Linyi will send cold clothes to the dead, and Juxian will worship the ancestors in the ancestral hall. The winter solstice in Laoshan is divided into two days. On the first day, it is offered to worship ancestors and eat dumplings, and on the second day, it is eaten with steamed buns.
Shandong:
Shandong Province is a coastal province in East China, which is called Shandong for short. Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, borders Hebei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces from north to south.
Also known as "Winter Festival" and "Happy Winter", it is one of the twenty-four solar terms in China and one of the eight astronomical solar terms, which is opposite to the summer solstice. The winter solstice begins when the sun reaches 270 degrees of the yellow meridian, and it is around the Gregorian calendar1February 22nd every year. According to legend, the Winter Solstice was New Year's Day in the Zhou Dynasty in history, and it was once a very lively day.
On the winter solstice, the sun's direct position on the ground reaches the southernmost point of the year, almost directly to the Tropic of Capricorn (23 26' south latitude). On this day, the northern hemisphere got the least sunshine, 50% less than the southern hemisphere. The day in the northern hemisphere is the shortest, and the farther north it is, the shorter it is.
More commonly, there is a custom of eating jiaozi on the winter solstice in northern China.
As the saying goes: "When the winter solstice comes, eat dumplings." In the south, dumplings are eaten, but there are exceptions. For example, in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, the winter solstice is called Jiujiu, and the custom of drinking mutton soup on the same day is popular, which means driving away the cold.
The winter solstice is a good time for health preservation, mainly because "Qi begins at the winter solstice". Because from the beginning of winter, life activities began to turn from prosperity to decline, from dynamic to static. At this time, scientific health preservation helps to ensure vigorous energy and prevent premature aging, so as to achieve the purpose of prolonging life. During the winter solstice, the diet should be diversified, and the grains, fruits, meat and vegetables should be reasonably matched, and high-calcium foods should be appropriately selected.
There are different customs in different places during the winter solstice. In the north, there are customs of slaughtering sheep, eating jiaozi and eating wonton. In the south, there are customs of eating rice balls and long noodles during the winter solstice, while people in southern Jiangsu eat green onions and fried tofu during the winter solstice.
Beijing wonton
In the past, there was a saying in old Beijing that "winter solstice wonton and summer solstice noodles". According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu in the north often harassed the frontier, and the people were restless. At that time, there were two leaders of Hun tribe and Tun tribe, which were very cruel. The people hated it, so they wrapped it into a corner with meat stuffing and called it "wonton" with the sound of "muddy" and "tun".
Hate to eat, and seek to calm the war and live a peaceful life. Because wonton was originally made on the winter solstice, every household eats wonton on the winter solstice.
Jiaozi reunion
Every year, on the Winter Solstice of the Lunar New Year, jiaozi is an indispensable holiday meal, regardless of the rich or the poor. As the saying goes, "On October 1st, when the winter solstice comes, every family eats dumplings.
"This custom was left in memory of Zhang Zhongjing, a" medical sage ",who gave up medicine on the winter solstice. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, he served as the prefect of Changsha, visiting the sick and applying medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown to treat his neighbors. When he returned home, it was winter. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and emaciated, hungry and cold, and many people's ears were frozen. He asked his disciples to set up a medical shed and cauldron in Dongguan, Nanyang, and give up their "charming ears" to cure chilblain on the winter solstice. He boiled the mutton and some herbs for dispelling cold in a pot, then fished out the mutton and medicines and chopped them, and made them into ear-like "jiao-er" with bread. After cooking, he distributed two "jiao-er" and a big bowl of broth to each person who came to ask for medicine. People ate "Jiao Er" and drank "Quhan Tang", and they were warm all over, with fever in both ears and frostbitten ears cured. Later generations learned the look of "Jiao Er" and packaged it into food, also called "jiaozi" or "flat food". This kind of flat food is different from jiaozi.