What is the custom of eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter?

Eating jiaozi on the winter solstice is the custom of many northern cities, such as the three northeastern provinces, Shandong, Shaanxi, Beijing and Hebei. They all eat jiaozi on the winter solstice. The custom of eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter has been handed down from ancient times, but because of China's vast territory, there are different eating habits in the north and south. Generally speaking, northerners like to eat jiaozi, while southerners like to eat glutinous rice balls on the solstice in winter. But now, there is no such big difference between the north and the south, so many areas in the south will also eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter.

There may be many different opinions about why people eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter, but the most familiar one is that Zhang Zhongjing invented jiaozi to prevent people from frostbite. At that time, Zhang Zhongjing was a local official. On the solstice of winter, he patrolled the people with his men and found that many people had no clothes to keep out the cold, and even their ears were frozen off. So Zhang Zhongjing asked his men to set up a cauldron on the spot, and then brought vegetables and bread to wrap jiaozi. Because he didn't want people to continue to freeze their ears, he made jiaozi into the shape of an ear.

After that, Zhang resigned from his official position, traveled among the people and treated the people. In memory of Zhang Zhongjing, people formed the habit of eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter. In fact, the habit of eating jiaozi has been handed down, and it is also because jiaozi's practice is very simple. Just chop up all the vegetables and put them in the dough, so everyone will form the habit of eating jiaozi during the Chinese New Year holiday. Now people's living standards are getting better and better, and the fillings in jiaozi are getting richer and richer, not only green vegetables, but also many strange fillings.

And now everyone can eat jiaozi at any time. There are many quick-frozen jiaozi in the supermarket. When you don't have time to cook, you can cook a pot of jiaozi. Therefore, it is a very warm thing for everyone to sit around the table and wrap jiaozi during the Spring Festival.