The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice was among the first of the twenty-four solar terms to be fixed. On this day the sun stands nearly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn: the northern hemisphere's shortest day and longest night; afterwards the shadows lengthen again, and the ancients said 'at the solstice the yang is born' — the turning point of light's return. Its three pentads: earthworms knot; elk shed their antlers; springs begin to stir.

For its special standing the day is also called the Winter Festival, Longest Reach, or Lesser New Year — 'the solstice is as great as the year' survives to this day. In Tang and Song times the Son of Heaven held the grand sacrifice to Heaven on this day while the people paid respects to parents and elders; from Ming and Qing on, folk customs of ancestor offerings and family feasts grew around it, and in some places the day is still kept as a festival proper.

From the solstice the 'counting of nines' begins: every nine days makes one 'nine', and when nine nines — eighty-one days — are counted, the cold is spent and spring arrives. 'In the first and second nines keep your hands in; in the third and fourth walk the ice; in the fifth and sixth watch willows along the river; at the seventh the rivers open, at the eighth the geese come; add one nine to nine-nine, and plough oxen everywhere' — versions differ by region, the phenology does not.

To survive the long indoor winter, the ancients kept 'nine-nines charts to dispel the cold'. The late-Ming Dijing Jingwulue records: 'On the solstice a household paints a bare plum branch of eighty-one petals; each day one petal is inked; when the petals are done the nine nines are out, and spring is deep.' The other form is traced calligraphy: nine characters — 庭前垂柳珍重待春風 (tíng qián chuí liǔ zhēn zhòng dài chūn fēng, 'before the court, drooping willows, cherish and await the spring wind') — each of nine strokes, one stroke filled daily; when the nine nines are filled, spring has returned to the earth.

The solstice table is a north–south chorus. The north eats dumplings — 'no dumpling bowl at the solstice and no one minds your frozen ears', a saying tied to the legend of Zhang Zhongjing dispensing winter-warming medicine. The south eats tangyuan, for roundness and reunion; around Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Shaoxing it is wontons — 'wontons at the solstice, noodles at the summer solstice'. Suzhou households open winter-brewed wine scented with osmanthus, with braised beef and mutton alongside; Sichuan, Chongqing and Tengzhou in Shandong keep the mutton-soup pot; southern Fujian cooks ginger duck; Hunan cures its meats after the day, called 'solstice meat'.

The day belongs to the ancestors too. Many places sweep graves and offer sacrifice around the solstice, honouring heaven and the local earth god as well, praying for even rains in the year to come. In some coastal areas there is even the habit of storing winter ice for the ice-houses, keeping the next year's catch fresh.