The legend that eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice will prevent your ears from freezing comes from the myth of Nuwa creating humans.

In the Huaichuan area, eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice is related to Nuwa’s creation of humans. Legend has it that in winter in ancient times, when the weather was freezing, the ears of the clay figurines made by Nuwa often froze off, so she had to sew them back on again. One day, after Nuwa sewed up the ear of a clay figurine, she temporarily put the remaining thread in the clay figurine's mouth and bit it, then turned to look for scissors. When she returned with the scissors, a great idea came to her.

She tied the two ends of the string to the clay figurine's ears and mouth respectively, so that the clay figurine's ears would not freeze off. Later, on the winter solstice, people were afraid of losing their ears due to the cold, so they bit a thread to tie their ears. Because the shape of the dumplings resembled ears, people gradually turned biting the thread into eating dumplings.

Introduction to the traditional customs of the Winter Solstice

1. Brewing rice wine

Traditional Gusu people drink winter wine on the night of the winter solstice. Winter wine is made with glutinous rice or rice wine. rice, add osmanthus and brew.

2. Eating glutinous rice balls

Eating glutinous rice balls is a traditional custom during the Winter Solstice, especially popular in Jiangnan. Tangyuan is a must-have food during the Winter Solstice. Yuan means reunion and perfection. Eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice is also called Winter Solstice Yuan. There is a folk saying that eating glutinous rice balls makes you one year older.

3. Drink mutton soup

Every year on the winter solstice, the Chengdu-Jiang Expressway connecting Chengdu, Sichuan to Jianyang ushered in a busier time of the year. People drove into the Jianyang City on the east side of the Longquan Mountains is just looking for a steaming bowl of mutton soup.

4. Eating sweet potato soup

In Ningbo’s traditional customs, sweet potato soup is one of the must-eat delicacies during the winter solstice. Fan and fan have the same pronunciation. In the understanding of Ningbo people, eating sweet potatoes during the winter solstice is to turn over all the bad luck in the past year. Tangguo is similar to gnocchi, but much smaller and has no filling inside. Tangguo is also called Yuanzi, which means reunion and perfection.

The above content refers to Baidu Encyclopedia-Winter Solstice