中英雙語話中國民風民俗 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.

冬至表示冬天的時期，人們總想使自己保持溫暖。在中國北部的天氣比較寒冷，我們的祖先缺乏足夠的禦寒衣物，會吃熱的食物來保暖。漸漸地出現了一種說法，認爲只有吃餃子可以爲您避免凍得你的耳朵脫落。因此，這一習俗仍然普遍，在那一天我們吃熱氣騰騰的美味餃子。在中國，我們有指望九（“數九”）的習俗，就是從冬至計算天數，直到氣候的變化。一般9天爲一個部分，從第一個九到第九個九有九個部分。在民間傳說有一種廣泛流行的民謠，一般的意義是：在第一和第二個九（九天一節），我們不能把我們的手放在外面，在第三和第四個九，我們走在冰上;在第五和第六久，我們看到了淺綠色的柳樹，在第七個九我們的河流解凍，並在第八個九燕子來了;在第九個九牛開始工作。