Eating dumplings in winter solstice or in jiaozi, different places have different customs. Generally, jiaozi is eaten in the north and dumplings are eaten in the south. You must eat dumplings during the winter solstice in the north. It is said that there is another story here. At that time, when the famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing returned to his hometown, he saw that people in his hometown had frostbite because of the freezing disaster, so he mixed mutton with traditional Chinese medicine and made food similar to ears for the villagers to eat. After the villagers ate it, the whole people became warmer, especially the ears that were frozen the most slowly improved. Therefore, there is a saying in the north that "if you don't eat jiaozi, your ears will be frozen".

Most people in the south choose to eat glutinous rice balls on this day. In the old man's words, eating glutinous rice balls will make you one year old. Tangyuan has many meanings, and "Yuan" stands for "Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan". The whole family get together to eat Tangyuan, which is both a reunion and a "new year". In the past, there was a small custom. Before eating dumplings on the winter solstice, you had to stick a dumpling on the back of the door, window and bed. This behavior was called "wasting the day" and you can only eat it after sacrificing to the "Kitchen God".