The story of the winter solstice

The Winter Solstice, also commonly known as "Winter Festival", is a very important traditional festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is usually December 21 or 22, which is also an important solar term. In ancient times, people attached great importance to the winter solstice. They believed that the winter solstice was the natural transformation of "yin" (陰) and "yang" (陽). It was a blessing bestowed from the God. The so-called "winter is transforming to yang", when the sun begins to rise up, the daytime will gradually increase, and the days of winter become short and spring will begin soon. There is a saying that "the winter solstice is as importans as a Chinese New Year". The people have always attached great importance to the winter solstice. Those who go out to earn a living will do everything possible to rush home before the winter solstice to reunite with their families, indicating that they have a home at the end of the year.

There is a record in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" 《後漢書》: "Before the winter solstice, the gentleman stayed calm, all officials did nothing, and did not listen to politics, choose a good time and save trouble." So on this day, the court will have a holiday and rest, the army is on standby, and the border is closed. Business travel is suspended, relatives and friends each give food to each other, visit each other, and enjoy a "safe and quiet" festival. There are still many places where the winter solstice is customary, and different eating customs are spreading in different places.

There are many legends about the winter solstice. Different legends and stories have also formed different winter solstice eating habits. Let's come to take a look. The northern winter solstice eats dumplings, the Suzhou people eat wontons in the winter solstice to menorise "Xi Shi", the Chaoshan area will eat sweet dumplings, the Jiangnan water village winter solstice eat red bean glutinous rice, the Sichuan winter solstice custom eats mutton soup, people in Shanghai eat dumplings during winter solstice... etc...

香港人又是如何渡過冬至？吃一頓豐盛大餐是這天必不可少的，飯桌上少不免有蔬菜，雞，老火靚湯，海鮮和湯圓，生果等⋯。

冬至即將到來，《餸您健康》為大家送上多款有機農產品和時令有機蔬菜：菜心，冬瓜，油麥菜，芥菜，生菜，西洋菜，黃芽白，貢梨，火龍果，有機紅酒，靚湯包，優質魚等⋯多款選擇，滿足不同需要，希望大家與親友團團圓圓，渡過一個健康而溫馨的節日。