Start of Winter is the first solar term of winter, which means winter is coming and crops harvested in autumn should be stored up. Here are eight things you should know about Start of Winter.
Beginning of winter or not
Click to Gallery
On the first day of Start of Winter, there is a custom, "nourishing the winter", in Southeast China in places such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces. To prepare for the oncoming cold winter, people there like to eat high-calorie food such as chicken, duck, beef, mutton, and fish, which are usually stewed with the four Chinese medicines: angelica, ligusticum wallichii, Chinese herbaceous peony and rehmannia glutinosa libosch, to enhance the effectiveness of the nourishment.
Start of Winter is the first solar term of winter, which means winter is coming and crops harvested in autumn should be stored up. Here are eight things you should know about Start of Winter.
A legend has it that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220), "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing saved many people in Henan province from a typhoid epidemic and their ears' from being frostbitten around Start of Winter. He cooked mutton, hot peppers and herbs to dispel the cold and increase body heat. He wrapped these ingredients into a dough skin and made them into an ear shape. Since then, people have learned to make the food which became known as "dumpling". Today there is still a saying that goes "Eat dumplings on Start of Winter Day, or your ears will be frostbitten".
Yifan Festival is one of the most important festivals of the Mulam ethnic minority in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. It is held around the Start of Winter every three to five years and lasts one to three days. The festival includes inviting the god, offering sacrifices, asking the god to enjoy the sacrifice, singing praise of the god, drinking wine with the blood of chicken, and sending the god off.
Offering sacrifices to ancestors
The four beginnings of the seasons were important festivals in ancient times. Before the Start of Winter, the ancient emperor would take a shower and have no more meat. On that day, the emperor would lead his officials to the suburbs and perform the ceremony of "welcoming the winter."
On the first day of Start of Winter, there is a custom, "nourishing the winter", in Southeast China in places such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces. To prepare for the oncoming cold winter, people there like to eat high-calorie food such as chicken, duck, beef, mutton, and fish, which are usually stewed with the four Chinese medicines: angelica, ligusticum wallichii, Chinese herbaceous peony and rehmannia glutinosa libosch, to enhance the effectiveness of the nourishment.
In ancient times, the Chinese people took the Start of Winter to be the beginning of the winter. However in fact, the Start of Winter is not the beginning of winter in terms of meteorology. The climate every year is different, so the beginning of winter could be quite different. And with the vast territory of China, winter of every area doesn’t begin at the same time.
The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Start of Winter, (Chinese: 立冬), the 19th solar term of the year, begins this year on Nov 7 and ends on Nov. 21.
A legend has it that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220), "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing saved many people in Henan province from a typhoid epidemic and their ears' from being frostbitten around Start of Winter. He cooked mutton, hot peppers and herbs to dispel the cold and increase body heat. He wrapped these ingredients into a dough skin and made them into an ear shape. Since then, people have learned to make the food which became known as "dumpling". Today there is still a saying that goes "Eat dumplings on Start of Winter Day, or your ears will be frostbitten".
Eating dumplings
Eating Chinese pumpkins
In Tianjin, on the first day of Start of Winter, people eat dumplings stuffed with Chinese pumpkins (wogua). It is a common vegetable in North China. Generally, the pumpkins are bought in the summer and stored until the Start of Winter when they are taken out.
Yifan Festival is one of the most important festivals of the Mulam ethnic minority in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. It is held around the Start of Winter every three to five years and lasts one to three days. The festival includes inviting the god, offering sacrifices, asking the god to enjoy the sacrifice, singing praise of the god, drinking wine with the blood of chicken, and sending the god off.
Yifan Festival of Mulam Ethnic Minority
Offering sacrifices to ancestors
The Start of Winter, when the autumn crops have been placed in storage, was the time of the festival for the people of the Manchu Eight Banners and Han Eight Banners in Benxi of Liaoning province. Incense was burned and sacrifices offered to ancestors. The Eight Banners (baqi) were administrative/military divisions during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Costumes worn by the people of the Manchu Eight Banners.
The four beginnings of the seasons were important festivals in ancient times. Before the Start of Winter, the ancient emperor would take a shower and have no more meat. On that day, the emperor would lead his officials to the suburbs and perform the ceremony of "welcoming the winter."
Welcoming the winter in ancient times
On the first day of Start of Winter, there is a custom, "nourishing the winter", in Southeast China in places such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces. To prepare for the oncoming cold winter, people there like to eat high-calorie food such as chicken, duck, beef, mutton, and fish, which are usually stewed with the four Chinese medicines: angelica, ligusticum wallichii, Chinese herbaceous peony and rehmannia glutinosa libosch, to enhance the effectiveness of the nourishment.
"Nourishing the winter"
TOURMALET PASS, France (AP) — France’s president hosted China’s leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees on Tuesday for private meetings after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. It is meant to be a reciprocal gesture after Xi took Macron last year to the residence of the governor of Guangdong province, where the Chinese president’s father once lived.
Snow coated nearby slopes after new snowfall overnight, and security was tightened around the area. The winding roads up to the pass were blocked by authorities Tuesday for dozens of kilometers.
Foggy weather, falling snow and brisk winds obscured the view of the dramatic Tourmalet Pass. Macron and Xi — together with their wives, Brigitte Macron and Peng Liyuan — visited a mountain restaurant. Before lunch, protected from the elements by umbrellas, they watched a traditional folk dance performance on the terrace. The leaders could be seen eating ham and blueberry pie, among other local specialties.
Macron presented Xi with a yellow Tour de France jersey — with the Tourmalet Pass one of the most famous climbs of the race — a woolen blanket made in the Pyrenees and a bottle of Armagnac, French broadcaster BFMTV said.
The mountain meetings come after a grandiose state visit by Xi on Monday that included a ceremonial welcome at the monument housing Napoleon’s tomb and a state dinner at the Elysee Palace with celebrities and magnates.
Xi left France from the Pyrenees on Tuesday evening by plane, in a departure ceremony that included military fanfare.
The Elysee said Tuesday it welcomed the dialogue between Macron and Xi, which was “friendly but also very frank," according to BFMTV. The broadcaster also noted that Macron had brought up the issue of human rights with the Chinese president, including “a few individual cases”.
Xi is on a trip to Europe aimed at reinvigorating relations at a time of global tensions. He heads next to Serbia and Hungary.
The last day of his visit to France came as authorities were searching the European Parliament office of a prominent German far-right lawmaker in Brussels on Tuesday, Germany’s top prosecutor’s office said.
Maximilian Krah, the Alternative for Germany party’s top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament election, has been under scrutiny after an assistant of his was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, second right, and his wife Peng Liyuan, right, French President Emmanuel Macron, holding a Tour de Francecycling race jersey and his wife Brigitte Macron, left, discuss in a restaurant, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees mountains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his wife Peng Liyuan watch folklore dancers, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees mountains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his wife Peng Liyuan watch folklore dancers, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees mountains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his wife Peng Liyuan watch folklore dancers, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees moutains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, right, enjoy a drink with French President Emmanuel Macron in a restaurant, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees mountains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, toasts with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a a state dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, May 6, 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron put trade disputes and Ukraine-related diplomatic efforts on top of the agenda for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in France for a two-day state visit opening his European tour. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
LVMH luxury group CEO Bernard Arnault and his daughter Delphine arrive for a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French film director Luc Besson arrives to attend a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French actress Sophie Marceau arrives to attend a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, center, CEO of luxury group Kering, arrive to attend a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A rainbow is seen from the Elysee Palace as French President Emmanuel Macron hosts a state diner for China's President Xi Jinping, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Architect Jean Nouvel, left, arrives for a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Singer Mireille Mathieu arrives for a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French musician Jean-Michel Jarre and Chinese actress Gong Li arrive for a state diner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron for China's President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a toast at a state dinner hosted for Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, May 6, 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron put trade disputes and Ukraine-related diplomatic efforts on top of the agenda for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in France for a two-day state visit opening his European tour. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron pose with China's. President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan before a state diner at the Elysee Palace, Monday, May 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French President Emmanuel Macron talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a a state dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, May 6, 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron put trade disputes and Ukraine-related diplomatic efforts on top of the agenda for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in France for a two-day state visit opening his European tour. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
