What is the origin, celebration, ceremony, significance and reason of the winter solstice?

Winter solstice, also known as winter festival, Asian New Year Festival and Long Day Festival, has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional folk festival in China.

The Winter Solstice Festival originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has been passed down to this day. Lu even said that the winter solstice is as big as a year. This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People think that the winter solstice is a natural transformation of yin and yang and a blessing from heaven. In the Han Dynasty, the winter solstice was the "Winter Festival", and the government held a congratulatory ceremony called "He Dong", which was a routine festival.

There is such a record in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman was prepared for danger in times of peace, refused to listen to politics, and chose an auspicious day to save trouble." So on this day, the imperial court had a holiday, the army was on standby, the frontier fortress was closed, the business trip was closed, relatives and friends sent meals to each other, visited each other, and had a "quiet" holiday happily.

There used to be a saying in old Beijing that "winter solstice wonton, summer solstice noodles". According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu in the north often harassed the frontier, and the people were restless. At that time, there were two leaders, Xiongnu tribe and Tun tribe, which were very cruel. People hate it, so they wrap it in meat and call it "wonton". They hate food with the sound of "muddy" and "tun", hoping to calm the war and live a peaceful life. Because wonton was originally made on the winter solstice, every family eats wonton on the winter solstice.