Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice was the earliest solar term that was worked out in ancient China, and its date changes among 21，22 and 23 December due to the Sun and the Earth. Winter Solstice is the day that has the shortest daytime and the longest dark hours among a year. 

In China, people in the north prefer to have dumplings while other areas have different foods for the solar term. Now, let's have a look at different customs in different regions in China.

Natives in Suzhou——have wonton due to the memory of Xishi

Suzhou was the capital of Wu 2,500 years ago. The beauty, Xishi, played an important role in the battle between Wu and Yue. The food, wonton, was made by Xishi for the King of Wu in winter solstice, and it was named by Xishi. The meaning of the name was an metaphor, which referred to the stupid King. Because Yue won the war under the help of Xishi, people in this region began to have wonton in winter solstice in order to the memory of Xishi.

Wonton

Natives in Ningxia——have "tounao"

The custom for Winter Solstice in Ningxia is to have a kind of soup, which is made of mutton and rice noodle. People call it by a strange name: tounao, which means the head.

Nativies in Chaoshan——ancestor worship, have sweet bolls and visit graves

On the of winter solstice, people in Chaoshan prepare enough pork, chickens, fishes and fruits and go to ancestral halls for ancestor worship. Generally speaking, the ceremony finishes before lunch, and family members get together for lunch, sweet balls is one of the delicious food.

Visiting graves is another activity in Chaoshan in winter solstice. In general, people usually visit graves in Qingming Festival, however, because of the better weather in winter solstice, people in Chaoshan prefer the latter day. 

Natives in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan Province——have mutton and mutton soup

On the day of winter solstice, people in this region always like to enjoy something delicious. They have mutton and mutton soup in order to keep warm and to hope "good luck" during coming year.

Mutton soup

Winter Solstice is important in China, even though the Chinese people who live abroad still celebrate the festival every year and keep these customs.

Customs at Traditional Chinese Weddings

Yesterday, one of my classmates in the university told me that she had accepted her boyfriend's proposal and they would hold a wedding next year in May. I felt so happy and congratulated her.

Because of it, I want to discuss some customs at traditional Chinese weddings.

The Predominant Colour——Red

China is different from the wedding on the West, the entire wedding's main colour is red, this is also the representative of the traditional Chinese festivity colours. Red is the color appeared most at traditional Chinese weddings, as it represents good luck and indicates that couple will live happily ever after. This change will enable the wedding jubilation. At the traditional wedding, the bride wears Chinese traditional cheong-sam and a phoenix coronet, covered with a red scarf, while the groom wears a long gown jacket, with a red cap along.

The entire wedding's main colour is red.

The traditional wedding gowns for both the bride (the right one) and the groom (the left one) , as well as their crowns.

Double Happiness

A large Chinese character, Double Happiness, on a red piece of paper or in paper cut is always put where it must strike the eyes at a young couple's wedding. It has a story behind it.

In the ancient Tang Dynasty, there was a student who was on the way to the capital to attend the national final examination, in which the top learners would be selected as the ministers in the court. Unfortunately, he fell ill halfway when he passed through a mountain village. Thanks to a herbalist doctor and his daughter, he was taken to their house and treated well. He recovered quickly due to the father and the daughter's good care. Well, when he had to leave, he found it hard to say good－bye to the pretty girl, and so did she. They fell in love. So the girl wrote down the right hand part of an antithetical couplet for the student to match:

"Green trees against the sky in the spring rain while the sky set off the spring trees in the obscuration."

"Well, I can make it though it is not easy. But you'll have to wait till I have finished the examination." replied the student. The young girl nodded in significance.

In the examination the young man won the first place, who was appreciated by the emperor. Also the winners were interviewed and tested by the emperor. As luck would have it, he was asked by the emperor to finish a couplet, which would need a right part as the answer. The emperor wrote:
   
"Red flowers dot the land in the breeze's chase while the land colored up in red after the kiss."
     
The young man realized immediately the right part of the couplet by the girl was the perfect fit to the emperor's couplet, so he took the girl's part as the answer without hesitation. The emperor was delighted to see the matching half of his couplet was so talent and harmonious that he authorized the young man's identity as Minister in the court and allowed him to pay a visit to his hometown first before holding the post. The young man met the girl happily at home and told her the emperor's couplet. They soon got married. For the wedding, the couple DOUBLED the Chinese character, HAPPY, together, on a red piece of paper and put it on the wall to express the happiness for the two events. And from then on, it has been taken on and became a social custom.

Different kinds of " Double Happiness", and they are handmade articles.

    
Spree in the Bridal Chamber
     
Though many traditional activities can no longer be seen at a traditional Chinese wedding, the spree in the bridal chamber is still common both in the country and in town.
   
The spree happens after the feast when the bride and groom go back into their chamber. Relatives and friends and neighbors, any one at the wedding in fact, can come in to play all kinds of tricks on the new couple, especially the bride. They make a lot of noise so that there is an extremely lively atmosphere in the room, which is believed to be an inseparable part of a jolly wedding.
   
Some say that this custom goes back to Han Dynasty （206 B.C.－A.D. 220）. Others say it was first started by Emperor Kuangyin Zhao, the founder of the Northern Song Dynasty (960－1127). As historical records say that Zhao was concerned about his subjects and often made personal investigation among them. One day, he was traveling in a suburb of the capital city when he came across a wedding. When he learned that the groom was too poor to hire a musical band, he pretended to be the head of a band and called in his royal band to play at the wedding. At night, as Zhao remembered that it was an unlucky day according to the divination, he stayed at the yard with his military counselor Mr. Miao, so that they might be helpful in case any mishap happened to the couple. They sat in the dim moonlight playing chess. After midnight, they caught sight of a ghost climbing over the brick fence. Zhao picked up a wooden bar and ran up to the ghost. He knocked down the ghost only to find that it was a burglar wearing a mask, who had often been stealing property from newly married homes.
   
Emperor Zhao returned to the palace and made an announcement that at all weddings there should be relatives, friends and neighbors to stay around the brides and grooms and that all should be permitted to spree to keep off any eventualities. 

Wedding sweets are required at all weddings in China. Sweets mean a sweet life for the new couple.

 

The bride at her wedding.  Her name is Jing, Hu. She is a famous TV star in China.

   
Chinese weddings are steeped in tradition. While many customs are no longer followed today, there are still a few that have survived the centuries and are a part of modern weddings. There is a Chinese saying, "It is natural to get married when you grow up." And so, marriage is very important to the Chinese culture. However, no matter what kind of wedding, the ceremony must be the most beautiful one throughout one's life because it is the symbol for the new couple that their new life begins.