Different regions have different customs during the Winter Solstice. The northern region has the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings, and eating wontons on the winter solstice. The southern region has the custom of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice noodles on this day. Sunan people eat fried tofu with green onions during the winter solstice.
In Taiwan, there is a very important and interesting traditional festival - the Winter Festival. Taiwan compatriot Xi Jinping calls the winter solstice the "Winter Festival" and attaches great importance to having a lively winter festival. In the minds of Taiwanese compatriots, the Winter Festival is like a small New Year. Taiwanese proverbs say, "The Winter Festival is as big as the New Year" and "The ancestors will never return to the Winter Festival." This means that people who go out must rush home to worship on the winter solstice no matter what. Ancestors, otherwise there is no concept of ancestral family, which shows how grand the Taiwanese folk winter festival is.
Taiwanese winter solstice customs: eating winter solstice rice dumplings, winter solstice long-term noodles, eating yuanzai on the door, eating winter solstice meat, eating winter festival circles, worshiping ancestors with nine-layer cakes, celebrating winter, celebrating winter, making glutinous rice cakes, etc. I think among the many customs during the Winter Solstice, there are 5 that are most worth mentioning. Let’s take a look at them below:
? One of Taiwan’s Winter Solstice customs: Nine-layer cake to worship ancestors?
In Taiwan, we still preserve the traditional custom of using nine-layer cakes to worship ancestors during the Winter Solstice. Glutinous rice flour is used to knead chickens, ducks, turtles, pigs, cows, sheep and other animals that symbolize good luck, happiness, wealth and longevity, and then use steamers to make them. It is steamed in layers and used to worship ancestors to show that they do not forget their ancestors. People with the same surname and the same clan gather in the ancestral temple in order of age and worship their ancestors one by one at the winter solstice or an early date agreed before or after. This is commonly known as "ancestral worship". After the ceremony, a grand banquet will be held to entertain the clan members who come to worship their ancestors. Everyone drinks happily and connects with each other after long separation, which is called "eating ancestors." The ancestors of the Winter Solstice Festival have been passed down from generation to generation in Taiwan to show that they do not forget their "roots".
In addition to each family worshiping their direct ancestors during the Winter Festival, those with ancestral temples or ancestral temples must hold a winter ceremony together with the family. Some people hold a big banquet in the ancestral temple to entertain the relatives who come to worship their ancestors, which is called "eating ancestors". Everyone drank happily and connected with each other after long separation. This special family bonding activity has a positive side, which is to remember the ancestors of the motherland through ancestor worship activities, and to educate future generations not to Don't forget their "roots" in the motherland. Therefore, it is very appropriate to say that the Winter Festival is a festival for missing family members, a festival for reunion, and a festival for friendship.
?Taiwanese Winter Solstice Customs 2: Eating Winter Solstice Yuan?
“Every family pounded rice for reunion, knowing that it was the winter solstice in the Ming Dynasty.” Eating Winter Solstice Yuan is a Taiwanese winter festival It is an indispensable festival food custom. One or two days before the Winter Festival, every household is busy grinding rice milk and other tasks. On the eve of the Winter Festival, the housewives of every household would put a big dustpan in the hall and knead the drained rice milk into a ball. The whole family would sit around and roll the Winter Festival balls while talking and laughing. This feeling and scene are simply not inferior to staying up late on New Year's Eve. The Winter Festival circles in the dustpan are large and small, red and white, and are very dazzling. The older generation is used to saying, "It doesn't matter if the Winter Festival circles are uneven. These are the father and son Gongsun Yuan. They are the round ones for the whole family, big and small." What a symbol!" Children like to use ready-made rice balls as materials to make chickens, dogs, pigs and other poultry and livestock, and have a great time. In order to ensure the prosperity of the six livestocks, farmers do not want to interfere with their children.
Early in the morning of the Winter Festival, housewives cook winter festival balls with brown sugar and ginger, and then serve them in bowls to worship their ancestors. The whole family kneels in front of the ancestor's tablet, and the elders tell where their "roots" are, so that their descendants will never forget them and remember their ancestors forever. In addition to worshiping ancestors in halls, people also worship wells, stoves, and fields to pray for family safety, good harvests, and prosperous livestock. Regarding this, Taiwan's "Fengshan County Chronicles" republished in the Qing Dynasty recorded: "In the winter solstice, families make rice balls to worship their ancestors, pay homage to the gods, and pay tribute to the elders when they are humble. The abbreviation is like New Year's Day." "Taiwan Folk Belief Encyclopedia·Festival Volume" It is also recorded in the book: "Taiwanese people's winter solstice customs include eating glutinous rice dumplings to add years to their years and offering sacrifices to ancestral temples, etc..." Adults and children eat winter solstice dumplings for breakfast after getting up.
It’s interesting to say that in most areas of my country, the folk calculation of the year is based on the Spring Festival, but compatriots in Taiwan are based on eating Winter Festival yuan, so there is a folk proverb "Eating Winter Festival yuan adds one year to the age". Therefore, even babies have to symbolically lick sweet dumplings and feed them dumpling soup. For relatives who are far away from home or unable to rush home due to restrictions, their family members have to dry rice milk for them. When they come back, the whole family will rub it together to celebrate the reunion, which is called "making up for the new year."
?Taiwanese Winter Solstice Customs No. 3: Cow Festival?
In addition, on the day of the Winter Solstice, Taiwanese farmers also give their cattle a holiday and let them drink wine to ward off the cold. Years of hard work are commonly known as "Cow Festival", which shows how much Taiwanese compatriots attach great importance to agriculture!
At first, there were no farm cattle in Taiwan. Later, due to the needs of production and life, they were introduced from abroad and southern Fujian and other places in the mainland of the motherland. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch occupied Taiwan and discovered that there were no cattle in Taiwan. But they wanted to develop sugarcane cultivation in Taiwan. Without cattle, the efficiency would be very low, so 200 cattle were specially transported from the colonial Java of Indonesia to be used for farming and planting sugarcane. This is the origin of Taiwanese cattle. The first 200 cattle they bought from Java were not enough, so the Dutch set up a "cattle department" in Taiwan to manage cattle, train and breed cattle, and encouraged the aborigines to fence the captured bison with wooden fences and whip and abuse them. Feed again. In this way, after half a year for the fast ones and one year for the slow ones, the bison can listen to people and participate in the farming process. Taiwan's buffalo were brought from the mainland after the Qing Dynasty.
On this day, the owner of the cattle will give the cattle a holiday. In order to thank the cattle for their hard work for a year, they will stick the festival food glutinous rice balls on the horns of the cattle to express the festival. When the weather is particularly cold in winter, cattle should be given alcohol to keep them warm. Even in the 1960s when materials were extremely scarce, the commercial department in southern Fujian specially allocated wine stamps to supply cattle to drink to keep out the cold. The locals commonly called it "cow wine". This scene of people and cows celebrating each other with wine as a contract can be called a spectacle of the custom of protecting and respecting cows on both sides of the Taiwan Strait!
?The fourth winter solstice custom in Taiwan: Sticking round door knockers on the Winter Festival?
Speaking of the solemn custom of sticking round door knockers on the Winter Festival, among Taiwanese people, there is a touching and tear-jerking custom Legend: Once upon a time, somewhere in Taiwan, there was a family of three who made a living by begging. One winter festival, her mother died of hunger and cold. After her daughter cried bitterly, she decided to sell herself to bury her mother. When parting, the daughter made an agreement with her father: No matter where her daughter wanders from now on, she will stick two Winter Festival circles on the door knocker of her employer's door every winter festival, so that her father can find her more easily.
On the Winter Festival of the following year, the daughter who worked as a maid in the rich man's house missed her father very much. She came up with a plan and said to her boss: "On the Winter Festival, you should respect your ancestors and also respect the door god. Only in this way can you welcome the God of Wealth." The host had always been very superstitious. After hearing this, she thought it made sense and asked her to stick two glutinous rice balls on the door knocker. Winter and summer came and went, and the father and daughter were finally reunited because of the winter festival circle stuck on the door knocker. Later, they had their own home, but every winter festival, the father and daughter still remembered the bitter past and always glued winter festival circles on the door knocker.
As time goes by, villagers and neighbors also imitate each other to express their memory and blessings for their relatives who are away from home, hoping that they will return home soon. Over time, it adds a rich and humane content to the winter festival.
?The fifth winter solstice custom in Taiwan: Eating chicken to make up for the winter?
"To make up for the winter" on the winter solstice has also become a custom in Taiwan. On the day before the winter solstice, after dinner, each family rubs balls in the hall. According to ancient rules, it is taboo to say ominous words when rolling a round ball. Rice cakes are one of the tonics after making the balls. Rice cakes are made with longan and dried meat, while salty rice cakes include mutton cakes and red rice cakes. The supplements include Muscovy duck, rooster, pork belly and turtle stewed with Bazhen or Shiquandabu.
The way a family gathers for dinner on the winter solstice is no less impressive than the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve. The dishes are also very rich, including hot pot, glutinous rice balls, etc., and they continue to maintain the tradition of “no feast without chicken” ” tradition, there is often the custom of eating chicken on the day of the winter solstice.
During the Winter Solstice Festival, many traditional foods are eaten. In some areas, steamed buns, rice cakes, glutinous rice cakes, etc. are also eaten, which are all related to local food customs and habits. In fact, no matter what we eat, everyone’s original intention is the same, to welcome the arrival of the winter solstice and celebrate the coming of the new year.