Since the winter solstice, the days have become longer. Folks use the shadow of the sun in front of the door at noon as a benchmark and say, "After winter, one green onion grows every day." Therefore, this day is also called "Changzhi". Since the Han and Tang dynasties, palace maids have to use an extra thread every day to wear red hair after the winter solstice. This is what the folks say: "Eating the Winter Solstice rice will make you grow taller every day." Since the winter solstice, it has been "Jiu". People often draw a branch of plain plum on this day with eighty-one petals, which is called "Nine-Nine Dispelling Cold Picture". Paint one petal with red every day, and when you paint all the petals, you will "come out". "Nine", so the winter solstice is also called "Nine".
"Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles", a large part of Shandong Province eats wontons or dumplings on this day. Some people also drink alcohol. It is said that drinking is to warm up the body, and eating dumplings is to avoid freezing their ears. The word "dumpling" is homophonic to "glue ear". Linyi, Zoucheng, Xintai and other places have the custom of steaming in winter. Linyi uses whole grain flour to steam steamed buns, and Zoucheng steams glutinous rice cakes. Legend has it that steaming in winter is to pray for wind in the coming year. The folk song says: "Steaming in winter makes the wind blow in the air." In ancient times, steaming in winter was to celebrate the solstice of the Yangtze River. People use glutinous rice flour to make rice balls, called Tuanyuanzi or Winter Solstice Balls, to symbolize reunion. Pastry and steamed steamed buns are the evolution of Tuanyuanzi.
In ancient times, great importance was attached to the winter solstice. The ancients believed that when the Yang Qi of the Winter Solstice arises and the ruler becomes the Taoist leader, it is an opportunity for chaos to return to normalcy. Celebration ceremonies have been held since the Han Dynasty, and reached their peak in the Song Dynasty. The day before the winter solstice is called Xiaozhi or Xiaodong, and the winter solstice is called Changzhi or Dadong. The day after the winter solstice is called the solstice. The festival lasts for three days, with hundreds of officials congratulating each other, and the king not listening to the government. The people have a three-day rest, and students have a holiday. Folk songs say that "the winter solstice is as big as the new year." Therefore, in the old days, Lijin, Xiajin and other places also called the winter solstice the sub-year and the small year, which is the same as the Spring Festival. It’s almost the same, except there’s no New Year greeting. In Jinan, Jiyang, Fushan and other places, the government celebrates like the Spring Festival, and scholars also give each other greeting cards. The scholar-bureaucrats in Juxian County held a drinking party called the "Cold-Relieving Party" and painted "Cold-Relieving Pictures". Zoucheng painted nine-nine pictures, and at the same time relatives and friends presented each other with tools to keep out the cold. Farm children played games of "taking the village" and "breaking the tiles". The teenager began to learn martial arts, called "watching the winter", but he did not have the habit of congratulating. It is said that Mencius died on the winter solstice. The villagers were very sad and canceled the ceremony to celebrate the winter solstice. In other areas of Shandong, it is common for students to worship their teachers and for younger generations to worship their elders. Farmers also have the custom of worshiping their ancestors. Folks in Linyi believe that the winter solstice is a day for giving cold clothes to the deceased and fixing the house. Every household cuts clothes with burning paper and burns them in front of the tomb, and then adds earth. In Ju County, ancestors are worshiped in ancestral halls, and the ceremony is very grand. According to the old custom in Laoshan County, the winter solstice is celebrated in two days. The first day is called "Ghost Winter", where offerings are made to worship ancestors and dumplings are eaten; the second day is called "Human Winter", where steamed buns are eaten. Women in Linyi, Licheng, Linqu and other places are accustomed to returning to their natal homes. Qingyun and Wudi began to prepare vegetables on this day, and women began to do needlework. Zoucheng began to build cellars, weave mats and spin thread. According to folklore in Rizhao, if clouds welcome the sunrise and sunset on the winter solstice, it means good luck in the coming year. Folks in Jimo predict the cold and warmth of the winter based on the date of the winter solstice at the beginning, middle or end of the month. The folk song says: "Winter freezes the cow to death at the head, winter warms the middle, and winter freezes the ghost to death at the end."
The Winter Solstice festival originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and is still used today. "Qing Jia Lu" even said that "the winter solstice is as big as the new year". This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People believe that the winter solstice is the natural transformation of yin and yang and is a blessing from God. In the Han Dynasty, the Winter Solstice was regarded as the "Winter Festival", and the government would hold a congratulatory ceremony called "Hedong" and have a routine holiday. There is such a record in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty": "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman settles down, keeps all officials in charge, does not listen to politics, and chooses auspicious times to save trouble." Therefore, on this day, the court has a holiday and rest, the army is on standby, the border fortress is in retreat, and the business travel is closed. , relatives and friends each give each other delicious food, visit each other, and happily spend a "settle and quiet" festival.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the winter solstice was a day for worshiping heaven and ancestors. On this day, the emperor would go to the countryside to hold a ceremony to worship heaven. On this day, people would worship their parents and elders. There are still some places where this day is held. Celebrate the winter solstice.
The winter solstice (the 21st or 22nd of December in the Gregorian calendar) is the beginning of the ninth month. The ancients believed that during the winter solstice, the days are getting longer day by day and the yang energy is rising, which is an auspicious day. So it's worth celebrating. The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties all held ceremonies to worship heaven, which was called "Winter Solstice Suburban Sky". There is a ceremony in the palace where officials present congratulations to the emperor, and they also congratulate each other, just like New Year's Day. However, the folk do not regard the winter solstice as a festival, but there are some activities that suit the time.
In the Qing Dynasty, some bannermen prayed for blessings to eliminate disasters. At the fifth watch of the winter solstice, the family's direct relatives, aunts, and close friends are invited to sit on the ground in the courtyard, use a low table to offer "Heaven and Earth Codes" or memorial tablets, and kill pigs to offer sacrifices to the sky. By the way, we offer sacrifices to the "ancestor pole" (a flagpole two or three feet high, with a gourd-shaped top and a "diao dou" slightly below, with flags hanging under the dou, representing the ancestors). After the sacrifice, relatives and friends sit around and eat "white meat", which is called "Shenyu".
When southerners stay and travel in Beijing, they also hold feasts to worship their ancestors. At the same time, colleagues or close friends are also invited to have dinner and meals together. Yan customs do not emphasize winter festivals. Old Beijingers never did this.
On the day of the winter solstice, grand Dharma gatherings are held at various avenues in the capital. Taoist priests recite sutras, above the table, to celebrate the birthday of Yuanshi Tianzun. Taoism believes that Yuanshi Tianzun symbolizes the first century when chaos is not divided and Taoism is not manifested. Therefore, there is a folk custom of eating Kunton. "Yanjing Chronicles" says: "The shape of Fu wonton is like a chicken egg, which is quite similar to the chaos of heaven and earth, so it is eaten during the winter solstice during the solar eclipse.
"In fact, "wetton" and "chaos" are homophonic, so people extend eating wontons to break chaos and open up the world. Later generations will no longer explain its original meaning, and only spread the proverb "Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles", taking it as a simple Think of it as a seasonal diet.
After the Nine-Nine Cold-Resisting Picture, some literati and scholar-bureaucrats engaged in so-called cold-relieving activities. They chose a "Nine" day to meet nine people to drink ("wine"). "(homophoned with "Nine"), use nine dishes and nine bowls on the banquet, and use "Nine Flowers and Nine Pieces" on the table to take the meaning of "Nine Nine" to relieve the cold.
It is also popular among the people to fill in "Nine Nine" to eliminate the cold. The cold picture is for entertainment. The nine-nine anti-cold picture is usually a double-hook red calligraphy with nine characters in traditional Chinese: "Weeping willows in front of the garden cherish the spring breeze", each character has nine strokes, and the last eighty-one strokes, every day starting from the winter solstice. Fill in one stroke according to the order of the strokes, and fill in one word after every ninety-nine. Until the spring returns after ninety-nine, a picture of ninety-nine to relieve the cold is completed. The color used to fill in each day's strokes is determined by the weather of the day. If it is sunny, it will be. red; yin is blue; rain is green; wind is yellow; falling snow fills in white. In addition, there is also a picture version of the nine-nine cold-removing diagram, also known as "Ya Tu", which is drawn on white paper. There are nine plum blossoms on each branch, one branch corresponds to one nine, and one flower corresponds to one day. Each day, a plum blossom is filled with a specific color according to the weather conditions. Yang Yunfu of the Yuan Dynasty recorded in "Miscellaneous Songs of Luanjing": "Try to count nine nines in the window." Picture, the remaining cold is gone and the warmth returns to the beginning. The plum blossoms are dotted all over, and there is no white left. I see that they are apricot trees now. "
The most elegant nine-nine anti-cold picture is to make nine-body couplets. Each couplet has nine characters, each character has nine strokes. Every day, fill in one line in the upper and lower couplets. For example, the upper couplet reads "Spring springs weep in spring, willows are dyed in spring." "Spring is beautiful"; the second couplet is "Autumn courtyard hangs autumn persimmons and autumn sends autumn fragrance", which is called Nine-Nine Cold-repelling Spring Festival Couplets. However, no matter what kind of Nine-Nine Cold-Resisting Pictures, while killing time and entertaining the body and mind, it is also a simple record It is said that experienced old people can predict the amount of rain and the abundance of the year based on the Nine-Nine Cold Reduction Chart.
Winter Solstice - If you don't carry the dumpling bowl, your ears will freeze. No one cares
Every year on the winter solstice in the lunar calendar, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for everyone, rich or poor. As the saying goes: "On October 1, when the winter solstice arrives, every household eats dumplings. "This custom was left behind in commemoration of the "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.
Zhang Zhongjing was from Gendong, Nanyang. He wrote "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases", which collected the masterpieces of medical doctors and was praised by all dynasties. Doctors regard it as a classic. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "If you advance, you will save the world; if you retreat, you will save the people. If you cannot be a good minister, you should also be a good doctor." "During the Eastern Han Dynasty, he served as the prefect of Changsha, visiting patients, administering medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown to treat his neighbors. When he returned home, it was winter. He saw that the folks on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and thin, and suffered from hunger and cold. Many people's ears were rotten by the cold, so he asked his disciples to set up a medical tent in Dongguan, Nanyang, and set up a large pot to make "Quhan Jiaoer Soup" to treat frostbite on the winter solstice. The cold-repelling medicinal materials are boiled in a pot, then the mutton and medicine are taken out and chopped, and bread is made into ear-shaped "Jiao Er". After cooking, two "Jiao Er" are given to each person who comes to ask for medicine. ", a big bowl of broth. People ate "Jiao Er" and drank "Quhan Tang". Their whole bodies were warm, their ears were hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations imitated the appearance of "Jiao Er", Wrapped into food, it is also called "dumplings" or "flat food".
Eating dumplings during the winter solstice is a reminder of the "Cold Cold Jiao Er Soup" of "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing. There is still a saying in Nanyang today. The folk song of "Serving a bowl of dumplings, freezing your ears off and no one cares".
Xishi Huansha Suzhou people celebrate the winter solstice - eating chaos reminds me of Xishi
Because Suzhou was a city 2500 years ago The capital of Wu State, the founders of Wu State Taibo and Zhong Yong were descendants of King Tai of Zhou Dynasty. They inherited the Zhou Dynasty calendar and regarded the winter solstice as the beginning of the year. Therefore, the ancient city of Suzhou still has the custom of "winter solstice is as big as the new year", and every year The "menu" on Winter Solstice Night is even more exquisite, continuing the distant Wudi customs and forming a unique meaning different from other cities.
In the supermarkets in the streets and alleys of the ancient city of Suzhou, winter wine is made. It is piled up like a "hill". Winter wine is brewed only once a year. It is fragrant, sweet and refreshing. There is a saying in Suzhou that if you don't drink winter wine during the winter solstice, it will freeze overnight.
When the Suzhou people returned home, the "Yuan Ye Dinner" placed on the table was not only sumptuous but also "meaningful". Whether it was cold or hot stir-fried or fish, meat or poultry, they all changed their names and became "auspicious dishes" and "Yuanbao" ( Egg dumplings), "Tuanyuan" (meat balls), "chicken" (plopp plop), "golden chain" (vermicelli), "ruyicai" (soybean sprouts), "Shiyouyu" (fish), etc., are similar in shape and color. The joy and meaning of Suzhou’s traditional festivals are everywhere.
Since ancient times, the Taihu Lake area has been rich in rice, and various round cakes made from glutinous rice flour are the most distinctive and round winter solstice snacks in the area. It is also a must-have snack during the banquet. It is said that in Suzhou, the Lantern Festival on January, the waist cake on February 2, the green dumplings on March, the fairy cake on April 14, the fried meat dumplings on May, and the Xiezao dumplings on June 24 , cowpea cake in July, glutinous rice cake in August, Double Ninth Cake in September, radish dumpling in October, winter solstice dumpling in November, sweet-scented osmanthus lard sugar rice cake in December, after eating twelve snacks, the new year has come.
It is said that people in Suzhou still have the custom of eating wontons during the winter solstice. According to legend, at a banquet in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue, King Wu, who was tired of eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, lost his appetite, so the beautiful lady Xi Shi went into the imperial kitchen to prepare a dustpan-style snack. Give it to King Wu. King Wu ate a big bowl in one go and asked repeatedly: "What kind of snack is this that is so delicious?" Xi Shi thought: This foolish king is confused and confused, so he casually responded: "Chaos."
"In order to commemorate Xi Shi's wisdom and creation, Suzhou people designated it as a delicacy during the Winter Solstice Festival.
"Winter solstice nourishes, spring kills tigers" is a folk saying widely circulated in Wudi. Suzhou people Starting from the winter solstice, people start to eat more mutton, which is the peak period for eating mutton after autumn. The mutton business of the well-known Wuzhong Book Mutton Shop has suddenly boomed a lot. , his mutton shop can sell eight sheep during the winter solstice. For the eater, whether it is roasted, simmered, stewed or boiled, it is both delicious and healthy. It is really a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.
Mutton noodle soup in Ningxia: Eat "brain" on the Winter Solstice
There is a custom in Yinchuan that on the Winter Solstice, people drink noodle soup and eat mutton noodle soup dumplings. Weird name - "Brain"
The head of the house got busy early in the morning, washing the purple mushrooms on Songshan Mountain, making soup, taking out the mushrooms after boiling, and cooking the mutton cubes in the pot. Stir-fry, stir-fry until dry, add ginger, onion, garlic, and chili powder. After the flavor is fragrant, add the chopped mushrooms to the diced meat and stir-fry again, then marinate with vinegar (to eliminate the poisonous smell of wild mushrooms), and then add Mix noodles, refined salt, and soy sauce; after the meat is tender, add fungus and day lily (day lily) and stir-fry briefly. Add the clear mushroom soup. After the soup boils, add the cut flour cubes and soaked vermicelli, then add the leek, Garlic sprouts and coriander, this will make a pot of mutton noodle soup. The red soup contains peppers, the yellow contains day lily, the green contains garlic sprouts and coriander, the white contains vermicelli and vermicelli, and the black contains mushrooms and fungus. Black and white, the aroma is mouth-watering.
On the winter solstice, people call it the Ghost Festival. After the dumplings are made, they serve them in a bowl and serve them to their neighbors who can’t eat them in the morning. For dumplings, buy Diaolu three-tip pancakes and fennel pancakes dipped in powder soup. Dumplings stuffed with mutton powder soup and yellow radish are a common meal for Yinchuan people, but they are rarely seen in other places and are praised by outsiders. Such spicy and delicious dumplings can be regarded as a special snack in Yinchuan.
Fujian: "Winter Solstice Ming" Rolled Balls
"Winter Solstice Frost, Moonlight; Bai." The leaves are red and the meatballs are held. "This is a children's song for the winter solstice.
"Tongzhi of Fujian·Xinghua Prefecture Customs·Winter Solstice" records: "In the early stage, the glutinous rice was made into pills, which ripened early on this day, so I recommended it to Zu Kao. "This is the folk custom of "winter solstice dumplings", "rolling meatballs" and "sweet meatballs" cooked early in the winter solstice to worship ancestors.
The night before the winter solstice is called "winter solstice dumplings". In the evening of this day, the family The red candles in the family hall are brightly lit, which symbolizes a brilliant career. The red oranges on the table are called "Guoyue" (that is, the red oranges are stacked into a small mountain shape, hence the name). "(that is, folk paper-cutters use red paper to cut paper flowers of fortune, wealth and longevity), a pair of chopsticks (ten pairs) tied with red paper strips, and a piece of ginger and candy. The family washes hands and noodles, and the parents Light candles, light incense, set off firecrackers, and start "making balls." The "balls" are white. If there is a newlywed, red balls will be made to show that the family will be more prosperous. At that time, the woman put on a red shirt and was particularly dazzling under the light. The children were smiling, innocent and lively. Everyone gathered around the big dustpan (commonly known as "Dali Arc"), and the children sat high up. On the stool, the housewife added boiling water to the glutinous rice powder (commonly known as "rice festival") and kneaded it into a long round shape, picked it into a large round ball, and then each person kneaded it into a round shape with their palms. The "balls" are the size of Gui Yuan cores, which are "Winter Solstice Ming Rub Pills". The most interesting ones are: some adults are pinching ingots and cornucopias; some are pinching puppies and piglets to get "luck." Well, the proverbs "dogs, pigs, and ingots" and "dogs, pigs, and ingots" mean "vast wealth and prosperous livestock". Children are most interested in puppies and piglets, cheering "Grandpa is here" "Being a dog", "Abba is also being a dog", "Mom and grandma are both being a pig!" "It made the whole family burst into laughter. Some of them were rubbing "Magpie Balls" (commonly known as "Guest Bird Balls") that were only the size of beans. The children could never finish rubbing them, some were flat and some were long. It's so long that even he himself finds it funny. Some put rice cakes on their eyebrows and noses, which is really funny and cute. If a child drops a meatball on the ground, he has to ask the child to pick it up and blow away the dust. , otherwise, they will look ugly in the future. The purpose is to teach children to cherish food from an early age. After "rolling the balls", put the "balls" in the "Oligu", close the lid, and place them on the "stove". They spend the night in front of the "Gong" stove.
The night of the winter solstice is the longest, and the children love to eat "ball soup". They can't sleep, and before dawn, they clamor for their mother to eat "ball soup", so there is " I love to eat meatball soup, hope it’s not bright yet.” The housewife poured the “meatballs” into the pot, added water with ginger and sugar (ginger and sugar can dispel cold and appetizer) and cook it into a fragrant, sweet, sticky and hot “ "Sweet meatball soup". After offering it to the ancestors, the whole family divides it and eats it. The "meatball" should be stuck on the door frame to worship the "menchenghuwei" to ensure the safety of the family. Also, "(feed) the magpie" "Pills" are thrown on the roof (usually 12 pills, 13 pills in leap years, which means peace every month throughout the year). When the magpies come to compete for food, they make an uproar, which is commonly known as "Announcement of Good News", which means five blessings are coming.
In the early morning of the Winter Solstice, families go up the mountain to visit their ancestors’ tombs with meatballs, 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 the tombs than during the Qingming Festival and the Double Ninth Festival. , which means to be cautious and pursue the future.
Chaoshan Winter Solstice Customs
Winter Solstice is one of the twenty-four solar terms.
According to the "Collection of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order": "On the 15th day of the 11th month, the final Qi will reach its peak." "Tongwei·Xiaojingyinshenqi" records: "On the 15th day after the heavy snowfall, , Douzhizi, is the winter solstice, which begins on the fifteenth day when the cathode and the yang solstice begin, and the sun solstice gradually reaches the south. "According to "Cihai": "The astronomy stipulates that the winter solstice is the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere." One of the twenty-four solar terms, it is also a major folk festival in the Chaoshan area and is commonly known as the "Little New Year".
The customs of the winter solstice in Chaoshan cities and counties are basically the same, including worshiping ancestors, eating sweet pills, and visiting tombs.
Worshiping ancestors: Chaoshan folk prepare enough pork, chicken, fish and other animals and fruits on this day, go to the ancestral hall to worship ancestors, and then the family gathers around the table to have a meal, usually before noon. After that, the family reunited for lunch. However, in coastal areas such as the Haishan area of ??Raoping, ancestor worship is performed early in the morning, before fishermen go out to sea to fish, in order to ask the gods and ancestors to bless the fishermen's fishing safety.
Eating sweet pills: This custom is almost universal in the Chaoshan area, but this custom also contains an interesting custom: after people worship their ancestors on this day, they take out some and stick them on their doors. Roofs, roof beams, rice jars, etc. Why do we do this? According to legend, there are two reasons: First, the sweet pill is sweet and round, which means good luck. It indicates that there will be a good harvest next year and the family can be reunited. If family members accidentally encounter it on this day, it will be a good sign, just like the "Water Splashing Festival" of ethnic minorities. If outsiders happen to visit on this day and let outsiders encounter it, these outsiders will also have good luck. Therefore, people do not want outsiders to visit their homes on this day. One is for rats to eat. It is said that the seeds of grains were brought to farmers from far away by rats. In order to repay the rats for their contribution, the farmers agreed that during the annual harvest, a small portion should be left unharvested so that rats could eat it. Later, because a greedy man harvested all the grains in the field, the mouse complained to the Goddess of Mercy in anger. After hearing this, the Goddess of Mercy felt pity for the mouse, so she gave it a pair of hard teeth and told it to move into other people's homes in the future. They lived in the house in order to find food. Since then, rats have caused harm everywhere. It has become one of the "four evils" today. However, this bad custom of "sticking sweet pills everywhere" has not been around for a long time. It is not only unhygienic, but also detrimental to appearance and very wasteful, so it will naturally die out. And this custom of "eating sweet nine" has been passed down to this day.
Visiting graves and sweeping tombs: This is another activity during the winter solstice. According to Chaoshan custom, the annual grave-sweeping ceremony usually takes place during the Qingming Festival and the Winter Solstice, which are called "spring paper" and "winter paper". Generally speaking, "Spring Paper" should be performed in the first three years after a person's death, and "Winter Paper" can be performed after three years. But most people like to travel "winter paper" because during the Qingming Festival, it often rains and the roads are difficult to walk; during the Winter Solstice, the weather is good, making it easy to go up the mountain for picnics.
There is also a proverb in Chaoshan that "if you eat the winter festival round, you will be one year older". According to Mr. Wang Lingan's "Old Customs of Shantou": "People have two explanations for this: one is that the winter solstice is the Little New Year, and after the Little New Year, one should be one year older; the other is that this proverb comes from criminals. In ancient times, Every autumn is the season of killing. Prisoners who have committed capital crimes are usually executed in autumn. If they have not been executed by the winter solstice, the execution can be postponed to next year as a rule, so it is said to be "one more year old".
Chaoshan customs are an integral part of Chaoshan culture. In the long-term life and social practice, people have inherited good customs and discarded bad customs. The custom of "visiting tombs" during the winter solstice is to commemorate the hard work of our ancestors and "eating sweet pills" is a sign of another good harvest in the coming year, so it has naturally been passed down.
Shaoxing Winter Solstice Customs
The winter solstice is a major festival of the year among Shaoxing folk. As the saying goes, "the winter solstice is as big as the new year." In ancient times, people always celebrated it as another New Year. "Jiatai Kuaiji Zhi" says that the festival is "roughly like Zhengdan but less simple", and many things take the winter solstice as the starting point. The lunar calendar calculates the Qingming Festival, which is based on 106 days after the winter solstice. It is said that "the 16th day of the winter solstice is the Qingming Festival". "Nine-Nine Songs" also counts the winter solstice as the first nine, the second nine, and the nine-nine to record the seasonal changes. There are more folk sayings: "At the beginning of the winter solstice, the stone slabs are crisp, in the middle of the winter solstice, people spend the winter naked, at the end of the winter solstice, they sell their cattle and buy quilts", "If there is no ice before winter, it will be very cold after winter" and "Sunny winter and bad years, rainy winter solstice" As the saying goes, the winter solstice comes sooner or later, and sunny and rainy days account for the warmth and coldness of winter and the dryness and wetness of the year. On this day, people will have family reunions and feasts, just like the custom of having New Year's Eve dinner on New Year's Eve.
In Shaoxing, every family worships their ancestors during the Winter Solstice. Some even go to ancestral halls and temples to worship their ancestors, which is called "Winter Solstice". Generally, before the winter solstice, paper cuttings are made to make men's and women's clothes, and they are sent to the ancestors' tombs for incineration during the winter solstice. This is commonly known as "giving away cold clothes." After the sacrifice, relatives and friends gather together for a drink, commonly known as "winter solstice wine", not only to commemorate the deceased but also to bond with each other. It is customary in Shaoxing, Xinchang and other counties to go to the graves to put mud, weed and repair the foundations on that day, thinking that it is auspicious to start the work on this day, otherwise unexpected disasters may occur.
Winter Solstice is also known as the "Long Solstice". The night is the longest on this day of the year, so there is a folk saying that "if you are sleepy, you will sleep on the Winter Solstice Night". It is said that a good night's sleep during the Winter Solstice can ensure good dreams all year round. day by day.
In the old days, rice was mostly pounded with a stone mortar. Shaoxing people liked to pound the rice for the year before and after the winter solstice, which was called "winter rice pounding". First, because after the winter solstice, It will be "spring" in a few months, and family affairs will be in full swing. Everyone must be busy preparing for farming and will not have time to pound rice. Secondly, when the spring air moves, the rice buds will rise, and the rice grains will not be as solid as in winter. This prevents the rice grains from becoming fragile and bulky, thus reducing food loss.
Shaoxing people generally like to brew wine before the winter solstice, which is called "winter wine making". After brewing, the aroma is fragrant and particularly attractive. In addition, the water at this time is still winter water, so the brewing The wine is easy to preserve and will not deteriorate. At this time, special techniques can also be used to brew "dimple wine" and "honey wine" to enjoy with the elderly, or as gifts for relatives and friends.
Wontons On the night of the winter solstice, people in Shaoxing still have the custom of "lighting a fire". They burn the fire overnight and wrap it in a quilt, which means that the charcoal fire will not go out until the next morning, which means that the family will be prosperous in the coming year.
In the old days of Yuezhong, everyone, regardless of men or women, had to make a bowl of wontons to eat on the winter solstice; and on the summer solstice, everyone had to eat a meal of noodles from house to house, which was called "Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles" ". This custom has been around for a long time. But there are different opinions on why it became customary. It may be said that the solstice is the shortest day, so we use wonton-shaped balls to mark the festival; when eating noodles during the summer solstice, we use the long shape of noodles (noodles) to celebrate the long days of the summer solstice. Although the latter can be confirmed by the custom of eating noodles during birthday celebrations to seek longevity, there is no record after all. Fan Yin, a Shaoxing scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, said in "Yue Proverbs: Food" that wontons "are either sesame sugar or minced meat wrapped in flour and eaten during the winter solstice." It can be seen that there were sweet wontons in ancient Shaoxing.
On this day, there are many taboos among the people in Shaoxing, such as saying unlucky words, making noises and causing trouble, and breaking dishes. If a woman does not return to peace, she must return to her husband's house on this day and not stay at her natal home. Stay overnight; children are not allowed to be beaten or scolded. Even the most naughty students can be exempted from punishment on the winter solstice. The teacher can only hold up the ruler and warn: "I will keep the account for you until tomorrow!".