Drink mutton soup on winter solstice
( chinadaily.com.cn )
Updated: 2014-12-26
The 22nd solar term of the traditional Chinese lunar year – winter solstice, fell on Dec 22 this year. The annual ritual of people in the western part of Sichuan province on winter solstice is drinking mutton soup and eating mutton dishes.
On Dec 22, all the mutton-selling restaurants in Wenjiang were crowded with people who enjoyed themselves with a sizzling pot of mutton soup.
Considering the keen demand for mutton dishes during winter solstice, the city management gave restaurant owners permission to put tables outside their shops even on the sidewalks but asked them to keep the sidewalks orderly and neat and to avoid occupying the sidewalks for the blind.
In Beijie Community in Wenjiang district, the community committee invited more than 20 elderly people who live alone to have mutton soup together. As for those who had mobility difficulties, volunteers in the community sent hot soup to their homes to observe the winter solstice together with the elderly people.
The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. The winter solstice is the day when the Northern Hemisphere experiences the shortest day and the longest night in the year. The day marks the arrival of the coldest days in the year.
The popularity of mutton dishes in winter days is because in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, mutton has tonic properties that can improve one's vitality and clear cold and dampness in the body.
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| Mutton soup. |
By Shi Zihan and edited by Brian Salter
