According to legend, eating jiaozi in the winter solstice is related to Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhang Zhongjing was born in a declining official family. His father, Zhang Zonghan, is a scholar. Be an official in the court. Due to the special conditions of his family, he had access to many classics since he was a child. He is studious and loves medicine.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, years of melee, "people abandoned agriculture", urban granges became wilderness, people were displaced, hungry and cold. Plague broke out continuously in various places, so he made a determined effort to study medicine and became a doctor who could relieve people's sufferings. Later, Zhang Zhongjing really became a good doctor and was called "the sage of medicine and the ancestor of prescription".

According to legend, when Zhang Zhongjing returned home in his old age, it coincided with the snowy winter. Many people displaced by the war in the streets have no food and clothes, and many people's ears are frozen.

Zhang Zhongjing couldn't bear to see this situation, so he set up a medical shed in the east of Nanyang Pass. Let disciples make stuffing with mutton, pepper and some herbs for dispelling cold, and then wrap it into jiaozi. Give alms to the people. This jiaozi has cured the frozen ears of many villagers.

Since then, every winter solstice into nine, everyone scrambled to eat jiaozi, there is a proverb "winter solstice in jiaozi does not freeze your ears".

The Significance of Eating jiaozi on the Winter Solstice

Moral one: The winter solstice misbehaves the jiaozi bowl, and nobody cares if you freeze your ears.

Proverbs say: On October 1st, when the winter solstice comes, every family eats dumplings. This custom is said to have been left in memory of Zhang Zhongjing, a medical saint, who gave up medicine on the winter solstice. Therefore, in the north of China, on the day of the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, jiaozi becomes an essential holiday meal, regardless of the rich or the poor.

Moral 2: When the winter solstice comes, eat jiaozi and be round and round.

In some places, on the day of the winter solstice, the family will be busy, preparing all kinds of dumpling wrappers and stuffing, and then the family will sit together to make jiaozi, eat jiaozi and have a reunion for the winter solstice. In addition to eating jiaozi in the north, there is also the custom of eating glutinous rice balls in the south, which means that the round is full and round.