A winter's tale

There is a great difference in the food eaten on the day of Winter Solstice between the north and the south. Eating glutinous rice dumplings is the norm in the south, whereas in the north it is mainly flour-made dumplings and wontons. The rice dumplings are also called "Winter Solstice balls" in the south. Southerners use glutinous rice to wrap various vegetables and meat as fillings. It not only serves as an offering to the ancestors but also a gift for relatives and friends.

The custom dates back to the Ming Dynasty when women got up early in the morning on that day to start making glutinous rice balls, and the whole family ate them for breakfast to mark that the daytime was about to get longer. Later, the custom was added with a new symbolic meaning as the round shape of the rice balls also signifies reunion.

The Winter Solstice gastronomy in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, is perhaps among the most traditional and exquisite. Dinner for family reunions on that day is the most important festive event for local people. The dinner must include cold dishes and hot stir-fry, whole chicken, duck and fish, just like the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. On the eve of Winter Solstice, business at the braised food shops in the streets and alleys is extremely brisk with the dry-cut beef, lamb, salted chicken and smoked fish sold out fresh from the shelf.

However, eating dumplings on Winter Solstice is a ubiquitous part of day-to-day life in the north. One legend says Zhang Zhongjing, the great doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, saw on his way back to his hometown on Winter Solstice that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River in Nanyang, Henan province, were dressed in rags and many had frostbitten ears. He wanted to help and asked his disciples to set up a shed there. He mixed mutton, pepper and some cold-dispelling herbs together, chopped them and wrapped them in dough that looked like an ear.