Is the Winter Solstice considered a festival?

Since the winter solstice, the days have become longer. Folks use the shadow of the sun in front of the door at noon as a benchmark and say, "After winter, one green onion grows every day." Therefore, this day is also called "Changzhi". Since the Han and Tang dynasties, palace maids have to use an extra thread every day to wear red hair after the winter solstice. This is what the folks say: "Eating the Winter Solstice rice will make you grow taller every day." Starting from the winter solstice, people often draw a branch of plain plum with eighty-one petals on this day, which is called the "Nine-Nine Dispelling Cold Picture". Paint one petal with red every day, and when you paint all the petals, you will "come out". "Nine", so the winter solstice is also called "Nine". "Winter Solstice Wonton and Summer Solstice Noodles", a large part of Shandong Province eats wontons or dumplings on this day. Some people also drink alcohol. It is said that drinking is to warm up the body, and eating dumplings is to avoid freezing their ears. The word "dumpling" is homophonic to "glue ear". Linyi, Zoucheng, Xintai and other places have the custom of steaming in winter. Linyi uses whole grain flour to steam steamed buns, and Zoucheng steams glutinous rice cakes. Legend has it that steaming in winter is to pray for wind in the coming year. The folk song says: "Steaming in winter makes the wind blow in the air." In ancient times, steaming in winter was to celebrate the solstice of the Yangtze River. People use glutinous rice flour to make rice balls, called Tuanyuanzi or Winter Solstice Balls, to symbolize reunion. Pastry and steamed steamed buns are the evolution of Tuanyuanzi. In ancient times, great importance was attached to the winter solstice. The ancients believed that when the Yang Qi of the Winter Solstice arises and the Taoist ruler is established, it is an opportunity for chaos to return to normalcy. Celebration ceremonies have been held since the Han Dynasty, and reached their peak in the Song Dynasty. The day before the winter solstice is called Xiaozhi or Xiaodong, and the winter solstice is called Changzhi or Dadong. The day after the winter solstice is called the solstice. The festival lasts for three days, and all officials pay congratulations. The king does not listen to the government. The people have a three-day rest, and students have a holiday. The folk saying is that "the winter solstice is as big as the new year." Therefore, in the old days, Lijin, Xiajin and other places also called the winter solstice the sub-year and the small year, which is the same as the Spring Festival. It’s almost the same, except there’s no New Year greeting. In Jinan, Jiyang, Fushan and other places, the government celebrates like the Spring Festival, and scholars also give each other congratulatory cards. The scholar-bureaucrats in Juxian County held a cocktail party called the "Cold-Relieving Party" and painted "Cold-Relieving Pictures". Zoucheng painted nine-nine pictures, and at the same time relatives and friends presented each other with tools to keep out the cold. Farm children played games of "taking the village" and "breaking the tiles". The teenager began to learn martial arts, called "watching the winter", but he did not have the habit of congratulating. It is said that Mencius died on the winter solstice. The villagers were very sad and canceled the ceremony to celebrate the winter solstice. In other areas of Shandong, it is common for students to worship their teachers and for younger generations to worship their elders. Farmers also have the custom of worshiping their ancestors. Folks in Linyi believe that the winter solstice is a day for giving cold clothes to the deceased and fixing the house. Every household cuts clothes with burning paper and burns them in front of the tomb, and then adds earth. In Ju County, ancestors are worshiped in ancestral halls, and the ceremony is very grand. According to the old custom in Laoshan County, the winter solstice is celebrated in two days. The first day is called "Ghost Winter", where offerings are made to worship ancestors and dumplings are eaten; the second day is called "Ren Dong", where steamed buns are eaten. Women in Linyi, Licheng, Linqu and other places are accustomed to returning to their natal homes. Qingyun and Wudi began to prepare vegetables on this day, and women began to do needlework. Zoucheng began to build cellars, weave mats and spin threads. According to folklore in Rizhao, if clouds welcome the sunrise and sunset on the winter solstice, it means good luck in the coming year. Folks in Jimo predict the cold and warmth of the winter based on the date of the winter solstice at the beginning, middle or late month of the month. The folk song says: "Winter freezes cows to death at the head, winter warms the middle, and winter freezes ghosts to death at the end." The Winter Solstice festival originated in the Han Dynasty. It flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties and is still used today. "Qing Jia Lu" even said that "the winter solstice is as big as the new year". This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People believe that the winter solstice is the natural transformation of yin and yang and a blessing from God. In the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice was regarded as the "Winter Festival", and the government would hold a congratulatory ceremony called "Winter Congratulations" and have a routine holiday. There is such a record in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty": "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman settles down, keeps all officials in charge, does not listen to politics, and chooses auspicious times to save trouble." Therefore, on this day, the court has a holiday and rest, the army is on standby, the border fortress is in retreat, and the business travel is closed. , relatives and friends each give each other delicious food, visit each other, and happily spend a "settle and quiet" festival. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Winter Solstice was a day for worshiping heaven and ancestors. On this day, the emperor would go to the countryside to hold a ceremony to worship heaven, and people would worship their parents and elders on this day. Nowadays, some places still celebrate the winter solstice. The winter solstice (the 21st or 22nd of December in the Gregorian calendar) is the beginning of the ninth month. The ancients believed that during the winter solstice, the days are getting longer day by day and the yang energy is rising, which is an auspicious day. So it's worth celebrating. The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties both held ceremonies to worship heaven, which was called "Winter Solstice Suburban Sky". There is a ceremony in the palace where officials present congratulations to the emperor, and they also congratulate each other, just like New Year's Day. However, the folk do not regard the winter solstice as a festival, but there are some activities that suit the time. In the Qing Dynasty, some bannermen prayed for blessings to eliminate disasters. At the fifth o'clock on the winter solstice, the relatives, aunts, and close friends of the family are invited to sit on the ground in the courtyard, use a low table to offer "Heaven and Earth Codes" or memorial tablets, and kill pigs to offer sacrifices to the heaven. By the way, we offer sacrifices to the "ancestor pole" (a flagpole two or three feet high, with a gourd-shaped top and a "diao dou" slightly below, with flags hanging under the dou, representing the ancestors). After the sacrifice, relatives and friends sit around and eat "white meat", which is called "Shen Yu". Southerners who live and travel in Beijing also hold feasts to worship their ancestors. At the same time, colleagues or close friends are also invited to have dinner and meals together. Yan customs do not emphasize winter festivals. Old Beijingers never did this. On the day of the winter solstice, grand Dharma gatherings are held at various avenues in the capital. Taoist priests recite sutras, above the table, to celebrate the birthday of Yuanshi Tianzun. Taoism believes that Yuanshi Tianzun symbolizes the first century when chaos is not divided and Taoism is not manifested. Therefore, there is a folk custom of eating Kunton. "Yanjing Chronicles" says: "The shape of husband's wonton is like a chicken egg, which is quite similar to the chaos of heaven and earth, so it is eaten during the winter solstice." In fact, "shiton" and "chaos" are homophonic, so people eat them Wonton is extended to break the chaos and open up the world.

Later generations no longer explained its original meaning, and only spread the proverb "Winter Solstice Wonton and Summer Solstice Noodles", treating it simply as a seasonal diet. Nine-nine cold-relieving pictures After entering the ninth year, some literati and scholar-bureaucrats started to engage in so-called cold-relieving activities. They chose a "Nine" day to meet nine people to drink ("wine" and "Nine" are homophones). Bowls and tables are served with "flower nine pieces" to take the meaning of ninety-nine to relieve the cold. It is also popular among the people to fill in the nine-nine pictures to relieve the cold for entertainment. The nine-nine cold-relieving picture is usually a double-hook red calligraphy with nine characters in traditional Chinese: "Weeping willows in front of the courtyard, cherish the spring breeze." Each character has nine strokes, with a total of eighty-one strokes. Starting from the winter solstice, one stroke is filled in every day according to the stroke order. , fill in a word every time after the ninth nine, until spring returns to the earth after the ninth nine, a picture of the ninth nine to relieve the cold will be considered complete. The color used to fill in the strokes of each day is determined by the weather of the day. If it is sunny, it will be red; if it is cloudy, it will be blue; if it rains, it will be green; if it is windy, it will be yellow; if it is snow, it will be white. In addition, there is also a picture version of the Nine-Nine Cold-Resisting Picture, also known as the "Ya Picture", which is a drawing of nine winter plums on white paper. Each branch has nine flowers, one branch corresponds to one nine, one corresponds to a day, and each day is based on the weather. Live fill a plum blossom with a specific color. Yang Yunfu of the Yuan Dynasty recorded in "Miscellaneous Odes of Luanjing": "If you try to count the nine-nine pictures in the window, the remaining cold will disappear and the warmth will return to the beginning. The plum blossoms are dotted with no white left, and you can see that they are apricot trees." The most elegant nine-nine pictures are Make nine-body couplets. Each couplet has nine characters and each character has nine strokes. Fill in one word each day in the upper and lower couplets. For example, the upper couplet reads "Spring springs weep and willows dye spring beauty"; the lower couplet reads "Autumn courtyard hangs autumn persimmons and autumn sends autumn fragrance", which is called Jiujiuxiao Winter couplets. However, no matter what kind of nine-nine anti-cold pictures, while killing time and entertaining the body and mind, they also simply record the weather changes. It is said that experienced old people can also predict the amount of rain and the abundance and abundance of the year based on the Nine-Nine Cold Elimination Diagram. Winter Solstice - If you don't serve the dumpling bowl, your ears will freeze off and no one will care. On the winter solstice of the lunar calendar every year, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for rich and poor alike. 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. Zhang Zhongjing is a native of Gengdong, Nanyang. He wrote Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases, which is a collection of medical works and is regarded as a classic by doctors of all ages. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "If you advance, you will save the world; if you retreat, you will save the people; if you cannot be a good prime minister, you should also be a good doctor." During the Eastern Han Dynasty, he served as the prefect of Changsha, visiting patients and administering medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown to treat his neighbors. It was winter when he returned home. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and thin, hungry and cold, and many of them had their ears rotten by the cold. He asked his disciples to set up a medical tent and a large pot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and make "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction" to treat chilblains on the winter solstice. He put mutton, chili peppers and some cold-repelling medicinal materials in a pot and boiled them. Then he took out the mutton and the medicinal materials and chopped them into pieces. He used bread to make "jiao ears" like ears. After cooking, he distributed them to people who came to ask for medicine. Each person has two "Jiao Er" and a large bowl of broth. People ate "Jiao Er" and drank "Qu Han Tang", their whole bodies became warm, their ears felt hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations imitated the appearance of "Jiao Er" and wrapped them into food, also called "dumplings" or "flat food". Eating dumplings during the winter solstice is to remember the kindness of "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing's "Quhan Jiao Er Soup". There is still a folk saying in Nanyang that "if you don't bring dumpling bowls during the winter solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care". Xishi Huansha Suzhou people celebrate the winter solstice - eating chaos to remember Xishi Since Suzhou was the capital of Wu State 2,500 years ago, Taibo and Zhongyong, the founders of Wu State, were descendants of the Zhou Taiwang. They inherited the Zhou Dynasty calendar and regarded the winter solstice as a day. At the beginning of the new year, the ancient city of Suzhou still has the custom of "the winter solstice is as big as the new year", and the "menu" on the night of the winter solstice every year is even more exquisite, continuing the far-reaching Wudi customs, forming a unique experience that is different from other cities. significance. In the supermarkets in the streets and alleys of the ancient city of Suzhou, winter wine is piled up like a "hill". Winter wine is brewed only once a year. It is fragrant with osmanthus, sweet and refreshing. There is a saying in Suzhou since ancient times that if you don’t drink winter wine during the winter solstice, it will freeze overnight. When the "Old Suzhou" people returned home, the "Yuan Ye Dinner" placed on the table was not only sumptuous but also "meaningful". Whether it was cold pot, hot stir-fry or fish, meat and poultry, they all changed their names and became "auspicious dishes" and "Yuanbao". "(egg dumplings), "Tuanyuan" (meat balls), "chicken" (plopp), "golden chain" (vermicelli), "ruyicai" (soybean sprouts), "eating more than enough" (fish), etc. Similar, the joy and meaning of Suzhou’s traditional festivals are permeated everywhere. Since ancient times, the Taihu Lake area has been rich in rice, and various cakes made from glutinous rice flour are the most distinctive and common local snacks. Round winter solstice dumplings are a must-have snack during the banquet. It is said that in Suzhou, Lantern Festival in January, waist cakes on February 2, green dumplings in March, fairy cakes on April 14, fried meat dumplings in May, and glutinous rice dumplings on June 2 The fourteenth lunar month, cowpea cake, glutinous rice cake in August, the Double Ninth Cake in September, the radish dumpling in October, the winter solstice dumpling in November, the sweet-scented osmanthus lard sugar rice cake in the twelfth month, after eating twelve snacks, the new Another year has come. It is said that Suzhou people still have the custom of eating wontons during the winter solstice. According to legend, at a banquet in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue, the King of Wu lost his appetite after being tired of delicacies from the mountains and seas. The beautiful lady Xi Shi went into the imperial kitchen to pack a dustpan-style snack and presented it to the King of Wu. King Wu ate a large bowl in one go and asked repeatedly: "What kind of snack is this that is so delicious?" Xi Shi thought: This foolish king is confused and confused, so he casually replied: "Chaos." In order to commemorate Xi Shi's wisdom and creation , Suzhou people regard it as a special delicacy during the Winter Solstice Festival. "Winter solstice takes nourishing food, spring kills tigers" is a folk saying widely circulated in Wudi. Suzhou people also start to take supplements from the winter solstice, which also forms the peak of eating mutton after autumn. The mutton business of the famous Wuzhong Bookstore Mutton Shop has suddenly boomed.

The owner of a small mutton shop with a collection of books revealed that his mutton shop can sell eight sheep during the winter solstice. For eaters, whether it is grilled, simmered, stewed or boiled, it is both delicious and healthy. It really kills two birds with one stone. beautiful things. Mutton Rice Noodle Soup Ningxia: Eat “brains” on the Winter Solstice. There is a custom in Yinchuan that on the Winter Solstice, people drink rice noodle soup and eat mutton rice noodle soup dumplings. On the day of the winter solstice, the people of Yinchuan gave the mutton noodle soup a strange name - "brain". On the fifth watch day, the housekeeper got busy early. He washed the purple mushrooms on Songshan Mountain and made soup. After boiling, he took out the mushrooms. Put the diced mutton into the pot and stir-fry. After drying with water vapor, add ginger, onion, garlic and chili powder. Stir-fry, add the chopped mushrooms to the diced meat and stir-fry again, then marinate with vinegar (to remove the poisonous smell of wild mushrooms), then add mixed noodles, refined salt, and soy sauce; after the meat is rotten, add fungus and golden needles (yellow flowers). Vegetables) stir-fry briefly, add the clear mushroom soup, bring the soup to a boil, add the chopped vermicelli and soaked vermicelli, then add chives, garlic sprouts, and coriander, and you have a pot of mutton powder soup. This pot of soup is red with peppers, yellow with day lily, green with garlic sprouts and coriander, white with vermicelli and vermicelli, and black with mushrooms and fungus. It has five colors: red, yellow, green, white and black. The aroma is fragrant and makes people salivate. During the winter solstice, the common people call it the Ghost Festival. After the dumplings are made, they serve a bowl first and offer another bowl to their neighbors. I couldn’t eat dumplings in the morning, so I bought Diaolu tri-tip pancakes and fennel pancakes and soaked them in powder soup. Dumplings stuffed with mutton powder soup and yellow radish are a common meal for Yinchuan people, but outsiders rave about it. It is rare to see such spicy and delicious dumplings in other places. This can be regarded as a special snack in Yinchuan. Fujian: "Winter Solstice Ming" Rolling Pills "Winter Solstice frost, the moonlight shines; cypress leaves are red, balls are held." This is a children's song during the Winter Solstice. "Bamin Tongzhi·Xinghua Prefecture Customs·Winter Solstice" records: "In the early stage, glutinous rice was made into balls, which ripened early on this day, and it was recommended to the ancestors." This is the "winter solstice", "rolling balls" and the "winter solstice" that ripens early The folk custom of worshiping ancestors is "sweet meatballs". The night before the winter solstice is called "Winter Solstice Dark" in popular culture. In the evening of this day, red candles were brightly lit in the halls of every house, and the lights were like daylight, symbolizing a brilliant career. The red tangerines on the table are called "Guoyue" (that is, red tangerines are stacked into a small mountain shape, hence the name). On the top of the red tangerine, insert a branch of "Sanchun" (that is, folk paper-cutters use red paper to cut paper flowers of fortune, wealth and longevity), a pair of chopsticks (ten pairs) wrapped with red paper strips, ginger and sugar candies. One piece each, the family washes their hands, the parents light candles, light incense, set off firecrackers, and start "making pills." The "balls" made are white. If there is a newlywed, red balls will be made to show that the family will be more prosperous if there is a new child. At this time, the woman put on a red shirt and was particularly dazzling under the lights, and the children were smiling, innocent and lively. Everyone gathered around the big dustpan (commonly known as "Dali Arc"), and the children sat on high stools, "eager to try". The housewife grinds glutinous rice into powder (commonly known as "rice festival"), adds boiling water and kneads it into long round strips, picks it into a large round piece, and then each person uses their palms to knead it into pieces the size of a cinnamon core. "Meatballs", this is "Winter Solstice Ming Rubbing Pills". Among them, the most interesting ones are: some adults are squeezing ingots and cornucopias; some are squeezing puppies and piglets, taking the common proverbs of "If you are lucky, the paparazzi will hold the ingot" and "Be a dog, be a pig, be a ingot", It means "vast wealth and prosperous livestock". The children were most interested in puppies and piglets. They cheered, "Grandpa is being a dog," "Abba is being a dog," and "Mom and grandma are being pigs!" which made the whole family laugh. Some make "magpie balls" (commonly known as "guestiao balls") that are only the size of beans. The children could never finish rubbing them, some were flat and some were long, and even he himself found it funny. Some put rice offerings on their eyebrows and noses, which is really funny and cute. If a child drops a ball on the ground, ask the child to pick it up and blow away the dust, otherwise he will look ugly in the future. The intention is to educate children to cherish food from an early age. After "rolling the balls", put the "balls" in the "Da Li Gu", close the lid, and place them in front of the "Zao Gong" stove overnight. The night of the winter solstice is the longest, and children love to eat "ball soup". They can't sleep. Before dawn, they clamor for their mother to eat "ball soup", so there is a nursery rhyme "Love to eat meatball soup, hope it's not light yet" . The housewife pours the "meatballs" into the pot, adds water with ginger and sugar (ginger and sugar can dispel cold and stimulate appetite) and cook it into a fragrant, sweet, sticky and hot "sweet meatball soup". After offering it to the ancestors, the whole family divides it and eats it. The "meat balls" should be stuck on the door frame to worship the "Men Cheng Hu Wei" and ensure the safety of the family. You also need to throw "(feeding) magpie pills" on the roof (usually 12 pills, 13 pills in leap years, which means peace every month throughout the year). When the magpies come to fight for food, there will be an uproar, which is commonly called "announcement of good news", which means five blessings. On the doorstep. On the early morning of the winter solstice, the whole family goes up the mountain to pay homage to their ancestors with meatballs, fruits, incense candles, paper money, etc. 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. Chaoshan Winter Solstice Customs The Winter Solstice is one of the twenty-four solar terms. According to the "Collection of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order": "On the 15th day of the 11th month, the final Qi will reach its peak." "Tongwei·Xiaojingyinshenqi" records: "On the 15th day after the heavy snowfall, , Douzhizi, is the winter solstice, which begins on the fifteenth day when the cathode and the yang solstice begin, and the sun solstice gradually reaches the south. "According to "Cihai": "The astronomy stipulates that the winter solstice is the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere." One of the twenty-four solar terms, it is also a big folk festival in Chaoshan area, and is commonly known as "Little New Year". The customs of the winter solstice in cities and counties in Chaoshan are basically the same, including worshiping ancestors, eating sweet pills, and visiting tombs.

Worshiping ancestors: Chaoshan folk prepare enough pork, chicken, fish and other animals and fruits on this day, go to the ancestral hall to worship ancestors, and then the family gathers around the table to have a meal. The worship is usually completed before noon, and the family reunites for lunch. However, in coastal areas such as the Haishan area in Raoping, ancestors are worshiped in the early morning, before fishermen go out to sea to fish, in order to ask gods and ancestors to bless fishermen safely when they go fishing. Eating sweet pills: This custom is almost universal in the entire Chaoshan area, but this custom also contains an interesting custom: after people worship their ancestors on this day, they take out some sweet pills and stick them on the top of their doors, roof beams, and rice jars. Wait somewhere. Why do we do this? According to legend, there are two reasons: First, the sweet pill is sweet and round, which means good luck. It indicates that there will be a good harvest next year and the family can be reunited. If family members accidentally encounter it on this day, it is a good sign, just like the "Water Splashing Festival" of ethnic minorities. If outsiders happen to visit on this day and let outsiders encounter it, these outsiders will also have good luck. Therefore, people do not want outsiders to visit their homes on this day. One is for rats to eat. According to legend, the seeds of grains were brought to farmers from far away by rats. In order to repay the rats for their contribution, the farmers agreed that during the annual harvest, a small portion should be left unharvested so that rats could eat it. Later, because a greedy man harvested all the grains in the field, the mouse complained to the Goddess of Mercy in anger. The Lady of Guanyin felt pitiful after hearing this, so she gave it a pair of hard teeth and told it to move into other people's homes in the future. They lived in the house in order to find food. Since then, rats have caused harm everywhere. It has become one of the "four evils" today. However, this bad custom of "sticking sweet pills everywhere" has not been around for a long time. It is not only unhygienic, but also detrimental to appearance and very wasteful, so it will naturally die out. And this custom of "eating sweet nine" has been passed down to this day. Visiting graves and sweeping tombs: This is another activity during the winter solstice. According to Chaoshan custom, the annual grave-sweeping ceremony usually takes place during the Qingming Festival and the Winter Solstice, which are called "spring paper" and "winter paper". Generally speaking, "Spring Paper" should be performed in the first three years after a person's death, and "Winter Paper" can be performed after three years. But most people like to travel "winter paper" because during the Qingming Festival, it often rains and the roads are difficult to walk; during the Winter Solstice, the weather is good, making it easy to go up the mountain for picnics. There is also a proverb in Chaoshan that "eating the Winter Festival Yuan makes you one year older". According to Mr. Wang Lingan's "Old Customs of Shantou": "People have two explanations for this: one is that the winter solstice is the Little New Year, and after the Little New Year, one should be one year older; the other is that this proverb comes from criminals. In ancient times Every autumn is the season of killing. Prisoners who have committed capital crimes are usually executed in autumn. If they have not been executed by the winter solstice, the execution can be postponed to next year as a rule, so it is said to be "one more year old". Chaoshan customs are an integral part of Chaoshan culture. In the long-term life and social practice, people have inherited good customs and discarded bad customs. The custom of "visiting graves" during the winter solstice is to commemorate the hard work of ancestors and "eating sweet pills" is a sign of another good harvest in the coming year, so it has naturally been passed down. Shaoxing Winter Solstice Customs The Winter Solstice is a major festival of the year among Shaoxing folk. As the saying goes, "Winter Solstice is as big as the New Year." In ancient times, people always celebrated it as another New Year. "Jiatai Kuaiji Zhi" says that the festival is "roughly like Zhengdan but less simple", and many things take the winter solstice as the starting point. The lunar calendar calculates the Qingming Festival, which is based on 106 days after the winter solstice. It is said that "the 16th day of the winter solstice is the Qingming Festival". "Nine-Nine Songs" also counts the winter solstice as the first nine, the second nine, and the nine-nine to record the seasonal changes. There are more folk sayings: "At the beginning of the winter solstice, the stone slabs are crisp, in the middle of the winter solstice, people spend the winter naked, at the end of the winter solstice, they sell their cattle and buy quilts", "If there is no ice before winter, it will be very cold after winter" and "Sunny winter and bad years, rainy winter solstice" As the saying goes, the winter solstice comes sooner or later, and sunny and rainy days account for the warmth and coldness of winter and the dryness and wetness of the year. On this day, families will gather together and have a feast, just like the custom of having a New Year's Eve dinner on New Year's Eve. Folks in Shaoxing worship their ancestors during the Winter Solstice. Some even go to ancestral halls and temples to worship their ancestors, which is called "Winter Solstice". Generally, before the winter solstice, paper cuttings are made to make men's and women's clothes, and they are sent to the ancestors' tombs for incineration during the winter solstice. This is commonly known as "giving away cold clothes." After the sacrifice, relatives and friends gather together for a drink, commonly known as "winter solstice wine", not only to commemorate the deceased but also to bond with each other. It is a custom in Shaoxing, Xinchang and other counties to go to the graves to put mud, weed and repair the foundations on that day, thinking that it is auspicious to start the work on this day, otherwise unforeseen disasters may occur. The winter solstice is also known as the "long solstice". The night on this day is the longest in the year, so there is a saying among the people that "if you are sleepy, you will sleep on the winter solstice night". It is said that a good night's sleep during the winter solstice can ensure good dreams every day throughout the year. In the old days, rice was mostly pounded with stone mortars. Shaoxing people liked to pound the rice for the year before and after the winter solstice, which was called "winter pounding rice." "Spring" is here, and family affairs are about to flourish. Everyone has to be busy preparing for farming and has no time to pound rice. Secondly, when the spring air stirs up, the rice buds float, and the rice grains are not as solid as in winter. Beating rice in winter can prevent the rice grains from being brittle and grainy. , reduce food loss. Shaoxing people generally like to make wine at home before the winter solstice, which is called "winter wine making". After brewing, the aroma is fragrant and particularly attractive. In addition, the water at this time is still winter water, so the brewed wine is easy to preserve and will not Go bad. At this time, special techniques can also be used to brew "dimple wine" and "miyinqin" to enjoy with the elderly, or as gifts for relatives and friends. Wontons On the night of the winter solstice, people in Shaoxing still have the custom of "lighting a fire to cook". They cook the fire overnight and wrap it in a quilt, which means that the charcoal fire will not go out in the next morning, which means that the family will be prosperous in the coming year. In the old days in Yuezhong, everyone, regardless of men or women, had to make a bowl of wontons to eat on the winter solstice; and on the summer solstice, everyone had to eat a meal of noodles from house to house, which was called "Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles." This custom has been around for a long time. But there are different opinions on why it became customary.

It may be said that the solstice is the shortest day, so we use wonton-shaped balls to mark the festival; when eating noodles during the summer solstice, we use the long shape of noodles (noodles) to celebrate the long days of the summer solstice. Although the latter can be confirmed by the custom of eating noodles during birthday celebrations to seek longevity, there is no record after all. Fan Yin, a Shaoxing scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, said in "Yue Proverbs: Food" that wontons are "or sesame sugar or glutinous rice wrapped in flour, and eaten during the winter solstice." It can be seen that there were sweet wontons in ancient Shaoxing. On that day, there were many taboos among the people in Shaoxing. They were forbidden to say unlucky words, make noises and cause trouble, and break dishes. Women were not allowed to return to peace. A married woman must return to her husband's house on that day and was not allowed to stay overnight at her natal home. Children were not allowed to be beaten or scolded. Even the most naughty students can be exempted from punishment on the winter solstice. The teacher can only hold up the ruler and warn: "I will keep the account for you until tomorrow!"