Does Jiangsu eat jiaozi on the solstice in winter?
In winter solstice night, it is essential to brew winter wine, because there is a proverb in the ancient city of Suzhou: If you don't drink winter wine in winter solstice night, you will freeze to death overnight. This winter wine is brewed only once a year. This is a kind of rice wine made of osmanthus fragrans. On the solstice night in winter, Suzhou people's staple food is also very particular, including winter solstice wonton and summer solstice noodle.
The ancients said that the sky is round and the place is round. The square wonton skin represents the ground, and the stuffing in the tundish is the sky. Wrapped together, it is an inseparable and seamless "chaotic world". People eat "wonton" on the winter solstice, which means eating the "chaotic world" and returning the world to peace. The winter solstice ball is also called "rice cake ball". On the night before the winter solstice, it was ground into balls, stuffed with minced meat, vegetables and fruits, bean paste and shredded radish, and sacrificed and given to each other.
Different customs
In the traditional folk custom of Suzhou, the daughter-in-law must go back to her husband's house for a winter solstice dinner, and each family hangs a statue of their ancestors to worship their ancestors. Younger generations also go to their elders' homes to pay New Year greetings, which are called "Happy Festival" and "Winter Worship". All etiquette is the same as New Year's Day, so it is called "the winter solstice is as big as a year". In winter solstice, different places have different customs. In the north, there are customs of slaughtering sheep, eating jiaozi and eating wonton on the solstice in winter. On this day, southern areas have the habit of eating glutinous rice balls and long noodles in winter solstice, while Su Beiren eats fried tofu with green onions in winter solstice.
Eating jiaozi in the winter of solstice is said to be the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, to drive away the cold and boil the soup with glue. Up to now, there is still an improper jiaozi Bowl in Nanyang, and the folk songs that nobody cares about are frozen. 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, on October 1st, every household will eat jiaozi on the solstice of winter. This custom commemorates the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing, who gave up medicine on the solstice of winter.