As an important part of Wu culture and Grand Canal culture, solar terms and folk festivals are an important part of Suzhou's folk heritage. For the people of Suzhou, the winter solstice, as the most important festival at the end of the year, has always been the essence of the memory of the ancient city of Suzhou and the essence of Soviet-style life, and it is a festival that the people of Suzhou must live, and it is the belief of "reunion and blessing" engraved in the hearts of the people.
Since 2015, Pingjiang Street in Gusu District has excavated the folk culture of "Suzhou Winter Solstice Xi Customs", innovated the integration of culture, commerce and tourism, planned dozens of series of activities with the theme of winter solstice, such as "Winter Celebration Ceremony", "Winter Solstice Grand Gathering", "Cold Elimination Competition", "Winter Solstice Gift" and "Group Culture Conference", and collected and launched image markers such as "Winter Solstice Big as a Year" logo and theme song to create a "Winter Solstice Big Like a Year" activity brand. In November 2023, it was selected into the fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage representative projects in Jiangsu Province.
In 2023, in order to promote the culture of the ancient city and further highlight the cultural connotations of "Winter Solstice as a Year" as a year of commerce, charity, blessing, cold relief, food, health preservation, and intangible cultural heritage, on December 19, Gusu District held a press briefing to release the 9th "Winter Solstice as a Year" folk cultural activity plan, which will last from December 21 to December 24. Among them, the opening ceremony will be held on the afternoon of December 21 at the Xinyi Plaza on Guanqian Street.
With the theme of "Grand Canal Gusu Folk Culture and Tourism Festival, Winter Solstice and Big Year" and "Double 12 Gusu Consumption Season", the event was hosted by the Management Committee of Suzhou National Historical and Cultural City Reserve, Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, and Municipal Bureau of Commerce, and undertaken by the Propaganda Department of Gusu District Party Committee, Suzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection and Management Office, Gusu District Education, Sports and Cultural Tourism Committee, Gusu District Economic and Science and Technology Bureau, and Pingjiang Sub-district Office. It is worth mentioning that this year's "Winter Solstice is as big as the year" activity has been strongly supported by Suzhou Xuanmiaoguan, Suzhou City God's Temple, Suzhou Jialan Temple, Suzhou Lihua Liquor, Suzhou Lu Manuscript Recommended Food, Suzhou Huang Tianyuan, Suzhou Yuandachang Liquor, Suzhou Yisujia Tourism Development, Gusu Qiaomai Printmaking Studio, Suzhou Suxi Cultural Communication, etc.
This year is the ninth year of the "Winter Solstice as Big as the Year" brand activity, and it is also the year that "Suzhou Winter Solstice Xi" was selected as a representative project of Jiangsu Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage. According to Zhu Liujun, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee of Pingjiang Street, the opening ceremony will condense the Xi of the winter solstice in old Suzhou in the form of a sitcom, and express the humanistic connotation, cultural connotation and spiritual connotation of the winter solstice in the form of drama. At the opening ceremony, in addition to enjoying interesting and festive melodramas, there are also food maps and New Year's ** digital currency red envelopes that can be received, which are not to be missed.
Kicking off with the opening ceremony, there are also "one exhibition and three episodes". "One Exhibition" refers to the Winter Solstice Folklore Exhibition in the living room in front of the view. The exhibition will last from December 21st to December 25th, which will deeply restore the Xi customs of the winter solstice in old Suzhou, and at the same time review the wonderful moments of the past "winter solstice is as big as the year", the origin of the winter solstice, and the Xi customs in various places in the form of **. The exhibition hall also has a beauty and display check-in area, a tea break area, and an interactive area for citizens and tourists to rest and take pictures.
"Three episodes" refers to the Winter Solstice Intangible Cultural Heritage Market, the "Gusu Consumption Season" Warm Winter Market and the Pingjiang Health Market and the 3rd Bread Art Market.
As an important part of the "National Intangible Cultural Heritage into the Ancient City", a total of 40 representative projects of intangible cultural heritage participated in this intangible cultural heritage tourism market. There are not only Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings, plate buckle production skills and other intangible cultural heritage of Suzhou, but also Zhejiang Longquan celadon and Chaozhou Dancong tea skills from afar. In the intangible cultural heritage food area, in addition to Suzhou-style noodles, Suzhou-style rice balls, Suzhou-style cake dumplings and other Suzhou-style snacks, you can even taste Guangdong Chaoshan noodles and other local specialties, so that citizens and tourists can visit and taste enough at one time.
As a part of the activities of the Gusu consumption season, the Xuanmiaoguan "Gusu Consumption Season" warm winter market has been opened on December 16, time-honored food products, new Internet celebrity products, agricultural and sideline products from the north and south are all on the scene, as well as traditional Chinese medicine sitting in the hall free clinic, Gusu District Federation of Literary and Art Circles calligraphers on-site writing Spring Festival couplets and other convenient services, is the best choice for stockpiling New Year's goods and shopping.
In addition, the Winter Solstice Pingjiang Health Preservation Fair and the 3rd Bread Art Fair will be launched in Pingjiang Historical and Cultural District from December 22 to December 24, combining the old Xi customs of winter solstice health preservation with the new ideas of contemporary youth health preservation, introducing traditional Chinese medicine health consultation, and recruiting young artists, cultural and creative talents, and Internet celebrity baking, continuing the popularity of the first two bread festivals this year, collecting online celebrity snacks and fashionable coffee drinks, and making every effort to promote the construction of a youth development city, so that the ancient city and young people can go in both directions. (Yan Jie Shi Tianren).