Winter solstice to long days: winter
Wen ∣ Lingbo
About "the winter solstice to change the long day" is a common saying of the ancestors. On this day, my grandmother pinned a needle to the window ledge to measure the sun's shadow moving to the first few window frames to measure the hour and solar terms. In ancient times, there were no clocks, and ordinary people have been handed down from generation to generation in this way of measuring the cold and summer of time. Today it seems to be full of simple poetry, and there is always a thread dragged on the needle, like the tail of time. In fact, there is no way to do it.
The winter solstice represents the shortest time of the sun and the longest night. "The cathode and the yang begin to arrive, the sun goes south, and gradually grows to also." From this day on, the days grow longer. From the perspective of the day and night pole, the winter solstice represents the beginning of a new round of the year. The branch "zi" is crowned on the winter solstice and is the first of the twelve branches, so the november of the lunar calendar where the winter solstice is located is also known as the day of "Jianzi". In ancient times, on this day, "the Son of Heaven personally ascended Mount Taishan, and in November, the Temple of God MingTang was known as the Temple of God, and every time he practiced Zen."
In the Spring and Autumn Period three years ago, Zhou Gongtuui method (erecting a pole on the flat ground) observed the sun, measured a defining day of night length and day shortness, and designated it as the "winter solstice", which was the earliest of all solar terms. At the same time, at the beginning of the nine, the old people said "counting nine cold days", that is, from the winter solstice, the weather entered the coldest time, and the breath turned into frost and dripped water into ice.
Of the twenty-four solar terms, no one is more grand than the winter solstice. The ancient Book of Jin records that "on the winter solstice day of the Wei and Jin dynasties, he was congratulated by all nations and hundreds of officials, and his yi was inferior to that of Zhengdan." ”
There is also a saying that "the winter solstice is as big as the year". Relatives and friends "worship winter" like a New Year's greeting, mutual congratulations and auspiciousness.
The winter solstice is also known as the "Long Solstice Festival" and the "Sub-Year Festival". In our small plain town, it is called "wintering". The mother often remembered that a third grandfather of the same ethnic group had emigrated to a foreign country, and when he went to visit, it coincided with the winter solstice, "Granddaughter, spend the winter today, eat dumplings!" Invite a teenage girl from her hometown to the table and solemnly "spend the winter."
"Winter solstice dumplings and summer solstice noodles" is a custom that does not move in the hometown. The housewives began to prepare for several days, and the atmosphere in the home was a little excited that could not be suppressed, and it was almost the winter solstice! On this day, all the wanderers who can rush home rush home as much as possible, just to eat the dumplings wrapped by their mothers!
The family sat around the table, waking up first, then chopping vegetables, cutting meat, and mixing the filling. Roll out the skin and make dumplings. Busy, talk about home, happy and harmonious. The water in the pot boiled, boiling hot and steaming. Like steaming hot years!
The child is responsible for placing the dumplings on the round lid pads of the special sorghum stalks that only we have in our sorghum country. Go in a circle along the cover pad, and after a while it will be filled, which is "consummation"; it can also be arranged in a row along the pole, like a sailor, like a small white boat waiting to set sail, this swing is called "Shunsuo". A successful and smooth journey is the blessing and expectation of every family.
"Eat dumplings on the winter solstice festival, and your ears and hands can't freeze!" Look at the pot, mix the soup, the taste of happiness flows in the hot air of the dumplings, the warm feeling fills the laughter and laughter, and the dumplings that have just come out of the pot seem to be full of vitality!
In childhood, in the days near the winter festival, my grandfather wore reading glasses, looked at an old yellow calendar and began to nag: "The summer solstice is getting shorter and shorter, and the winter solstice is long again." Spring, autumn, cold and summer are orderly, all contained in the almanac. In the countryside, there is a folk custom of "preferring to be poor for a year, not a poor section". Do poor days have to be sad? The villagers are not, they all have a neglect of fate and extra thick life attitude.
"Shou Dong Ye long life, shou nian long life." They recite the proverbs handed down by their ancestors, turn on the oil lamps, and treat every festival in life like a god!
The sun closes early on the winter solstice, the workers who leave work flow into a river, and the lights of electric cars and cars are like a fishing fire. The young parents who pick up their children at the entrance of each school seem to have lantern grass embroidered on their plackets, otherwise how can the children who rush out of the school door find their parents in a single moment under the dark night sky.
"The winter solstice is coming, eat dumplings." Go home and eat the dumplings wrapped by your grandparents! Children have the ability to automatically filter unpleasant ones, because naughty criticism or just mixed with classmates, are diluted by the festive atmosphere without a trace. The winter solstice is a festival full of warmth and family joy, which releases a strong winter charm in a unique rural tone and solemn form!
"Eat winter solstice noodles, one line a day long." It means that the sun head follows the instructions of the solar terms a little longer every day. It also means that women who work can sew more stitches in the sun's rays.
Du Fu has a famous "Winter Solstice" poem that says: "Embroidery five lines add weak threads, blowing six tubes of fly ash." Probably in response to this folk proverb.
"The shore is waiting for the wax general Shu Liu, and the mountain is cold and wants to release the plum." The third season of the winter solstice said: "Earthworm knots, elk dissolves, water springs move." Although it is the coldest day of the number nine after the winter solstice, the water spring has begun to recover darkly, "the days and times are urged, and the winter solstice is sunny and spring is coming again." The footsteps of spring are not far away! Everything will begin a new cycle. The thousand-year-old customs shimmer in the depths of the lunar calendar with a simple and mellow light, and the long-lasting fragrance is permeated!
