What does beginning of winter mean? Is beginning of winter a traditional festival?
Beginning of winter is not only a time to hold a grand harvest festival and a harvest feast, but also a season of cold wind. There are customs and activities such as "October New Moon", "Qin Sui Shou", "Cold Clothes Festival" and "Harvest Festival". At this time, in the north, it is the winter months when the water freezes and the ground begins to freeze, but in the south, it is the weather of Xiaoyangchun.
Beginning of winter is an important festival in October. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, on this day, Emperor Tiandi personally led the ministers to meet the winter weather, commended and supported the martyrs who died for their country and their families, asked the deceased to save their lives, and encouraged the people to resist the plunder and invasion of foreign enemies or evil bandits. Among the Han people, there are customs such as ancestor worship, feasting, and predicting the age of ancestors, so as to fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of future generations and pray for a bumper year for them in the coming year, and farmers themselves can get drinking.
Some customs in early winter have been changed, and some have been passed down to this day. On this day, the farmer came to Longshou Mountain to inquire about the next year's harvest and held a harvest banquet. Some villages performed to thank Shen Qing for its bumper harvest. "beginning of winter" kills chickens and sheep or supplements other nutrients, which is called "reinforcing winter".
Solar term phenology:
In ancient China, the solar terms in beginning of winter were divided into three five days, which determined three periods: "Ice begins with water; The second waiting place began to freeze; Waiting for the flood is a cockroach. " This solar water can already form ice; The land also began to freeze; In the third stage, pheasant refers to a big bird similar to pheasant, and pheasant is a big clam. After beginning of winter, big birds like pheasants were rare, but you can see big clams with similar lines and colors at the seaside. Therefore, the ancients thought that pheasants would become big clams in early winter.
Understanding "beginning of winter" can't just stay in the sense of beginning of winter. Tracing back to the source, the ancient people's understanding of "establishment" is the same as that of modern people, both of which mean establishment and beginning. But the word "winter" is not so simple. In the ancient book "Twenty-four solar terms", the explanation of "winter" is: "Winter is the end, everything is harvested", which means that all crops in autumn are harvested, collected and put into storage, and animals have been hiding and hibernating. It seems that beginning of winter not only represents the coming of winter, but completely speaking, beginning of winter means the beginning of winter, and everything is collected to avoid the cold. Heshui Zuo's poem "beginning of winter" said: "The north wind is cold and the sparse trees are half green and half yellow. The four fields are dry, and thousands of people are drying things to collect. "
Folklore:
Welcome winter:
Beginning of winter, together with beginning of spring, Changxia and beginning of autumn, is an important festival in ancient society. It used to be a farming society. After working for a year, I took advantage of beginning of winter to have a rest and rewarded my family for their hard work. The proverb "beginning of winter fills the winter with an empty mouth" is the best metaphor. In ancient times, on this day, the son of heaven had the gift of going out to welcome the winter, giving the minister winter clothes and pity the lonely. This is generally the case in later generations. Lu Chunqiu: "It is the moon, taking beginning of winter as an example. On the third day of beginning of winter, the son of the Taishi said, "One day in beginning of winter, the sage is in the water." The son of heaven is Zhai On the day of beginning of winter, the son of heaven personally led Dr. Sangong Jiuqing to welcome the winter in the northern suburbs. Nevertheless, it is still a question of rewarding death and caring for the lonely. Gao: "those ancestors who died for national security will be rewarded by their descendants;" If there are widows and orphans, pity them. " Cui Jinbao's Notes on Ancient and Modern Times: "Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, a palace official in winter, was clothed with a coat." Also, "a big hat is a wild suit, which Wei Wendi officials often wear in winter, called a warm hat."
Food customs:
Beginning of winter has the custom of eating jiaozi. Beginning of winter, wrapped in jiaozi, tastes different from Chinese cabbage, but also dipped in vinegar and rotten garlic to eat, just don't have a taste.