The start time of the winter solstice in 2023 is 11:27:09 on December 22 (the tenth day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar). The winter solstice is the 22nd solar term of the "24 solar terms", the yellow longitude of the sun reaches 270 °, and it is handed over on December 21-23 of the Gregorian calendar every year. The winter solstice is the extreme of the sun's direct southward rays, the day of the winter solstice, the sun's rays are the most inclined to the northern hemisphere, the sun's altitude angle is the smallest, and it is the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere.
The folk call the winter solstice also known as "Jiaojiu" or "number nine", that is, from the day of the winter solstice, every nine days as a "nine", divided into 9 "nine", a total of 9981 days, 81 days after the spring. After the winter solstice, the number 99 is very popular in all parts of the country, and people arrange a variety of proverbs and smooth mouths according to the different local climatic conditions, scenery characteristics, agricultural phenology and customs.
The winter solstice has both natural and human connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional Chinese folk festival. There are many customs of the winter solstice, among them, ancestor worship is one of the most important activities during the winter solstice, people will go to the ancestral cemetery on this day, offer flowers, paper money and other items, and worship ancestors;Eating wontons and glutinous rice balls is to celebrate the arrival of the winter solstice, wontons represent wealth, and tangyuan means "happy reunion";Eating dog meat and mutton is to keep warm and enhance the body's immunity.
The literati of the past dynasties have taken the winter solstice as the theme, waving poems and reciting words, leaving a lot of such as "Handan Post is on the winter solstice, and the shadow in front of the knee-hugging lamp accompanies you." "(Bai Juyi)."When he was a teenager, he loved the winter solstice. "(Zheng Yinji),"I heard that the winter solstice was in the head, and I thought that Kuanglu would divide the year. "(Land Tour),"On the day of the winter solstice, there is no wine money, and Mr. Awakening and Smiling sleeps in the high pavilion. "(Shen Zhou),"The ice is not covered in spring, and the snow is sunny at the beginning of the winter solstice. "(Yang Ning),"I was born on the winter solstice, and I was as young as yesterday. "(Su Shi),"The water country celebrates the winter solstice, and the scenery spring has been born. "(Zhang Lei),"The time and people are urging each other, and the winter solstice is coming again. "(Du Fu) and other famous sentences.
On November 8, 2019, on the occasion of the beginning of the winter solar term, China Post's special stamp "24 Solar Terms (4)" was first issued at the China Agricultural Exhibition Center. This is also the final work of this set of 24 solar terms special stamps, so it has received wide attention from fans. Previously, on November 30, 2016, the 24 solar terms declared by ten representative communities led by the China Agricultural Museum were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. "24 Solar Terms (4)" 1 set of 6 stamps, the face value of the full set of stamps is 7$20. In addition, a special souvenir sheet of "24 solar terms" is specially produced, a full set of 6 stamps are printed with the same fan-shaped specifications, the left paper is printed with "Winter Snow Snow Winter Small Big Cold", and the lower paper is printed with the "24 Solar Terms Song" about the 6 solar terms of "winter": "Lidong drinks the Qilin Pavilion, embroiders the small snow and sings poems." The secluded snow is warm in the red furnace, and the pipa is lazy to play on the winter solstice. Xiaohan lies high in Handan dream, holding the snow and drifting in the air. ”
Among them, the fourth picture, the winter solstice, shows a child drawing a picture of the ninety-nine chill at home;
On November 3, 2000, the Taiwan Provincial Post Bureau of China issued the fourth group of stamps of the "24 Solar Terms" series of stamps, "24 Solar Terms Stamps - Winter", which shows the six solar terms of the beginning of winter, light snow, heavy snow, winter solstice, small cold and big cold. It depicts the scenes and customs of the beginning of winter, the beginning of light snow, the heavy snow covering the mountains, the winter solstice glutinous rice balls, the small cold plum blossoms, and the great cold ground freezing. The stamp is gray-white as the main color, showing the scene of ice and snow in the harsh winter.
This winter solstice stamp is connected to "Heavy Snow" in front and "Xiaohan" in the back, depicting the mountains and rivers of Taiwan during the snowy season. I saw the mountains undulating, the grass snake gray line, stretching for hundreds of miles;At the foot of the mountain, the neatly arranged Taiwanese houses are all prostrate in the ice and snow, and they are quietIn front of it is a brown round desk, on which is placed a gold-edged white porcelain bowl, the bowl contains white and red rice balls, the soup is boiled in brown sugar water, showing a yellow-brown color, which is mouth-wateringOn the right side of the pattern, there are two large characters in the calligraphy, "Winter Solstice", handsome and elegant.
On November 3, 2022, Taiwan Post issued a set of six stamps of "Ancient Paintings of the Forbidden City - 24 Solar Terms (Winter)". Based on the "Mo Miao Zhulin (Mao) Book" drawn by Qing Zhang Ruowei in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, China, with the theme of "winter", including the six solar terms of the beginning of winter, light snow, university, winter solstice, small cold and big cold, the way of interpretation is based on the landscape pattern as the axis, there are through the ancient style to show the current climate, or there are embellishments of the customs and activities of the time, the ecology of animals and plants in the natural world, showing the changes in the scenery between heaven and earth when entering the winter solstice solar term.