Years are silent, and the solar terms are rotated. Xiaoxue will usher in heavy snow on the 15th day after. The name of the solar term is bluntly talking about climate change. "High snow is the November Festival. The great one is the most prosperous, and the snow is soaring here." The snow is heavy and the snow is full of snow on the roads. As the one written in "Hidden quilt and pillow are cold, and I saw the windows bright again. I knew the snow was heavy late at night, and I heard the sound of broken bamboos." "High snow in the Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Mi depicted the scene of the princes and nobles in Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) in "Highlights" in "Highlights in the back garden, and the snow lions were decorated with golden bells and colorful threads, and they were made of snowflakes, snow lamps, snow mountains, etc.", and used golden basins to hold various things like snow sculptures and to enjoy indoors, which was of a unique interest.
Northern There is a proverb about "heavy snow and light snow, endless cooking", which means that during heavy snow seasons, the ground is cold, the day is short, the night is long, and the people's family is busy making three meals a day, and there is almost no rest. After heavy snow, mid-winter enters mid-winter, and all things are hidden. The ancients called the mid-winter moon "the moon". "The moon" means fullness. At this time, all things should be filled inside but not activated outside. " Book of Rites·Monthly Orders " records that the emperor of the 2nd Zhou Dynasty said: "Do not do earthly affairs, be careful not to build, do not build houses and houses, and keep them firm and closed." No matter what is related to land, no matter where there is a cover, the roof shall be lifted, nor shall the crowd be mobilized, so as to stabilize the yang energy. The ancients' view of "closed and hidden" gradually developed into the "cat winter" custom among the people. There is a saying in rural areas in Shandong that " is over the door, and you can only drink red sticky porridge." Roller is a heavy stone farm tool that is often used to grind rice, grind flour or level the land. In winter, the north wind in the countryside is biting, and people use rollers to hold the door, and cats drink warm red sticky porridge on the kang to protect the cold air. Red sticky porridge is millet sweet potato porridge. Millet nourishes yin and blood, warms the stomach and sleeps. Sweet potatoes are sweet and mild in nature, and strengthens the spleen and stomach. The combination of the two is beneficial to the body. The locals say that "drinking red sticky porridge is better than eating chickens and dogs."
Jiangnan area emphasizes "little snow pickled vegetables, heavy snow pickled meat". Before and after heavy snow, the temperature dropped sharply, which was a good time to pickle all kinds of meat. When the sun comes out, under the eaves of the rising sun, you can see the pickled goods dried by every household. It is exactly the "fat the eaves before the New Year." There are two types of marinating, one is marinated with salt, called "salt", such as bacon , bacon, etc.; the other is soaked in soy sauce, called "sauce", such as sauce meat , sauce duck, sauce quail, sauce dried fish, etc. The "leader" among them is sauce duck. There is a saying among people in Hangzhou that "no sauce duck is not the New Year." The Qing Dynasty Hangzhou Jiangdiao was very famous. According to the supplementary "Hangsu Relics" by Hong Rusong, a native of the Qing Dynasty, "The best thing is to make the sauce duck with only ones in Hangzhou Shao Hotel." There are hundreds of sauce ducks made in each winery, and they are sold out as soon as the winter solstice is over. In addition to the residents of Hangzhou, many outsiders come to buy it. People use duck sauce as a gift gift. A folk saying goes, "You have the northwest wind in the ground, and I have duck sauce given by aged wine sauce." When it comes to eating shrimp duck, the most authentic way is steaming. In a reply letter to his mother in 1935, Lu Xun wrote: "I received a small bag today. The meat sauce is slightly white, but after steaming, the taste is still not bad..." The steamed duck is fragrant and delicious, and it is an excellent dish for wine in winter.
There are customs for eating meat and keeping cold in various places. There is a folk proverb in Baotou, Inner Mongolia that "kill pigs with light snow and sheep with heavy snow". Eating mutton during heavy snow can replenish vitality and increase the ability to keep cold. When slaughtering pigs and sheep, relatives and friends, neighbors and neighbors come together to help. The owner stewed a pot of stewed vegetables with pickled cabbage, vermicelli, sand potatoes, etc., which is called "national unity rice". It invites neighbors and eight houses to have a dinner together, which means unity and harmony and prosperity.
In many areas in the north, there is a custom of eating malt sugar when it snows heavily. The vendor selling malt sugar walked around the streets and alleys with a gong in his hand. When the gong in his hand sounded, the children flocked to him, hoping to eat a bite of sweet malt sugar.
In the middle of winter, the weather is cold and the earth is frozen, "The accumulation of yin turns into heavy snow, and the view is chaotic" ( Yuan Zhen "Poems on the Twenty-Four Qis·High Snow November Festival"), and the eyes are filled with bleakness. But this is also the beginning of the germination of yang energy, and all things accumulate momentum and accumulate energy for the spring eruption.
(Yuan Jin, the author is an associate professor at Hangzhou Normal University) (Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)
