What activities are there during the Great Cold? What traditional food do you eat?
After the Great Cold, a new year begins. The Great Cold is the last solar term among the 24 solar terms of the year. It falls around January 20th of the Gregorian calendar every year. Do you know what activities are held during the Great Cold? What traditional food do you eat? Let’s find out together!What activities are there during the Great Cold?Year-end party: banquet hosted by businessmenThe year-end party originated from the custom of worshipping the God of Land as the “tooth”. The so-called February 2nd is the first tooth, and from then on every second and sixteenth day of the lunar month, "tooth" will be held. The sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month is the last tooth. The year-end party, like the second day of the second lunar month, has spring pancakes (called runbing in the south) to eat. On this day, businessmen have banquets, and poached chicken is an indispensable dish at the banquet. It is said that whoever the chicken's head is facing indicates that person the boss will fire in the next year. Therefore, some bosses usually turn the chicken head toward themselves so that their employees can enjoy the food without worry and have a peaceful year after returning home. Today, the year-end tooth festival has gradually withdrawn from the Great Cold custom, but some places in China, such as the coastal areas of Fujian and Taiwan, still retain the tradition of the year-end tooth festival. Offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God: Stick sugar on the Kitchen God's mouth During the Great Cold, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the Kitchen God Festival, and the custom of worshiping the Kitchen God is naturally indispensable. Legend has it that the Kitchen God is a god sent by the Jade Emperor to every household to monitor people's daily good and evil deeds. At the end of each year, he returns to the Heavenly Palace to report the people's sentiments to the Jade Emperor and let the Jade Emperor decide on rewards and punishments. Therefore, when sending off the Kitchen God, people put candies, clean water, beans and hay on the table in front of the Kitchen God statue. Among them, the last three are preparations for the Kitchen God's mount to ascend to heaven. When offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God, you would melt Guandong sugar with fire and smear it on the Kitchen God's mouth. The purpose of this is to prevent the Kitchen God from saying bad things. Commonly used couplets for the Kitchen God often say phrases like "May God speak good things and bring good luck back to the palace" and "May God speak good things and keep the world safe." New Year's Eve: Welcoming the New Year In the old days, during the Great Cold season, people scrambled to buy sesame straw. Because "the sesame seeds bloom higher and higher." On New Year's Eve, people sprinkle sesame straw on the road for children to crush it, which sounds auspicious like "stepping on the year" in Chinese. At the same time, the homonyms of "broken" and "year" in Chinese mean "peace every year", which is a good omen for the New Year. This also makes the festival of Dahan, which drives away evil and welcomes good fortune, more meaningful. What traditional food do you eat?Traditional food for Dahan: chicken soupDuring the coldest winter season, soups and broths become more common in daily diets in many parts of my country. The Great Cold falls around the 49th day of the lunar calendar. People in many parts of my country like to choose old hens, and stew them alone or with ginseng, wolfberries, black fungus, etc. Drinking chicken soup in the cold winter is really a pleasure. Traditional food for Dahan: Eight Treasure Rice Pudding There is a folk saying that eating glutinous rice during the Great Cold solar term is because glutinous rice can nourish the body's positive energy. After eating it, the whole body will feel warm, which plays a role in keeping out the cold, nourishing the stomach and replenishing the body. The most typical food made with glutinous rice in Datong is Eight Treasure Rice Pudding. Steam the glutinous rice, mix it with sugar and osmanthus, pour it into a container filled with red dates, coix seeds, lotus seeds, longan meat and other fruit ingredients, steam it and then pour honey or sugar juice on it. It tastes sweet and is a great choice for festivals and entertaining guests. Traditional food for the Great Cold: Wind-dispelling cold soup 1 egg, 10 grams of coriander, 5 grams of green onion, 5 grams of ginger, and appropriate amounts of salt, MSG and other seasonings. Stir the eggs evenly. Wash the coriander, green onion and ginger and chop them into small pieces. Boil water in a pot, add a little water starch to make the water slightly thick, then slowly pour in the beaten eggs to make it into flakes. Add coriander, onion, ginger, salt, MSG and other seasonings, and add a little sesame oil before serving. It has the effects of dispelling wind and cold, inducing sweat and relieving exterior symptoms, and is suitable for the early stages of a mild cold. Traditional food for the Great Cold: angelica and red dates mutton soup In the cold winter when the temperature continues to drop, people in Datong often eat some warm and nourishing foods to increase the body's heat. Among them, angelica, red dates and mutton soup is the most commonly consumed nourishing soup. Drinking a bowl of angelica, red dates and mutton soup in the cold winter season has the therapeutic effects of warming the middle and replenishing deficiency, dispelling cold and warming the stomach, strengthening the spleen and replenishing qi, and nourishing blood. This nourishing soup is a winter health soup, especially suitable for patients with weak constitution, cold stomach, kidney deficiency and indigestion, as well as postpartum women with blood deficiency. |
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