What is the meaning of Winter Solstice and why is it called Winter Solstice?

The winter solstice is the winter festival, one of the twenty-four solar terms; the winter solstice is called the winter solstice because it is the day that the winter hidden gas to this extreme.

In accordance with China's traditional calendar, the year is divided into twenty-four seasons, the winter solstice is one of the twenty-four seasons, it is not only a very important in our lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, originated in the Spring and Autumn period, is the earliest of the twenty-four seasons to formulate one of them, commonly known as the "winter festival! ", "long solstice festival", "sub year" and so on. The winter solstice in the lunar calendar at the turn of the winter month, "to" is the meaning of the extreme, the winter hidden gas to this extreme.

The winter solstice this day, the sun directly above the ground position to reach the southernmost point of the year that the sun just directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, sunlight on the northern hemisphere is the most tilted, so the winter solstice is also the northern hemisphere throughout the year in the day is the shortest, the night is the longest day. After the winter solstice, the point of direct sunlight slowly moves northward, and the days in the northern hemisphere become longer and the nights shorter.

Winter Solstice Food Customs

The winter solstice is a rich festival, which has developed over thousands of years to form a unique seasonal food culture. Foods such as wontons, dumplings, soup dumplings, adzuki bean congee, and corn cakes have all become annual festival foods. On the winter solstice, there is a custom of eating dumplings in the north and sweets in the south, among which the traditional foods in the south are winter solstice rice balls, winter solstice long thread noodles, and soup dumplings.

October 1, the winter solstice to, every family to eat dumplings, every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, regardless of the rich and poor, dumplings are essential to the festive meal on the table in the north. The south is to eat dumplings, dumplings is the winter solstice essential food, the winter solstice family reunion, people use glutinous rice flour made of rice balls, called dumplings or winter solstice group to symbolize the reunion. Rolling round, cooking round, eating round, meant to reunion and beautiful.

Reference: People's Daily Online - 24 Seasons of the Winter Solstice