Eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve.
The folk custom of eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival has been quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Generally, jiaozi should wrap it up before New Year's Eve 12, and eat it at midnight. At this time, it is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating jiaozi means "making friends when you are young", and "Zi" is homophonic with "jiaozi", which means "reunion" and "good luck". There are many legends about eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival. One is to commemorate the creation of Pangu and end the mixed state. The other is to use it as a homonym of "wonton", which means "five grains are abundant" In addition, it is said that eating jiaozi's folk language is related to Nu Wa's making people. When Nuwa soil caused people, the ears of loess people were easily frozen off because of the cold weather. In order to prevent the ear from being fixed, Nuwa put a small eye on the ear, tied it with a thin thread, and put the other end of the thread in the mouth of the loess man to bite, so that the ear would be fine. In order to commemorate the achievements of Nu Wa, ordinary people wrapped jiaozi, molded adult ears with flour, wrapped them with stuffing (thread) and ate them with their mouths.
Eat jiaozi on the fifth day of the first month.
In addition to eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve, the fifth day of the first month is called "Breaking Five", and jiaozi is also eaten. There is a saying that there are many taboos in the days from the first day to the fifth day, so people should not "act rashly". Once the fifth day is over, the New Year's Eve dinner is basically over, so they are no longer taboo and want to eat jiaozi's congratulations.
Fall in love and eat jiaozi.
Dog days are the days with the highest temperature, humidity and sultry weather in a year, and there are "dog days" in a year. It is at this time that the people say "bitter summer". When the wheat harvest is less than one month, people in Man Cang and every family's valley take advantage of this opportunity to have a rare sumptuous food and eat white flour. Jiaozi is also a top grade that is hard to see at ordinary times, so there is a saying in old Beijing that "the head falls on the jiaozi and the face falls on the ground".
Why does beginning of autumn eat jiaozi?
In early autumn, there is a folk proverb "Food is the most important thing for the people". Beginning of autumn is a very important solar term, and people can't forget to eat it. Therefore, it is deeply loved by the people in Beijing and Hebei. People have a bad appetite in dog days, so many people will lose weight. In the Qing Dynasty, people (mostly children, of course) were weighed by hanging scales, and compared with the weight of Chang Xia to measure their fatness. Losing weight is called "bitter summer". At that time, people often judged health only by being fat and thin. Of course, if you lose weight, you need to make up. The remedy is to go to beginning of autumn, eat delicious food, and "paste the autumn fat". Of course, meat is the first choice, and "stick fat with meat". On this day, ordinary people eat stewed meat, while cultured people eat boiled meat and braised pork, as well as jiaozi, stewed chicken, stewed duck and braised fish.
Beginning of winter eats jiaozi.
Beginning of winter solar terms mean autumn harvest and winter storage. China used to be a farming society. People who have worked for a year should take advantage of beginning of winter to have a rest and reward their families for their hard work over the past year. There is a proverb that "beginning of winter fills the winter and the mouth" is the best metaphor.
In southern China, people like to eat some chicken, duck and fish in early winter. On this day in early winter in Taiwan Province Province, street restaurants such as "Mutton Stove" and "Ginger Duck" complement winter weddings. Many families will also stew sesame oil chicken and siwu chicken to supplement energy. In the north of China, people like to eat jiaozi. Why does beginning of winter eat jiaozi? Because intercourse comes from the saying of "sexual intercourse time". New Year's Eve is to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and beginning of winter is the turn of autumn and winter. When jiaozi is in love, he can't help eating.