1, Spring Festival
Jiaozi is the most commonly used name in China, and it has various shapes. There are two reasons for jiaozi during the Spring Festival. First, the shape of jiaozi is the same as that of an ingot, so eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival means "making a fortune". Second: According to the ancient custom, jiaozi is a sacrificial food during the Chinese New Year. Pay attention to jiaozi when you keep your birthday, and eat jiaozi when you resign, that is, eat jiaozi when you are a child.
2. Winter Solstice
The custom of eating jiaozi on the winter solstice is related to Nanyang famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing. Zhang Zhongjing, a famous physician in Anyang, Henan Province during the Eastern Han Dynasty, was called a medical sage by later generations. He collected widely medical prescriptions and wrote the masterpiece Treatise on Febrile Diseases handed down from ancient times.
When he retired as an official in Changsha and returned home, it happened to be snowing heavily. On the way, he saw many people's ears were frozen and rotten. He cooked mutton, pepper and some cold-dispelling herbs in a pot, chopped them, made them into ears with flour bags, and cooked them in a pot to make "cold-dispelling and ear-correcting soup", which was given to everyone as medicine and cured the ears of the villagers. Later, during the winter solstice, people imitated and cooked it, calling it "flat food" or "jiaozi", leaving the saying that "eating jiaozi at the winter solstice will not freeze people".
3. New Year's Eve
There are many famous dishes for the New Year's Eve dinner, which are different in north and south, and each has its own emphasis. Northerners are used to eating jiaozi during the Chinese New Year, which is a habit handed down from ancient times. In ancient times, people at the bottom of the north had a hard life, and it was their best hope not to go hungry all the year round. The food to improve their lives could only be eaten on big festivals and special days, and jiaozi, which was listed as the best food, was also the worst, so they ate jiaozi whenever they got the chance.
4, the fifth day of the first month
The fifth day of the first month, commonly known as the Broken Fifth Festival, is one of the traditional festivals in China with a long history. It is named after China folklore that many taboos can be broken before this day. Because this day bears too many people's hopes and longings, there are many taboos in ancient times, such as having to eat jiaozi, not cooking with uncooked rice, and not allowing women to visit.
5. beginning of autumn
For beginning of autumn to eat jiaozi, it's also a way to paste autumn fat. So, what does it mean to paste autumn fat? As mentioned above, the human body will be reduced in summer, and the ancients will weigh themselves on this day in beginning of autumn. If they find that they have become thinner, everyone will eat some meat to make up for it, commonly known as "putting on autumn weight". And jiaozi is also a kind of meat food, so beginning of autumn's eating jiaozi is also a way to stick to the autumn fat.
6. beginning of winter
Beginning of winter has the custom of eating dumplings. Beginning of winter, wrapped in jiaozi, tastes different from Chinese cabbage, but also dipped in vinegar and rotten garlic to eat, just don't have a taste. Because our country is based on agriculture, it attaches great importance to the 24 solar terms, and the "festival" is a new growth point of vegetation. Autumn harvest and winter storage, this day, to improve our life, we chose "delicious but jiaozi". Therefore, there is a saying in the Book of Rites that "eating melons is also a sacrifice first". Winter Solstice, China has the custom of "Winter Solstice Festival" in ancient times.