The winter solstice, also known as the winter festival, is not only an important solar term in the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional folk festival in China. The winter solstice is regarded as a big day in winter. Some people even consider it more important than the Spring Festival. Winter solstice customs vary in content and details due to different regions. In southern China, there are customs of honoring ancestors and feasting during the winter solstice. In northern China, there is a custom of eating dumplings every winter solstice.
The winter solstice falls on the 21st of December in 2020. According to the tradition custom of Foshan, it was a big day. Foshan people would usually prepare food to honour the gods and ancestors, praying for luck for the next year.
Winter solstice flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties. After the Song Dynasty, festivals to honour and worship ancestors and gods in the winter solstice flourished. On the winter solstice of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emperor would hold a ceremony to worship the sky, which is called Dongzhi Jiaotian. In the winter solstice, folks had customs such as worshiping ancestors and banquets. Nowadays, many regions still keep the custom of offering food to gods and ancestors during the winter solstice, such as Lingnan area, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and southern Fujian. The winter solstice day is celebrated.
According to Foshan Zhongyi Town Chronicles in the Republic of China period, when commemorating the ancestors in the winter solstice, the Dongji (a ceremony done in winter, where people took time to think about their loved ones who had passed away and showed respect to gods) was considered the most important. The Chunji and Qiuji (similar to Dongji, only in spring and autumn. Usually refer to Tomb-sweeping Day and Chongyang Festival, which is also known as Double Ninth Festival) were slightly different, but for Dongji, people would make time for it. There was no exception. After the ceremony, families gathered together in the room, had a feast and spent time together.
With the development of the times, the custom of making Dongji in winter solstice has been gradually forgotten. As an alternative, many families will cook sticky rice with preserved meat, make delicacies, including chicken and duck. Family members reunite for the winter solstice, and, and some families will prepare dishes to honor their ancestors.
However, in some parts of Nanhai, the Dongji customs are still retained. On the winter solstice, the Dongji rituals are held at the Huang's Ancestral Hall in Pingdi Village, Dali.
In the Dongji ceremony, the men who are above 60 years old will wear the ancient style dress to worship the sky. When it is over, people will gather together to enjoy a feast call Jiu Da Gui, and there’s also an activity called Taigong Fen Zhurou (a senior man sharing pork)
It is a traditional custom for Huang's people to hold Dongji on the winter solstice. According to the genealogy of Huang family in Pingdi of Nanhai, the Huang family in Pingdi county had three ceremony every year (spring, autumn and winter). The autumn ceremony had been cancelled since the Xianfeng period, and only the spring and the winter ones were held, which have lasted for hundreds of years. From the early 1950s to the 1990s, winter ceremonies were once suspended. Later it resumed in 2005, and it had been 13 years.
In the first part of the Dongji of the Huang Family in Pingdi Village, all the elderly (male) over 60, and four young boys of the same family need to wear blue silk hats, red and yellow Mandarin coats and black cloth shoes, and kneel on the altar to worship the sky.
During the worshiping, the bell rings nine times, and drums are played in nine sections, three rings in each section, representing the nearly 900 years since the Huang family lived in the village. In the ancestor worship ceremony, the following steps were carried out in an orderly manner, such as the reading of the memorial message, offering incense and paper treasure to the ancestors, offering tea and wine, etc., with the sound of bells and drums ringing all the time.
After the Dongji ceremony, people gathered to have Jiu Da Gui. Gui was a word used in old days. It refers to ancient bronze or pottery containers for food. So Jiu Da Gui means nine big dishes. The nine dishes include three ying dishes (ying dishes refer to meat in large chunks and ingredients in bulk for people to gobble and devour), three braised dishes and three stir-fried dishes.
Three ying dishes: Boiled chicken slices (served with soy sauce, ginger sauce or ginger and scallion sauce), roasted pork and roasted duck
Three braised dishes: Braised pork, braised duck and braised oysters
Three stir-fried dishes: Stir-fried dried shrimps, stir-fried chitterlings with pickled cabbage, and stir-fried fish balls with vegetables
After the luncheon, there will be a session called Taigong Fen Zhurou. People from the same patriarchal clan who participate in the ancestor worship can take some roasted pork home for free. Elders over 60 can also receive an extra portion to show respect for the elderly with the blessings of happiness and longevity. In ancient times, the annual Tomb-sweeping Day and Chongyang Festival were held in the ancestral hall. They also referred to the Chunji and Qiuji. On the ceremony, at least one pig would be killed. After the ceremony, the highly respected elder (generally known as Taigong) distributed the pork to the male villagers in the village. Taigong in Chinese literally means great-grandfather. The traditional Taigong sharing pork activity symbolized the unity and cohesion of the village.
When sharing pork on Dongji, the moral of filial piety was highly valued. According to the records of Pingdi genealogy, men who were over 60 years old could take one more portion. Men who were over 70 years old could take two more portions and men who were over 75 years old could take three more... the rest could be done in the same manner. When they hit 90 years old, for each year older they could take one more portion.
Meanwhile, rewards and punishments were distinct in the pork sharing. In the old days, civil and military students could take 4 more portions; a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the provincial level could take 8 more portions, and the portion doubled for a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations or above. However, for those who violated the village rules, in addition to the punishment for the wrongdoing, they could not get any pork for 3 years.
In addition to Pingdi Village of Dali, Nanhai, the Wu patriarchal clan in Leliu, Shunde also had a tradition of Taigong Fen Zhurou.
The Wu patriarchal clan moved to Leliu during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of four to five hundred years. After the Wu's Ancestral Hall was rebuilt in 2003, the traditional custom of Taigong Fen Zhuru during the winter solstice.
Every year before the winter solstice, the people voluntarily sign up to sponsor roast pigs, funds or other items. Every year at the winter solstice banquet, each member of the patriarchal clan who attends can get around 0.6 kilogram of roasted pork with the blessing “Everything goes smoothly, as 6 is a lucky number in China with the meaning of smoothness.
With the development of the society, the Wu patriarchal clan members also carry out charity activities such as giving out cooking oil, rice, red envelops after Fen Zhurou every winter solstice. According to one of the members, in the beginning, they hoped to give out daily necessities and money to the disabled and other people in need. Later the charity activities spread to the surrounding areas. People who were from other clans also participated in it.
In ancient times, people honored their ancestors with pork. In the process of long-term honoring, people had increasingly concentrated their communication with their ancestors and gods in the gift (pork) they offered. The pork that had been offered to ancestors and gods were believed to be blessed. People would eat the pork later so as to obtain blessing from the gods or ancestors, with the cultural effects - the belief that the whole family would be blessed with a peace of mind.
In the process of purchasing, offering, sharing and enjoying meat/pork, people were actually regaining public awareness of their own identity and the power of public resource distribution through large-scale operations, while those who got the pork obtained the confirmation of personal identity by participating in public recognition.
——Li Jianming, Cultural Scholar of Shunde
While few parts of Foshan still keep the customs, the winter solstice traditions have been simplified today. Yet one thing will stay no matter how times change - enjoying some nice food with family.
There are different customs in the winter solstice in the north and south in China. Through historical development, a unique seasonal food culture has been formed. What are the popular food choices for winter solstice in China?
Mutton soup
It is said that the custom of eating mutton at the winter solstice began in the Han Dynasty. People especially in Tengzhou, Shandong Province eat mutton and other foods on the winter solstice hoping for good luck in the coming year.
Sweet dumplings
In Jiangnan area, Tangyuan (sweet dumplings) are more popular. Yuan in Chinese has the meaning of reunion. People eat them in the hope that all family members can always get along and spend time together.
Every winter solstice day, regardless of the rich or poor in northern China, dumpling is an indispensable holiday food. It is said that in the old days a famous doctor named Zhang Zhongjin saw people suffering in cold winter with frozen ears. He made dumplings for them and the dumplings happened to look like ears. Later it was spread and became a custom.
In the Spring Festival and the winter solstice, some families will eat rice cakes, which are made of rice flour. Cake in Chinese pronounces “gao”, which is a homonym for the word “tall”. People think eating rice cake brings good things - for kids, they grow tall and healthy; for adults - they make progress in life and work.
