Tell me how everyone spends the winter solstice. What is the custom?

According to the calculation of calendar office of Purple Mountain Observatory of China Academy of Sciences, the authoritative organization of calendar calculation in China, at 7: 38 on February 22nd, Beijing time, China will usher in the "winter solstice" in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar, and begin to enter the cold weather.

"Winter Solstice Day" is one of the earliest solar terms among the 24 solar terms in China. In the winter solstice, the northern hemisphere will usher in the shortest day of the year. After this day, the sun will gradually move northward, and the days in the northern hemisphere will be longer day by day. Therefore, the winter solstice was called "short day" or "short day" in ancient China.

Beginning of winter is not winter. It feels like winter only when the solstice winter comes. Winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms in China. On the solstice after winter, the coldest weather of the year is coming.

Different festivals generally have different eating customs. Speaking of eating, it has a long history. What do you eat on the solstice in winter? Customs vary from place to place, and food is different. Why do you want to eat these things is quite relevant.

■ North: jiaozi and Wonton

In Beijing, there is a proverb called "Solstice wonton in winter and Solstice noodle in summer". For northerners who have the custom of "delicious food is not as good as jiaozi", it is also common to eat jiaozi and wonton on the solstice in winter. People in different places have different names for wonton. For example, Cantonese people call it "wonton", Hubei people call it "wrapped noodles", Jiangxi people call it "clear soup" and Sichuan people call it "wonton". People in Henan eat "frozen ears" on the solstice in winter. Eating "frozen ears" is a common name for Henan people to eat jiaozi in winter solstice. It is said that after eating it, people will not lose their ears in the cold winter.

■ Jiangnan: Tangyuan

There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls is one year older". Eating glutinous rice balls on the solstice in winter is a traditional custom in China, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. Tangyuan is also called "Tangtuan", and eating it on the solstice in winter is also called "the solstice in winter". 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. At the family dinner, they tasted the newly brewed sweet white wine, flower cakes and glutinous rice balls, and then put meat pieces on the plate to worship their ancestors.

■ Ningxia: "Mind"

In winter solstice, Yinchuan has the custom of eating noodles in soup and noodles in mutton soup, jiaozi. On the solstice of winter, Yinchuan people gave mutton powder soup an odd name-"brain".

At the fifth watch, the master got busy early, washed and cooked the purple mushrooms on Songshan Mountain, and fished them out after cooking. Stir-fry diced mutton in a pot, stir-fry chopped mushrooms in diced mutton again, and then marinate with vinegar. This pot of soup is red with pepper, yellow with day lily, green with garlic and coriander, white with vermicelli and vermicelli, black with mushrooms and fungus, red, yellow, green, white and black. The aroma is delicious and makes people drool.

■ Taiwan Province Province: Nine-layer cake

In Taiwan Province Province, China, the tradition of offering nine-layer cakes to ancestors from winter to the sun is still preserved. Glutinous rice flour is kneaded into chickens, ducks, turtles, pigs, cows, sheep and other animals symbolizing good luck and longevity, and then steamed in layers in a steamer to show that you don't forget your ancestors. On the winter solstice or the agreed days around, people with the same surname and clan gather in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors one by one according to their age. After the ceremony, there will be a grand banquet for the people who come to worship their ancestors.

■ Fujian: rubbing pills

"On the solstice of winter in first frost, the moonlight is bright; White, meatballs. " This is a children's song about the winter solstice. "Eight Min Tong Zhi" contains: "In the early stage, glutinous rice was a pill, and the day was early, so I recommended the ancestral test." This is a folk custom of rubbing balls from winter to the sun and offering sacrifices to ancestors with cooked "sweet balls" in the early days of winter to the sun.

The skill of "rubbing pills" is exquisite, and women in fishing villages such as Jinjiang Shenhu, Shishi Xiangzhi and Huian Chongwu marvel at its speed and good quality, and the grains are as small as fish eyes. While rubbing the winter festival pills, we also use rice balls to rub some small and exquisite melons and animals, gold ingots and silver ingots to symbolize prosperity, auspiciousness and wealth, commonly known as "being cheap".