Eating glutinous rice balls has been a custom in the Ming and Qing Dynasties; eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice means reunion.

On the winter solstice, it is necessary to "make powder balls" or "powder glutinous rice into balls". These are also officially recorded in historical materials, saying "During the Winter Solstice, glutinous rice is made into balls, called glutinous rice balls." After making glutinous rice dumplings, you should offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors, and then eat glutinous rice dumplings with the whole family, which is called "increasing the age". Therefore, eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice has been a tradition since ancient times.

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. It is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. "Yuan" means "reunion" and "completeness". Eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice is also called "Winter Solstice Tuan". There is a saying among the people that "eating glutinous rice balls makes you one year older".

The Winter Solstice group can be used to worship ancestors, and can also be used to exchange gifts with relatives and friends. In the old days, Shanghainese were most particular about eating glutinous rice balls. There is a poem from the ancients that goes: "Every family is pounding rice to make glutinous rice balls, knowing that it is the winter solstice in the Ming Dynasty.". "Yuan" means "reunion" and "completeness". Eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice symbolizes family harmony and good luck.

Folk customs of the Winter Solstice

1. Worshiping ancestors

In the early morning of the Winter Solstice, the family goes up the mountain with glutinous rice balls, fruits, incense candles, paper money, etc. to pay homage to their ancestors' tombs. Because the Winter Solstice Festival is the last tomb-sweeping festival of the year, there are more people sweeping tombs than during the Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival, which means to be cautious about the end and pursue the future.

2. Cold-repelling activities

The winter solstice means the beginning of counting nine, and after the ninth day, some literati and scholar-bureaucrats engage in so-called cold-repelling activities, choosing a "nine" On the same day, nine people meet for a drink ("wine" and "jiu" are homophonic). Nine dishes and nine bowls are used on the banquet, and the "flower nine pieces" banquet is used to take the meaning of ninety-nine to relieve the cold.

3. Eating dumplings

When it comes to the Winter Solstice, we have to talk about eating dumplings. Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for everyone, rich or poor. A proverb goes: "On October 1st, when the winter solstice arrives, every household eats dumplings." This custom was left to commemorate the "medical sage" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.