Time is so fast, today the winter solstice, the winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms, and is one of the most important solar terms. Many customs are still preserved in many places today. For example, my home in the south, my hometown today will be very grand banquet, please the village on the 60-year-old old man to eat for free, this day is a big event in my hometown, the degree of excitement comparable to the New Year. As a southerner, I am very curious about what the customs of the North are or what to eat on this day. The following interested friends can follow me to see the differences between the customs of the north and the south on this day of winter solstice.
What do you eat in the south during Winter solstice?
1. Southern custom: Eating glutinous rice cake
According to the tradition in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the Winter solstice will be filled with glutinous rice cakes. There are many people involved and it is very grand. In Yunnan, there is also the custom of eating glutinous rice cakes during the winter solstice. And every ancestor worship or major festivals, or red and white happy events, have to do glutinous rice cake, therefore, in the hometown called “Da glutinous rice cake”, today’s common dumplings are some disdain is called “small glutinous rice cake”.
Before making, wash the glutinous rice, steam it in the rice retort, and pour it into the stone mortar quickly while it is hot. Two or three people hold a large wooden hammer in their hands and pound it constantly, and another person keeps turning it over with their hands to make it have even force. Beat until sticky, soft and tough, while hot, quickly pinch out small pieces with your hands, put in the already prepared bean sugar powder to stir a few times, you can eat, its fragrance, excellent taste.
2. Southern custom: Eating glutinous rice balls
Eating tangyuan was a custom in the Ming and Qing dynasties. On the day of Winter Solstice, it is necessary to “make a powder circle” or “powder glutinous rice for a ball”. These also have official records in historical materials, said “Winter solstice, glutinous rice powder for balls, named ‘Tangyuan'”. After doing dumplings to worship God ancestor, and then the family around to eat dumplings, called “add year”. Therefore, the winter solstice to eat dumplings, there are ancient.
Eating tangyuan is a traditional custom of Winter Solstice, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. “Tangyuan” is a necessary food for the winter solstice, is a kind of round dessert made of glutinous rice flour, “round” means “reunion” and “complete”, eating tangyuan during the winter solstice is also called “Winter solstice group”. There is a folk saying that “eating dumplings is one year older”.
What do you eat in the north during winter solstice?
1. Northern customs: Eating mutton
From the beginning of the winter Solstice, the people began to “count nine” from this day. As the saying goes, “three nine make up a winter, no pain in the next year”, especially in the north, most of the warm mutton is regarded as the best choice for winter. For the common people, eating mutton is listed as one of the main ways to supplement the cold in winter. Chinese medicine pays attention to the “four seasons and five compensations”, of which the winter “tonic” has become the most timely replenishment method. The north has the custom of eating mutton during the winter solstice, because after the winter solstice the weather enters the coldest period, eating a pot of mutton stew at this time has the dual effect of keeping out the cold and nourishing. Mutton taste sweet but not greasy, warm but not dry, has always been regarded as a good Yang. Proper eating in winter is the best diet for supplementing.
2. Northern custom: Eating dumplings
There is a tradition of eating dumplings in the north of China. The choice of stuffing for Winter solstice dumplings has a direct relationship with the meaning, and the most common filling of leek indicates the meaning of long money. The most common cabbage mince means a hundred treasures. Eating dumplings during the winter solstice originated from the famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing because he remembered the poor villagers, on the day of the winter solstice, he set up a medical shed in the open space of Dongguan in Nanyang, and gave the poor a “cold Jiao Er soup” (” Jiao er “is the present dumpling), which made people feel warm and warm after eating. So the custom of eating dumplings during the winter solstice continues to this day. The shiitake mushroom in the winter solstice dumpling stuffing has the most health effect, and it is packed into the dumpling stuffing, which means the drum of money, the drum is high, protruding, the shape of the mushroom is like an upward arrow, the meaning of filling the drum, that is, the drum of money. Finally, there is the recent rise of pickled cabbage stuffing, which is said to have the meaning of calculating wealth. And celery stuffing is the meaning of diligent money, diligent is often, frequent flow, called diligent money.
3. Northern customs: Eating dog meat
The custom of eating dog meat during the winter solstice is said to have started in the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, ate dog meat cooked by Fan Kuai on the day of the winter Solstice and felt that it was particularly delicious and full of praise. Since then, the custom of eating dog meat during the winter solstice has been formed among the people. Nowadays, people eat dog meat, mutton and all kinds of nourishing food on the Winter solstice in order to have a good omen for the coming year. Especially dog stew tofu, one of the eight stews in Northeast China. The Winter solstice dog stew tofu has not been the same version so far, but it is still replaced with dog meat and tofu, because the importance of dog stew tofu in other versions is unspeakable.