Winter Solstice

According to common folks, it is termed “Small Spring Festival” and also regarded as “Winter Solstice is as important as Spring Festival” . In old days, shops, handicraft workshops and schools would have a day-off during Winter Solstice. On this day, people would offer sacrificial objects to their ancestors and have a family reunion. On the dining table for a meal, there would definitely be bean-curd stewed with Chinese green onion, standing for “Wealth at leisure and peace”. Winter Solstice is the first day of “Nine cold days” in winter. As a saying goes: “Hands need to be warmed in the first cold day and the second cold day. Pigs and dogs can be frozen to death in the third cold day and the fourth cold day. Budding willows along the river can be seen in the fifth cold day and the sixth cold day. Pedestrians hold clothes on their arms in the seventh cold day. Farmers stand in the fields in the ninth cold day. People in Qinhuai area are used to stewing an old hen in each day of these nine cold days since the hen-soup is very nourishing.