A brief introduction to the winter solstice of the twenty-four solar terms
The winter solstice is the earliest one of the 24 solar terms, and it ranks first among the 24 solar terms. The traditional calendar takes five days as one period, three periods as one section or one breath, and a year is divided into twelve sections and twelve gases, which are collectively called twenty-four solar terms. On the winter solstice, "The Collection of the Seventy-two Seasons of the Moon" says: The gas that is finally hidden is extremely extreme at this point. On the day of the winter solstice, the day is south, the day is short, and the shadow is long, so it is called the winter solstice.
Astronomy also takes the winter solstice as the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice marks the extreme of yin and the beginning of yang, but the temperature will continue to drop in the short term because the heat radiated by the sun to the ground is less than that radiated from the ground to space. Therefore, the winter solstice is also the beginning of cold. During the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, it was stipulated that the day before the winter solstice was the end of the year. Because the first month of the weekly calendar is November of the summer calendar, there is no difference between worshipping the New Year and celebrating the New Year, so the winter solstice is also called "Asian New Year", which is essentially equivalent to today's Spring Festival.
The ancients believed that the winter solstice was a chance for chaos and recovery. After the winter solstice is the beginning of another year, and Qing Jia Lu even says that the winter solstice is as big as a year, which also shows that the ancients attached importance to the winter solstice. It was only after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the summer calendar that the first month was separated from the winter solstice. It can be said that the "winter festival" only existed after the Han Dynasty. In order to distinguish it from the "resignation" on the eve of the Spring Festival, the day before the winter solstice is called Xiaozhi or Xiaodong, and some of them are called "adding years" and "sub-years". And the winter solstice is called the long winter. The day after the winter solstice is called after the solstice.
Festival custom
1, ancestor worship
China's southern coastal areas, such as western Guangdong, Chaoshan and parts of Zhejiang, continue the traditional custom of ancestor worship. Every household offers ancestral statues, memorial tablets, etc. to the hall at home, places a altar, sets up incense burners, offerings, etc. At the same time of offering sacrifices to ancestors, some places also offer sacrifices to gods and land gods, and worship the gods in order to pray for good weather, family and prosperity in the coming year.
2. Eat roasted meat and ginger rice
Cantonese people eat roasted meat and ginger rice on the winter solstice. On this day, most Cantonese people have the custom of "adding vegetables" to eat meat on the winter solstice. In Chaoshan area, there is a folk proverb of "Winter Festival Pills, the Chinese New Year will be celebrated as soon as you eat them", commonly known as "adding years". Hakkas believe that water tastes the most mellow at the winter solstice, so it has become a custom for Hakkas to make wine at the winter solstice.
3. Eat rice cakes
People in Hangzhou eat rice cakes on the winter solstice. People in Hangzhou like to eat rice cakes on the winter solstice from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties until now. During the winter solstice, you can cook rice cakes with different flavors, eat rice cakes at the winter solstice, and get older, which is auspicious. In Sichuan, it is the winter solstice to eat mutton soup, and mutton is the first nourishing in winter. In the area of Hunan and Hubei, you must eat red beans and glutinous rice on the winter solstice.
4, eat the winter solstice group (winter solstice pill)
In some areas in the south, it is more popular to eat the winter solstice ball, which means reunion. On the morning of the winter solstice, every household grinds glutinous rice flour, and uses sugar, meat, radish, fruit and shredded radish as stuffing to make a winter solstice ball, which is not only eaten by their own families, but also given to relatives and friends as a sign of blessing. In fact, eating dumplings on the winter solstice is a traditional custom in China, and it is even more common in Jiangnan. There is also a saying among the people that "eating dumplings is one year older".
5. Eat jiaozi and drink mutton soup.
In many parts of northern China, it is a custom to eat jiaozi on the winter solstice every year. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, saw the frozen people when he retired from his old age, so he used mutton, some cold-dispelling herbs and dough to wrap them in the shape of ears, made a medicine called "cold-dispelling and ear-correcting soup" and gave it to the people. Later, on the winter solstice, people imitated eating and formed a custom.
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