Folk custom activities during the Winter Solstice include: painting nine, brewing rice wine, and worshiping ancestors.

1. Drawing nine

According to the custom of counting nine, Chinese folk also popularly draw nine, which is a method of recording the progress of "nine" and weather changes with pictures or words. Some painted a plain plum blossom, while others painted eighty-one plum blossoms. They hung the painting on the wall and painted one with a red pen every day. After painting, it was the end of winter and the arrival of spring.

However, this method is mostly popular among literati, and some teahouses and wine markets also post such pictures. Among ordinary people, circles are drawn, which is to print nine or eighty-one circles on a piece of paper, write the date, and write down the weather in a circle in sequence every day.

2. Brewing rice wine

Traditional Gusu people will drink winter wine on the night of the winter solstice. Winter wine is brewed with glutinous rice or yellow rice and sweet-scented osmanthus.

3. Ancestor worship

The southern coastal areas such as western Guangdong, Chaoshan, and parts of Zhejiang continue the traditional custom of ancestor worship. Every household places ancestor statues, tablets, etc. in the upper hall of the home, sets up the offering table, arranges incense burners, offerings, etc. While worshiping ancestors, some places also offer sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth, and worship the gods to pray for good weather and prosperity for the family and everything in the coming year.

Meteorological changes

After the winter solstice, although the sun's altitude angle gradually increases, this is a slow recovery process. The heat lost every day is still greater than the heat received, showing "making ends meet". "situation. In the "March 9th and 49th days", the heat accumulation is the least, the temperature is the lowest, and the weather becomes colder and colder. China has a vast territory, and the climate and landscape vary greatly from place to place.

Although the days on the winter solstice are short, the temperature on the winter solstice is not the lowest; it will not be very cold before the winter solstice because there is still "accumulated heat" on the surface, and the real cold winter will be after the winter solstice. Due to the huge differences in climate across China, this astronomical climate characteristic is obviously late for most areas in China.