When it comes to the winter solstice, many people only know how to eat dumplings and glutinous rice balls. But few people know how the Chaoshan people spend the winter solstice.
The winter solstice is an important festival of the Chaoshan people's "Eight Festivals of the Year". The "eight festivals of the year" mentioned by the Chaoshan people include: Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Middle Yuan, Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice, and Chinese New Year's Eve. Chaoshan people have always attached great importance to the "Eight Festivals of the Year", so it is naturally not easy for Chaoshan people to spend the winter solstice.
There is a ballad in the Chaoshan area:
The winter solstice in Chaoshan is a small year
It's a year old to eat sweet pills
Glutinous rice grinding flour kneaded round
Eat every day to make a lot of money
Ancestor of the Ancient Shrine
Bless your children and grandchildren to earn a lot of money
The grace of God keeps the peace
The coming year will be smooth and healthy
Through this ballad, we can see that there are many folk cultural activities during the winter festival of the Chaoshan people, such as worshipping ancestors, thanking the gods (here referring to thanking the gods for their blessings in the past year), sweeping tombs, eating glutinous rice balls (i.e., winter solstice pills) and so on.
In the Chaoshan area, the winter festival pill (also called "round") is divided into two kinds: one is the common glutinous rice ball, and the other is the sharp rice ball made of japonica (add water with japonica rice flour, knead it into long strips, cut it obliquely with scissors, and the two ends are sharp like white rice, hence the name.) Mainly popular in the Jieyang area).
Matsumaru and Sharp Maru
Chaoshan has a saying that "after eating the winter festival round is more than one year old", of which the "winter festival round" is the rice ball. Also known as sweet pills in the Chaoshan region, the Xi of eating sweet pills on the day of the winter solstice is almost widespread throughout the Chaoshan region. In the Chaoshan area, before the winter festival, every household has to scoop glutinous rice powder to make glutinous rice soup balls.
Why is there a saying that the winter solstice is one year older? That is because the winter solstice is the Spring Festival, because the winter solstice in the Chaoshan area is the last solar term of the year, which means that the winter solstice is one year old, so it is said that eating tangyuan is one year older.
Some people deliberately rub some uneven sizes, which are called "father and grandson" pills, which means that the family is round and complete. After waking up, both adults and children have to eat a bowl of winter solstice pills, so that they can be counted as one year old. If a family member has gone out and has not returned, then be sure to leave some glutinous rice noodles for him to make a bowl of soup balls for him to eat when he returns home. Some people joked that he wouldn't have gained a year if he hadn't taken the winter solstice pill. Of course, people who haven't taken the Winter Solstice Pill still have to be one year older.
In some places, Tokyo Pills (made of Tokyo potato starch) and Duck Twist (named after a female duck floating and sinking in the water) are used to replace ordinary Winter Solstice Pills. In particular, the soup money is made of glutinous rice, which is sweet in taste, warm in nature, beneficial to qi and stop diarrhea, replenish and benefit qi, quench thirst, and warm the spleen and stomach. Glutinous rice has a fragrant and sticky taste, and is often used to make flavored snacks. I also introduced it as in a previous article.
Tokyo Maru
Duck mother twist
Through this kind of pill rubbing and pill eating activities, the tide people express the sustenance of praying for family reunion and family harmony and unity more clearly.
As for worshipping ancestors, as long as the Chaoshan people are "eight festivals of the year", they will naturally worship their ancestors. On this day, Chaoshan folk prepare enough pork, chicken, fish and other three animals and fruits, and go to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors (now many worship at home).
In addition to worshipping their ancestors at home, some people also like to visit the grave. According to the Xi of Chaoshan, the annual tomb sweeping is generally in Qingming and the winter solstice, which is called "spring paper" and "winter paper". Under normal circumstances, the practice of "spring paper" should be used for the first three years after death, and "winter paper" can be used only after three years.
By worshipping ancestors, it shows the excellent tradition of Chaoshan people remembering their ancestors.
At the same time, the winter solstice in the Chaoshan area can be regarded as a year has passed. Chaoshan people also want to thank the "master" for his blessing to their parents over the past year. Townships and villages have also begun to arrange for villagers to worship at a unified time. Because out of gratitude to the "master" for the blessing of the past year, the sacrifices of the Chaoshan people to thank the gods are very rich, generally there are red peach cake, three animal husbandry (generally with whole chicken, duck, goose, fish), fruits, vegetarian vegetables, etc. But generally it is necessary to wait for the unified arrangement of the village. On the day of the winter solstice, people also have to go to the temples to worship the "lord" such as the uncle.
By worshipping the "master", it shows the excellent quality of Chaoshan people who know how to be grateful.
This is the winter solstice of the Chaoshan people, an ordinary festival, but the Chaoshan people have such a wonderful time.
I don't know how you spend the winter solstice?