Eating jiaozi is also a traditional custom from winter solstice, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. "Tangyuan" is a necessary food from winter solstice and a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. "Round" means "reunion" and "perfection", and eating glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice is also called "winter solstice group". There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls is one year older". The winter solstice group can be used to worship ancestors or give gifts to relatives and friends. In the past, Shanghainese were most particular about eating jiaozi. The ancients had a poem saying: "Every family beats rice to make glutinous rice balls, which shows that it is the winter solstice of the Ming Dynasty." "Circle" means "reunion" and "perfection". Eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter symbolizes family harmony and good luck.
2. Winter Sweet Pills
Winter sweet pills are usually cooked before dawn. After the family gets up, they should eat a bowl of "Winter Festival Pills". There is a folk saying in Chaoshan that "the Chinese New Year will be celebrated as soon as the winter festival pill is eaten", commonly known as "adding the year", which means that although the year is not over, everyone has added one year. Children are most eager to eat this bowl of sweet pills, and often wake up at night to ask if it is dawn? However, the sky seems to be joking with the children, and it is always dark. Therefore, there is a nursery rhyme that "the winter festival is long and the fragrant pills are not cooked". In fact, every year on the winter solstice, the night is the longest, and after the winter solstice, the night gradually becomes shorter. In the past, Chaoshan urban and rural areas also had the custom of worshipping Commander Gong with glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice, preparing three sacrifices to worship ancestors and sweeping graves, and sweeping graves on the winter solstice was called "winter paper". Less than three years after death, future generations will pass on "Spring Paper" and then "Winter Paper" in Tomb-Sweeping Day. It is more convenient to visit the graves on the solstice in winter, because there is little rain and plenty of sunshine in winter, so it is more convenient to worship ancestors in Shan Ye, and it is also an outing for entertainment.
3. Nine-layer cake
On the solstice of winter, the tradition of offering sacrifices to ancestors with nine-layer cakes is to knead glutinous rice flour into chickens, ducks, turtles, pigs, cows, sheep and other animals symbolizing good luck, and then steam them in layers in a steamer to show that they will not forget their ancestors. On the early date agreed before or after the winter solstice, people with the same surname and clan gather in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors one by one in the order of generations. After the ceremony, a grand banquet will be held to entertain the people who come to worship their ancestors. Let's have a good drink and get in touch with our long-lost feelings.
4. Barbecue
On the solstice of winter, most Cantonese people have the custom of "adding vegetables" to eat meat from the solstice of winter. Among them, roasted meat is an indispensable traditional food on the table of Guangdong people from winter to Japan. The whole family prepared some bacon and sausages after offering sacrifices to their ancestors to pray for good luck in the coming year.
Some Cantonese people also have the custom of sending bacon to relatives and friends during the winter solstice. To this end, each supermarket has carefully set up a thriving sausage shop, which is filled with all kinds of bacon, sausages, cured ducks, ham, bacon and so on. Not only in bulk, but also in bags so that the public can get what they need. In order to attract people to buy, some supermarkets also send staff to set up cured products stalls outside the supermarket to sell cured products to passers-by.
What do you eat on the solstice in winter in the south?
5. Red bean glutinous rice
In Jiangnan water town, there is a custom that the whole family get together to eat red beans and glutinous rice from winter to night. There is also an interesting legend about its origin: according to legend, there was a son named Gong Gong, whose son died in the winter solstice and became an epidemic ghost after his death, which continued to harm the people. However, the ghost of the epidemic is most afraid of red beans, so people cook red bean rice in winter solstice to resist the ghost of the epidemic and prevent diseases.
6.rice cake
New year's cake, new year's cake. Eating rice cakes is to win the lottery ticket of "getting higher every year". From the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, people in Hangzhou always eat rice cakes on the solstice of winter. The most extreme way to eat is to eat three meals a day without missing a meal. In the morning, we eat steamed rice cakes with sesame powder and white sugar. At noon, we eat fried rice cakes and winter vegetables, winter bamboo shoots and shredded pork. Dinner is mustard rice cake, shredded pork and shredded bamboo shoots soup.