is brewed only once a year, is fragrant with osmanthus flowers and is sweet and refreshing. A grandmother told the author, Suzhou since ancient times, there is a saying, the winter solstice not drink winter wine is to freeze overnight. According to the person in charge of Dongwu Brewery, their factory this year, a **** production of 100,000 bottles of winter wine, from the 14th three days to sell out, not only in Suzhou, even Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other foreign customers also called to ask for goods.

"Old Suzhou" home, the table set up a "round night meal" is not only sumptuous but also "meaning", whether it is a cold pot of hot fried or fish and poultry, have changed the name of the elegant! Became "auspicious dishes", "Yuanbao" (egg dumplings), "reunion" (meatballs), "chicken" (punt) The "Golden Chain" (vermicelli), "Ruyi Vegetable" (soybean sprouts), "Eat Yau Yue" (fish), etc., are similar in shape and color, and are permeated with the joyfulness and symbolism of the traditional festivals in Gusu.　　Since ancient times, the Taihu Lake area has been rich in rice, and various kinds of cakes made of glutinous rice flour are the most common snacks in the area. The round winter solstice dumplings are a must-have snack, and it is said that in Suzhou, the January Lantern Festival, the February 2nd Dumpling, the March Green Dumpling, the April 14th Immortal Dumpling, the May Fried Dumpling with Pork Stuffing, the June 24th Dumpling with Thanksgiving Dumpling, the July Cowpea Dumpling, the August Pattie Dumpling, the early September 9th Dumpling with Chrysanthemum Cake, the October Turnip Dumpling, the November Winter Solstice Dumpling, and the December Osmanthus Lard Sugar New Year's Goggle are all twelve snacks, which make a new year come around again.

It is said that Suzhou people also have the custom of eating wontons on the winter solstice. Legend has it that at a banquet in the Spring and Autumn Festival of Wu and Yue, the king of Wu, who was tired of eating delicacies from the sea and the mountains, did not have an appetite, and the beautiful Xi Shi went into the imperial kitchen and wrapped up a kind of dustpan-type dessert and offered it to the king of Wu. The king of Wu ate a big bowl, and asked, "What kind of dim sum is this, so delicious?" Xi Shi thought, "This dim king is muddleheaded and chaotic, so she casually answered, "Chaos." In honor of Xi Shi's wisdom and creativity, Suzhou people made it a winter solstice delicacy.

"Taking tonic at the winter solstice and fighting tigers in the spring" is a folk saying widely circulated in the Wu region. Suzhou people also start to launch a big tonic from the day of winter solstice, which also forms the highest peak of eating mutton after fall. The lamb business at the famous Wuzhong Zangshu Mutton Shop has boomed even more. A small book of mutton store owner revealed that the winter solstice in his mutton store can sell eight sheep, for eaters, whether burned, stewed, stewed, boiled, are both enjoying the blessings of the mouth and tonic body, it is a two-in-one beauty.

Fujian custom: "winter solstice all night" "rub pill"

"Winter solstice frost, moon mother light; cypress leaves red, pill hold." This is a children's song for the winter solstice.

"Eight Min Tongzhi - Xinghua Province customs - winter solstice," said: "the early glutinous rice for the pill, is the day of early maturity, and recommended to the ancestors." This is the "winter solstice all night" "rub pill" and the winter solstice early to cooked "sweet pill" ancestor worship folklore.　　The night before the winter solstice is called "winter solstice all night". In the evening of this day, red candles are lit up in the halls of every house, signifying a brilliant career. Red citrus on the table for the "fruit Yue" (that is, the red citrus stacked into a small mountain, so the name). The top of the red citrus inserted "three spring" (that is, folk paper cutters with red paper cut into the paper flowers of fortune, luck and longevity) one, with red paper strips sealing the waist of a pair of chopsticks (ten pairs) and ginger, board sugar each a piece of the family wash their hands in the face, the parents light candles on incense, set off firecrackers, began to "rub the ball! The family washes their hands and face, parents light candles and incense, set off firecrackers and start "rubbing pills". The rubbing of the "pills", is white, such as the year of the newlyweds, is rubbing red pills, in order to show that the family added to the family, the family will be more prosperous. At this time, the woman put on a red shirt, dazzling in the light, children smiling mouth, innocent and lively. Everyone gathered around the big dustpan (commonly called "big hat arc"), the children sat on a high stool, "eager to try". Housewives grind glutinous rice into powder (commonly known as "rice festival") add boiling water kneaded into a round strip, picked into a large grain of round billet, and then each person with the palm of the hand to roll it into a grain of katsuragi core size of the "pill", which is the " Winter Solstice All Night Pill Rolling". One of the most interesting is: some adults in the pinch Yuanbao, treasure bowl; some in the pinch puppies, piglets, to take "good luck, the dog boy title Yuanbao" and "do the dog, do the pig, do the Yuanbao," the proverb, implying that there is a "wide range of sources of income, It means "prosperity of wealth and six animals". The children were most interested in the puppies and pigs, cheering, "Grandpa is making a dog," "Dad is making a dog," "Mom and Grandma are making a pig!" The whole family laughed. Some of them make "magpie balls" (commonly called "guest bird balls") the size of a grain of bean. The children always rolled and rolled, there are flat, there are long, even he felt funny. Some of them make rice offerings on their eyebrows and noses, which is really funny and cute. If a child drops pills on the ground, ask the child to pick him up and blow off the dust, or else he will grow ugly in the future. The intention is to educate children from an early age to cherish food. "Rub pills" after the "pills" in the "big hats alone" in the middle, buckle the lid, placed in front of the "stove Gong" stove The night is over.

The night of the winter solstice is the longest, and children love to eat "pills soup", can not sleep, before dawn, will be noisy mother want to eat "pills soup", so there is "love to eat pills soup, looking forward to ah day is not light! Therefore, there was a nursery rhyme that said, "If you love to eat meatball soup, you will be looking forward to the daybreak. The housewife poured the "pills" into a pot, and ginger, sugar (ginger, sugar can dispel cold stomach) with water to cook into a fragrant, sweet, sticky, hot "sweet pill soup". After offering it to the ancestors, the whole family will eat it. The pills are stuck to the doorframe to honor the "door chancellor" and keep the family safe. Also put "(feed) magpie pills" thrown on the roof (usually 12, leap year for 13, meaning the whole year, month after month peace), and so magpies to compete for food, the noise clamor, commonly known as "Annunciation of good news", meaning the five blessings of the family.

The winter solstice morning, the family with "pills", fruit, incense, paper money, etc. up the hill to the ancestral tomb. Because the winter solstice is the last tomb-sweeping festival of the year, so the tomb-sweeping family than the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung two festivals for more, meaning the end of caution to catch up with the meaning of the past.