1. Wontons

In the past, there was a saying in old Beijing that “Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles”. According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, the Huns from the north often harassed the frontiers and the people had no peace. At that time, there were two leaders in the Xiongnu tribe, the Hun clan and the Tun clan, who were very ferocious. The people hated it so much that they used meat fillings to wrap it into wontons and called them "wontons" after taking the sounds of "hun" and "tun". He eats his hatred and hopes to quell the war and live a peaceful life. Because wontons were first made on the winter solstice, every household eats wontons on the winter solstice.

2. Radish

There is a folk saying: "Winter solstice radish and summer solstice ginger, if eaten at the right time, there will be no pain." It is also said: "Winter radish is better than ginseng." On the night of the winter solstice, it is the right time to eat radish. It is suitable to stew a pot of hot radish and pork ribs soup, and the family can reunite to celebrate this long-standing "Ya Sui" festival.

There are many foods suitable for tonic in winter, which can be roughly divided into three categories: flat tonic, warming tonic and nourishing. Generally speaking, hot foods are suitable for warming and tonic, for qi deficiency; cold foods are suitable for nourishing, for blood deficiency; flat foods are suitable for blood deficiency without qi deficiency, which is called flat tonic.

Extended information:

The "Winter Solstice" is the beginning of the coldest day of the year. Du Jinxing, a professor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said that in winter, when the nights are long and the days are short, you should go to bed early and get up late, and wait until the sun rises to get up when the Yang Qi is getting stronger, so as to avoid cold damage to the Yang Qi. Winter is the season of storage and the best time to take supplements, and the winter solstice is a good time to maintain health in winter. However, you should not over-supplement or partial supplement.

People with weak yang energy can choose warm foods such as mutton, beef, and fish. People with yin deficiency and essence deficiency can choose yin-nourishing and essence-filling foods such as black beans, sesame seeds, fungus, black dates, pork spine, and sea cucumbers. People with balanced yin and yang can choose foods with no cold or warm bias, such as lotus root, jujube, bird's nest, barley, tremella, etc., but they should not overemphasize a certain aspect of nourishment.

Reference materials: People's Daily Online - What to eat during the Winter Solstice? 3 must-eat foods during the Winter Solstice