Auther：2022-11-07
Winter is the nineteenth of the twenty-four solar terms, and the beginning of winter. The beginning of winter means the beginning of the storage of energy and the beginning of the resting and collecting of all things.
The sunshine hours will continue to shorten and the noon sun height will continue to decrease after the beginning of winter. In winter, northeasterly and northerly winds are common, and the temperature gradually drops, but as the heat stored on the ground still has some energy, it is generally not very cold in the early winter period; as time passes, strong cold air moves south frequently and crosses the Southern Ridge, and the weather becomes colder and colder. In northern areas, it is already cold before the beginning of winter.
In northern China, it is customary to eat dumplings at the beginning of the winter festival. In the north, the rule is to eat dumplings because they are shaped like ears and people believe that if they eat them, their ears will not be frozen in winter.
The traditional Shaoxing winemaking custom is to start making yellow wine on the first day of winter. Winter is the most suitable season for brewing and fermentation, as the cold water and low temperature effectively inhibit the breeding of bacteria and enable the wine to develop a good flavour during the long fermentation process at low temperatures. This is why Shaoxing people refer to the period from the beginning of winter to the beginning of spring the following year as the most suitable time for making yellow wine as winter brewing, praying for well-being.
