中英双语话中国民风民俗 第39期:冬至

The Winter Solstice

冬至

The Winter Solstice indicates the period of winter and people always want to keep themselves warm. In the northern China where the weather can be bitterly cold, our ancestors lacked sufficient warm clothing and would eat hot food to keep warm. Gradually there came a saying that only by eating dumplings can you avoid becoming so frozen that your ears drop off. Thus this custom is still widespread and on that day we eat steaming hot and delicious dumplings. In China we have a custom of counting nine (“Shu Jiu”), that is, from the Winter Solstice people calculated the number of days until a change of climate came about. Usually nine days is a section, there are a total of nine sections from the first Jiu to the ninth Jiu. In the folklore there is a widely prevailing ballad the general meaning of which is that： in the first and second Jiu (a section of nine days)，we can't take our hands outside； in the third and fourth Jiu we walk on the ice； in the fifth and sixth Jiu we see the light green willow； in the seventh Jiu our river thaws and in the eighth swallows come；in the ninth cattle begin to work.

冬至表示冬天的时期，人们总想使自己保持温暖。在中国北部的天气比较寒冷，我们的祖先缺乏足够的御寒衣物，会吃热的食物来保暖。渐渐地出现了一种说法，认为只有吃饺子可以为您避免冻得你的耳朵脱落。因此，这一习俗仍然普遍，在那一天我们吃热气腾腾的美味饺子。在中国，我们有指望九（“数九”）的习俗，就是从冬至计算天数，直到气候的变化。一般9天为一个部分，从第一个九到第九个九有九个部分。在民间传说有一种广泛流行的民谣，一般的意义是：在第一和第二个九（九天一节），我们不能把我们的手放在外面，在第三和第四个九，我们走在冰上;在第五和第六久，我们看到了浅绿色的柳树，在第七个九我们的河流解冻，并在第八个九燕子来了;在第九个九牛开始工作。