What customs are there during the Winter Solstice? Do we eat glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice?

Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, dumplings are an indispensable festival meal for everyone, regardless of whether they are rich or poor. The winter solstice festival is also known as the winter festival or the winter solstice festival. It is one of the 24 solar terms and a traditional festival in China. Eating glutinous rice balls during the winter solstice is called "winter solstice dumplings" in life. It is mainly popular in the southern Jiangnan area. Like dumplings, glutinous rice balls are an indispensable food during the winter solstice. Let's take a look at the detailed sharing!

Contents of this article

1. What are the customs of the Winter Solstice?

2. Should we eat glutinous rice balls during the winter solstice?

3. The meaning of eating glutinous rice balls during the winter solstice

What are the customs during the winter solstice?

1. Sacrifice: The Winter Solstice Festival is also called the Winter Festival or the Winter Exchange Festival. It is one of the 24 solar terms and a traditional festival in China. There was a saying that "the Winter Solstice is as important as the Winter Solstice". The court and the people have always attached great importance to it, and sacrificial activities have been held since the Zhou Dynasty.

2. Eating dumplings: On the winter solstice of the lunar calendar every year, dumplings are an indispensable festival meal for everyone, regardless of their wealth. There is a saying: "On October 1, the winter solstice arrives, and every family eats dumplings." This custom is left to commemorate the "medical saint" Zhang Zhongjing who gave away medicine on the winter solstice. Eating dumplings on the winter solstice is to remember the kindness of the "medical saint" Zhang Zhongjing's "Quhan Jiao'er Soup". To this day, there is still a folk song in Nanyang that "If you don't eat dumplings on the winter solstice, no one will care if your ears fall off."

3. Jiujiu Xiaohan: After the beginning of the ninth day, some scholars and literati would organize so-called activities to get rid of the cold. They would choose a "ninth" day and invite nine people to drink ("wine" and "nine" are homophones). Nine dishes and nine bowls would be used on the table, and a "nine-piece" table would be used to get rid of the cold. Jiujiu Xiaohan Song: Don't go out on the first and second ninth days; walk on the ice on the third and fourth ninth days; watch willows along the river from the fifth to the sixth ninth day; the river ice will melt on the seventh ninth day, and swallows will come on the eighth ninth day; the ninth ninth plus the tenth ninth day, oxen will walk everywhere.

4. Eating roasted meat and ginger rice: In some places in the south, people eat roasted meat on the winter solstice. On this day, the roasted meat becomes an indispensable delicacy on the table in Guangdong and Guangxi, which means adding food to the year. On the winter solstice, people in Wuchuan have the custom of "eating ginger rice" on the winter solstice.

Do we eat tangyuan during the winter solstice?

Must eat. As the saying goes, "Dongyuan in the south, dumplings in the north" on the winter solstice. The "round" in "Dongyuan" means "reunion". Eating tangyuan on the winter solstice is called "Dongzhituan". It is mainly popular in the southern Jiangnan area. Like dumplings, tangyuan is an indispensable food on the winter solstice. In the northern region, there is a custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings and wontons on the winter solstice; in the southern region, there is a custom of eating Dongzhi rice balls and long noodles on this day; in some regions, there is also a custom of offering sacrifices to the heavens and ancestors on the winter solstice.

The meaning of eating glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice

Glutinous rice balls are a round dessert made from glutinous rice flour. Eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice means "reunion" and "perfection". In daily life, glutinous rice balls eaten during the Winter Solstice are also called "Winter Solstice dumplings". Eating glutinous rice balls is a traditional custom of the Winter Solstice, mainly popular in the south of the Yangtze River in my country. There is a saying among the people that "eating glutinous rice balls makes you one year older."