1. Cured meats
Pickling cured meats during the Winter Solstice is a common custom among all ethnic groups in Guangxi. Before and after the Winter Solstice, there are north winds and dry winds, so you can start preparing New Year foods.
The cured food must be completed in just one month. Every household is busy buying pork to make bacon, and some are making cured chicken, cured duck, cured fish, and cured pig heads. Sausages, sausages, etc. In northern Guangxi, there is a saying that "no salt is needed for bacon during the winter solstice"; in Guigang and other places, there is a custom of making wine during the winter solstice, called "winter wine", which is used for entertaining guests and Spring Festival banquets in the future.
2. Rice dumplings
Zongzi. Sand cakes and glutinous rice cakes (also known as "winter glutinous rice cakes" or "big belly glutinous rice cakes") are also foods of the Winter Solstice Festival. When Yulin people celebrate the winter solstice, almost every household must make rice dumplings. Some locals simply call the winter solstice the "rice dumpling festival."
Yulin rice dumplings are seasoned with refined salt, southern milk, soy sauce, five-spice powder, etc., and then filled with pork, seafood, mung beans, poached beans, millet seeds, peanuts, etc., and are fragrant after being cooked. , is one of the favorite foods of Yulin citizens. There is also a saying about eating rice dumplings during the Winter Solstice that "glutinous rice replenishes energy" embodies the working people's simple wish to replenish their strength for the coming year.
3. Yusheng
In the Zhuang and Han people in Binyang, Longzhou, Napo, Fusui and other places, Yusheng is a major dish during the winter solstice.
There is a folk saying that "Winter Solstice fish is raw, Summer Solstice is dog meat". It is believed that in Winter Solstice, the outer yin is cold and the inner Yang is hot, so it is better to eat cool fish to moisten the intestines; in the Summer Solstice, the outer Yang is dry and hot, but the inner Yin is cold, so it is better to eat it. Warm dog meat warms the stomach.
4. Stuffed with tofu
During the Winter Solstice, the Han people in Yulin, Wuzhou and other places eat stuffed with tofu, and the Zhuang people in Debao and other places eat pumpkin rice. This is the same as the northern winter solstice in the north where they eat stuffed with various flavors. same.
The ancients believed that all things in the universe developed and changed from the original chaotic state. The winter solstice once served as the beginning of the epoch and was the beginning of the movement and change of all things. Therefore, people eat stuffed tofu and pumpkin rice during the Winter Solstice. Kunbui symbolizes the shape of chaos in the universe and the beginning of the creation of the world.
5. Glutinous Rice Balls
Winter Solstice food is rich and full of meanings. Among the people, there is a common custom of eating glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice. Where the sky is round, glutinous rice balls symbolize the round sky, and eating glutinous rice balls means offering sacrifices to heaven.
In ancient times, there was a winter solstice ceremony to worship heaven. The custom of worshiping the earth during the summer solstice and eating glutinous rice balls during the winter solstice are the legacy of ancient times.
6. Eating winter
In the past, in Wuxuan, Nanning and other places, married women could go to their parents’ homes to “eat winter” during the day during the winter solstice, but they had to rush back to their husband’s house before dark. If you can't get back to your husband's house, you have to stay at a foreigner's house for the night.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Zhongshan, Yangshuo, Shanglin, Daxin, Sanjiang and other places had the custom of collectively worshiping ancestral halls, communes and land gods during the winter solstice, killing pigs and sheep, and holding banquets. The worship ceremony was very solemn.