1. The story of the Winter Sostice.
(1) In the old Beijing, there is a saying about the solar term that is eating dumplings (馄炖, another kind of traditional food, which is similar to 饺子) in the Winter Solstice Day, at the same time eating noodles in the Summer Solstice Day. It heard that the Xiongnu people (an ancient nationality of China) usually invaded the frontier region of Han Nationality in the Han dynasty, which made the common people to suffer the pain of war. At that time there were two leaders in the Xiongnu tribe, who named Hun(浑氏) and (屯氏), both of them were very cruel, which was exceedingly hated by the common people, so they created a kind of food, the shape of which was horned, and inside of which there was stuffing made by meat, named Hundun, which was from the names of the two leaders. Eating Hundun to remove the hate feeling to look forward to get the peace and enjoy their lives. And the first day they made the food Hundun was in the Winter Solstice Day, so the custom was made and was inherited from generation to generation.
(2) There is another custom in the day of the Winter Solstice, that is eating dog meat from the Han dynasty. It was heard that the Han emperor- Bang Liu, ate dog’s meat, which was cooked by Fan Kuai in the day of the Winter Solstice for the first time, and thought it was very delicious. After that, the custom, eating dog’s meat became a traditional custom. In this day, people would like to eat dog’s or sheep’s meat to built their body and go after the good luck for the coming year.
(3) In South of China, people like eating glutinous rice, which is made by red beans in the night of the Winter Solstice day. About this custom, there was a mythology story. That is about the son of Gong Gong(共工氏), who was so merciless that he did harm for the common people very often. Even though after he died, the slaughter didn’t stopped, but there was only one thing that the bad son was scared very much. It’s the red bean. So people kept eating the red beans to protect themselves from being hurt in that day.
The Climate Character of the winter Solstice.
According to the astronautics, the Winter Solstice should be the beginning of the winter for mostly parts of China, but obviously, it is later than the fact. Because before that day, the weather has been cold for some time.