The origin and significance of the Winter Solstice Festival

The Winter Solstice is a very important solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar and a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. The Winter Solstice is commonly known as the Winter Solstice Festival and the Long Solstice Festival. ?, ?Ya Sui?, etc., as early as the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,500 years ago, China had used Tugui to observe the sun and determine the winter solstice. It is the earliest one of the twenty-four solar terms to be formulated, and the time is every year Between December 21 and 23 of the Gregorian calendar, this day is the shortest day and longest night in the whole year in the northern hemisphere. In most parts of northern China, there is also the custom of eating dumplings and glutinous rice balls in the south. Proverb: Winter Solstice Come and eat dumplings.

According to the records of the Zhou Dynasty, people used the winter solstice to worship the sky in the suburbs. And because the first month of the Zhou calendar is the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, the first month of the Zhou Dynasty is equal to our current tenth day. January, so there is no difference between greeting the New Year and greeting the winter. It was not until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the lunar calendar that the first month and the winter solstice were separated. Therefore, it can also be said that the "Winter Festival" only existed after the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. , still used today. "Qing Jia Lu" even says 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 "He Dong" and have a routine holiday. There is such a record in "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty": "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman should settle down and be quiet, and all officials should do their best, not listen to the government, and choose auspicious times to save trouble." ?So on this day, everyone in the court will have a holiday and rest, the army will be on standby, the border fortresses will be in retreat, and the business travel will be closed. Relatives and friends will give each other delicious food, visit each other, and happily spend a festival of "settle down and meditate". 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, and people would worship their parents and elders on this day. Nowadays, some places still celebrate the winter solstice.

Because of the different calendars, the people have always inherited the weekly calendar. It is believed that after the winter solstice is the beginning of another year (there is a saying that eating Yuanzi makes you one year older). This is why the winter solstice It is so valued among the people, but such erroneous inheritance has made the folk concept very different from the lunar calendar currently used in day-selection school. Such erroneous concepts should be corrected and the correct calendar should be inherited.

In ancient times, the Winter Festival was a grand day. In the Zhou Dynasty, there were records of using the winter solstice to offer sacrifices to the sky in the suburbs. And because the first month of the Zhou calendar is the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, so In the Zhou Dynasty, there was no difference between greeting the New Year and celebrating the winter. It was not until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the lunar calendar that New Year's Day and the Winter Solstice were separated. Therefore, it can also be said that the "Winter Festival" only existed in the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, even before and after the winter solstice, everyone from the emperor to all officials stopped working and took vacations to celebrate this day!

The "winter solstice" is also called the "solstice festival" because it is the "culmination of the cathode", It is the beginning of the Yang Qi, and it is also the festival when the sun travels to the south. And because after the winter solstice, the new year is just around the corner, so there is a saying that "the winter festival is as big as the new year", which means that the etiquette and customs of the winter solstice are almost the same as those of the new year. In addition, the winter solstice is also called "Ya Sui", "Ruzheng (Xinzheng)", "Lulchang Festival", etc. Among the people, it is often called "Winter Festival". And because the rich live a prosperous winter solstice, while the poor can only spend the night in poverty, there is also a saying that "the rich eat the winter solstice night, and the poor spend the night", and "the rich eat all night, and the poor freeze all night."

Folks also use the arrival sequence of the winter solstice and the quality of the weather on that day to predict the weather in the future. As the saying goes: The winter solstice is at the beginning of the month, and it is cold at the end of the year; the winter solstice is at the end of the month, and it is cold at the first month; the winter solstice is in the middle of the month, and there is no snow or frost? (This is based on the early or late arrival of the winter solstice. Sooner or later when the cold wave arrives); as the saying goes: "When the winter solstice is dark, the new year will be sparse; when the winter solstice is sparse, the new year will be dark?" ).

In terms of festival foods during the Winter Solstice, there are many interesting traditions and even characteristics of various ethnic groups. For example: after the Manchu bannermen worshiped heaven and ancestors during the Winter Solstice, they cooked the pork into white meat and shared it with relatives and friends; in Shaanxi, people believed that the sons of workers died on the Winter Solstice and spread the plague. Evil ghosts, but epidemic ghosts are afraid of red beans, so on the winter solstice, everyone cooks red bean porridge to ward off the plague; southerners eat glutinous rice balls, and northerners have the custom of eating wontons on the winter solstice. There is a common saying: "Winter Solstice" Wonton noodles are eaten during the Summer Solstice, and dumplings are mostly eaten in the northwest (dumplings were called wontons before the Ming Dynasty). There is even a proverb among the people: "Eating dumplings on the Winter Festival will keep your ears from freezing."

Why does this kind of food custom exist? It is said that Zhang Zhongjing, the medical sage of Nanyang, once served as an official in Changsha. When he retired and returned home, it was a snowy winter with biting cold wind. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River in Nanyang were not fully clothed, and many people's ears were rotten by the cold. He felt very sad, so he asked his disciples to set up a medical tent in Guandong, Nanyang, and put pots with mutton, chili peppers and some anti-cold medicinal materials. Cook it in a pot, take it out and chop it into pieces, wrap it in dough to look like an ear, put it in a pot and cook it, and make a medicine called "Cold-Expelling Ear-correcting Decoction" and given to the people. After taking it, the villagers' ears were cured. Later, during the winter solstice, people would imitate the cooking process and eat it, thus forming the custom of pinching frozen ears. From now on, people called it "dumplings", and some also called them "bianshi" and "hot noodle dumplings". People also said that eating dumplings during the winter solstice would keep people from freezing.

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