Local custom
The winter solstice is an important folk festival in Shanxi in November of the lunar calendar, commonly known as the "Winter Festival".
During the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, it was stipulated that the day before the winter solstice was the end of the year. The winter solstice festival is essentially equivalent to today's Spring Festival. Later, the summer calendar was implemented. However, the winter solstice has always ranked first among the 24 solar terms, and there is a saying that "the winter solstice is as big as a year", which is called "sub-year". Celebrations have been held since the Han Dynasty. At the peak, the court has a three-day holiday, so you don't listen to politics. People closed the city for three days to celebrate the festival. It is as lively as the Chinese New Year.
Today's winter solstice festival still retains many historical sites. From the winter of the solstice, it entered the cold weather for several days in a row. There is a folk custom of drawing "Cold Map in September and September" in various forms.
There is a plum blossom, and 998 1 flower is painted in plain ink. Dye a petal with a red pen or a black pen every day, and the petal will come out in 1999, which is called 99-99 cold elimination map.
Some are tied horizontally to make a square diagram of 998 1 grid. Apply a grid of nine grids every day, which is called 99-99 anti-cold table.
Draw a few empty squares and choose a few words. Each word must be several strokes. Write a stroke every day and finally make a sentence, such as "looking at Feng Gu in front of the pavilion and behind the house", which is called the sentence of "Jiujiu eliminating cold"
The most elegant thing is to make nine-body couplets. Nine words per couplet, nine pictures per word, and each couplet is filled in daily. For example, the couplet reads "Spring hangs, spring blooms, spring blooms"; The second couplet is called "Autumn Persimmon Hanging in Autumn Courtyard to Send Autumn Fragrance", and it is called "Eliminating Cold and Welcoming Spring in September".
What form each family takes is often determined by the owner's hobbies and cultural quality. There is also a folk proverb about "getting rid of the cold in the ninth five-year plan": "It's cloudy and sunny, and the left wind is foggy and snowy. The picture is dark, and the grass is outside the door. "
On the winter solstice festival, people are used to giving away shoes, and its origin is very old. "China's Notes on Ancient and Modern Times" said: "There were embroidered mandarin ducks in the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Zhao ordered his aunt to go to the winter solstice." Cao Zhi's "Winter Solstice Socks and Shoes Table" also has a sentence: "Welcome in the coming year and celebrate for a long time." Later, the custom of sending shoes to uncles and aunts gradually became that uncles and aunts sent shoes and hats to nephews. Mainly reflected in children. It used to be mainly hand embroidery. As a gift for men, hats are mostly made in the shape of tigers and dogs, and embroidered shoes are also beasts. For girls, hats are mostly made in the shape of phoenix, and embroidery on shoes is mostly flowers and birds. Nowadays, most of them are purchased from collecting coins, and the form keeps up with the trend of the times. On holidays, adults always like to drop in to see their children and praise the shoes and hats given by their uncles and aunts.
In winter solstice, boys in northern Shaanxi are used to playing gang games. Holding a square stone piece the size of a palm, one side stands up, and the other side throws and hits in turn according to a set of prescribed actions. When knocking down the pillars set by the other side, move on. After the failure, exchange throws with each other. Whoever finishes all the procedures first will win. Girls are used to kicking shuttlecock in various forms. People often have to join in the fun and play.
In the winter solstice festival, the old customs should also be entertained by teachers from the East School. Teacher Wang will lead the students to worship Confucius memorial tablet. Then, Dongxue led the students to worship Mr. .. There is a saying in Shanxi that "teachers teach on the winter solstice", which is the custom of respecting teachers and attaching importance to Taoism. Until now, there is still the custom of inviting teachers to dinner on the winter solstice. Northwest Shanxi used to entertain teachers with stewed mutton, which was full of affection.
In the past, domestic helpers used to settle their wages with their employers during the winter solstice and then prepare to go home. Traditionally, the host will hold a banquet to entertain the guys and discuss the affairs of next year with each other. Today, some rural self-employed people still keep this custom, and hold banquets and drink together on the winter solstice.
In winter solstice, most parts of the province are used to eating jiaozi. It is said that eating jiaozi won't freeze your ears on the winter solstice. The tradition in mountainous areas is to eat cakes. Prosperous boiled rape root rice soup in southern Shanxi. In some places, they still eat wonton, and there is a saying that "it's winter to the sun, and summer to the sun".
Two solar terms
The winter solstice, also known as the Winter Festival, according to the traditional calendar of China, takes five days as the waiting period, three days as a section or breath, and a year is divided into twelve sections and twelve qi, which are collectively called twenty-four solar terms. This is the solar term used to study the date selection, which is based on the solar term of the lunar calendar, and the so-called lunar calendar is a combination of the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, which refers to the 24 solar terms (the solar cycle is divided into twelve stages, and the lunar calendar is a pure month (according to the moon cycle). ), the date is1February 22nd or 23rd in the national calendar.
Winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms. Because the winter solstice is not fixed on a certain day, it is called a "living festival" like Qingming. On the solstice in winter, for Taiwan Province Province, which is located in the northern hemisphere, the sun is directly on the tropic of Capricorn (also known as the winter solstice daily line), which makes Taiwan Province Province in winter, thus making the days shortest and the nights longest in the northern hemisphere. After the winter solstice, the sun slowly shifts to the Tropic of Cancer, Taiwan Province Province approaches spring from winter, and the days in the northern hemisphere gradually lengthen and the nights gradually shorten. Therefore, in ancient times, there was a saying that "the winter solstice was the birth of a sun", which meant that the spirit of the sun gradually picked up from the winter solstice.
According to the records of the Zhou Dynasty, people worship heaven on the "Winter Solstice Day" in the suburbs, and because the first month of the weekly calendar is 1 1 month in the summer calendar, the first month of the Zhou Dynasty is equal to our present 1 1 month, so there is no difference between New Year greetings and winter holidays. It was not until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the summer calendar that the first month and the winter solstice were separated. Therefore, it can be said that the "Winter Festival" was not celebrated until after the Han Dynasty. Due to the different calendars, people have been inheriting the weekly calendar, thinking that after the winter solstice, a new year will begin (there is a saying that eating jiaozi will make you one year older), which is why the winter solstice is so valued by the people. However, this wrong inheritance makes the folk concept very different from the summer calendar used in Japanese learning. This erroneous concept should be corrected and the correct calendar should be passed down.
In addition, people have predicted the future weather according to the weather quality and the arrival order of winter solstice. As the saying goes, "the solstice in winter is at the beginning of the month, and it should be cold at the end of the year;" The winter solstice is at the end of the month, and the first month should be cold; The winter solstice is in the middle of the month, without snow and frost "(this is based on the arrival of the winter solstice, and it is speculated that the cold current will reach Taiwan Province Province sooner or later); As the saying goes, "the winter solstice is dark, and the new year's goods are rare; The winter solstice is sparse, and the New Year is dark "(meaning: if there is no sun on the winter solstice, it will be sunny in the New Year, and vice versa, it will be rainy in the New Year).
The origin of eating jiaozi in the third winter of solstice
Every year, during the winter solstice of the Lunar New Year, jiaozi is an indispensable holiday feast for both the rich and the poor. As the saying goes, "October 1st is the winter solstice? Every household eats jiaozi. " This custom was left in memory of Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", who gave up medicine from the winter solstice.
Zhang Zhongjing is from Gedong, Nanyang. Treatise on Febrile Diseases, written by him, is a masterpiece of doctors and is regarded as a classic by doctors in past dynasties. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "if you advance, you will survive;" If you retreat, you will save the people; " You can't be a good doctor and you can't be a good doctor. "When the Eastern Han Dynasty was the magistrate of Changsha, he visited the sick and took medicine and practiced medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and went back to his hometown to treat his neighbors. When he got home, it was already winter. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and emaciated, hungry and cold, and many people's ears were frozen. He asked his disciples to build a medical shed and a cauldron in Dongguan, Nanyang, and to give up "Quhan Joule Decoction" to treat chilblain on the day of winter solstice. He boiled mutton, pepper and some herbs for dispelling cold in a pot, then took out mutton and medicine and chopped them up, making ear-shaped dumplings with bread. After cooking, he distributed two horns and a big bowl of broth to everyone who came to ask for medicine. People ate "Joule" and drank "Quhan Decoction", and they were all hot, their ears were hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations learned the appearance of Joule and packaged it into food, also called "jiaozi" or "flat food".
Eating jiaozi on the winter solstice will not forget the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing, a "medical sage", in "Quhan Joule Soup". There is still a folk song in Nanyang, which is called "The winter solstice is a jiaozi bowl, and no one cares about the frozen ears." .
Four customs in South China
Winter solstice, commonly known as "Winter Festival", is a grand festival in ancient times. Among the 24 solar terms, the winter solstice is also the most important.
The ancients believed that by the solstice of winter, although it was still in the cold season, spring was not far away. Everyone who goes out at this time will go home for the winter vacation, which indicates that there will be a home at the end of the year. People in Fujian and Taiwan believe that the annual winter solstice is a festival for family reunion, because it is a day to worship ancestors. Going out and not coming home is a person who denies his ancestors.
The solstice in winter is the longest night in a year. Many people use this evening to make a "winter solstice circle" with glutinous rice flour. In order to distinguish it from "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new" on the eve of the Spring Festival, the day before the Winter Festival is called "adding the year" or "dividing the year", which means that the year is not over yet, but everyone has grown up for a year.
Although the customs and people's feelings in different parts of our country are different, they are roughly the same. When making the winter solstice circle, children often pinch some small animals, such as kittens, puppies, rabbits, tigers and so on. The children are very happy at this time. Before eating the winter solstice yen, you should stick a winter solstice yen on the back of the bed lamp in doors, windows, tables and cabinets, which is called "waste day" and "send the stove" before baking food. If there are pregnant women at home at this time, the winter solstice will be full, and boys will be born, otherwise girls will be born. When eating the winter solstice, the entrances must be paired for good luck. In the end, there are only two pieces left, the married are the best, and the single and unmarried are the best. At night, some families worship their ancestors with seasonal fruits and three kinds of animals. Some people "dry winter rice" on this day, that is, wash white rice with water, dry it on this day, and put it away for the sick to cook porridge later.