Major Cold Customs

Worshipping the Kitchen God is one of the most important folk sacrificial activities around Greater Cold. In popular belief, the Kitchen God, or Kitchen Lord, governs a household’s food and drink as well as its fortunes and misfortunes. Every year on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God ascends to Heaven to report the family’s good and bad deeds to the Jade Emperor. In order that he may “report good deeds in Heaven and protect peace in the human world,” people hold a solemn ceremony of worship on this day.

The offerings are carefully chosen. Sweet foods such as sugar melon, maltose, and Guandong sugar are indispensable. People believe that sugar can stick the Kitchen God’s mouth shut so that he speaks only sweet words before the Jade Emperor and says nothing bad. Sugar melon is a gourd-shaped sweet made from maltose, both sweet and sticky and therefore perfectly suited to the idea of “sticking the mouth.” During the ritual, people place sugar melon, clean water, fodder beans, and other offerings before the stove, burn incense and light candles, burn paper horses, and respectfully send the Kitchen God on his journey to Heaven. In northern China there is a saying, “男不拜月，女不祭灶” — men do not worship the moon, and women do not worship the Kitchen God — so the ceremony is generally presided over by the male head of the household. After the rite, the sugar melon is distributed to children, carrying the meaning that “after eating sugar melon, one’s words become sweet.”

The folk saying goes: “腊月二十三，糖瓜粘；腊月二十四，扫房子。” — on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, sticky sugar melon; on the twenty-fourth, sweep the house. Worshipping the Kitchen God opens the prelude to the Spring Festival. Once the ceremony is completed, people formally enter “New Year mode” — sweeping away dust, preparing festive goods, and putting up Spring Festival couplets as the New Year draws ever closer.

The custom of worshipping the Kitchen God has a long history. The *Book of Rites · Monthly Ordinances* records that the Zhou dynasty already had a ritual of “sacrificing to the stove,” which was included among the state’s Five Sacrifices. During the Han dynasty, Kitchen God worship became a widely practiced folk custom. The *Book of the Later Han · Biography of Yin Shi* records the story of Yin Zifang sacrificing a yellow sheep to the Kitchen God on the La Day and subsequently becoming wealthy, further embedding the custom in popular life. After the Song dynasty, the date became fixed on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom spread throughout the country and became one of the most important popular religious activities of the final lunar month. The saying “官三民四船家五” — officials on the twenty-third, ordinary people on the twenty-fourth, boat families on the twenty-fifth — reflects differences in ritual dates among social groups. Worshipping the Kitchen God marks the beginning of the “New Year” and is a concrete expression in daily life of the Chinese concept of “the unity of Heaven and humanity”: every human action is watched by Heaven, and human good and evil ultimately receive their reward from above.

On the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, a Kitchen God shrine may be set up in the kitchen at home, or an image of the Kitchen God may be posted, with sugar melon, fruit, and other offerings placed before it and incense burned in worship. Those who do not wish to conduct the rite can simply buy and taste sugar melon while learning about the custom. Supermarkets in northern China sell sugar melon during the twelfth lunar month.

Greater Cold often coincides with the end of the year, and once it passes, Beginning of Spring follows and a new cycle of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms is about to begin. For this reason, many Greater Cold customs carry the meaning of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new. Removing the old and preparing the new, curing New Year foods, and preparing festive goods all form the prelude to the festival Chinese people value most — the Spring Festival.

The principal activities include: sweeping away dust — thoroughly cleaning the house inside and out and removing a year’s accumulated dust, symbolizing the sweeping away of ill fortune and the farewell to the old; pasting windows — covering windows with new paper both to block wind and preserve warmth and to express the idea of renewal; writing Spring Festival couplets — asking someone to write them or writing them oneself in preparation for posting them around the doorway; preparing New Year goods — purchasing everything needed for the festival, from cured pork and sausage to sweets and cakes, from new clothes and hats to fireworks and firecrackers; and curing preserved meats — around Greater Cold, the production of cured foods reaches its peak, and cured pork, sausages, salted fish, and other New Year provisions hang densely beneath the eaves.

Agricultural sayings include “大寒不寒，人马不安” — if Greater Cold is not cold, people and horses will be uneasy — and “大寒到顶点，日后天渐暖” — Greater Cold reaches the extreme, and afterward the weather gradually warms. After Greater Cold, spring draws closer step by step. People respond to the great transformation soon to take place between Heaven and Earth through their busiest preparations for the New Year.

The tradition of welcoming the New Year during Greater Cold has deep roots, and its central idea is “removing the old and establishing the new” — clearing away the dust and inauspiciousness of the passing year while welcoming the blessings and hopes of the coming one. The *Book of Rites · Monthly Ordinances* already records the year-end “Great Nuo” ritual for expelling epidemics, which later evolved into customs such as sweeping away dust, bathing, and putting on new clothes. Greater Cold’s special position at the end of the year gives the solar term a double mission of farewell and renewal: it is both the ending of the solar-term cycle and the beginning of the new year.

During Greater Cold, households can prepare for the New Year through major cleaning, pasting windows, putting up paper window decorations, writing Spring Festival couplets, and purchasing festive goods. Traditional villages and folk-culture villages also offer opportunities to observe year-end scenes — cured meats filling the eaves, Spring Festival couplets covering the streets, and the festive atmosphere growing steadily stronger.

“Doing Ya” is an important commercial sacrificial custom in Chinese folk tradition and originated in ancient worship of the Earth God. Throughout the year there are repeated Ya sacrifices, reflecting the principle of “praying in spring and repaying in autumn.” The sacrifice on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month is the final one of the year and is called Weiya, or the “last Ya.” Among the people, Weiya is regarded as a highly important occasion, when merchants and ordinary households alike worship the Earth God and give thanks for his protection throughout the year.

The highlight is the Weiya banquet. On this day, merchants host a feast for employees to thank them for their hard work over the year. One particularly important dish is plain-cut chicken. The direction in which the chicken’s head points traditionally indicates who may “leave the job” or receive a reward in the coming year. If the chicken’s head faces the owner himself, it means that all employees will remain safe and secure in the year ahead. As times have changed, this suggestive function has gradually faded, but the Weiya banquet has become an important form of company year-end dinner and employee appreciation.

Popular expressions such as “打牙祭” and “牙祭” originate from this custom. Weiya closely connects seasonal time with commercial culture and community relationships and is a distinctive expression of the blending of Chinese folk belief and business ethics.

The Ya sacrifice originated in ancient worship of the Ya God, understood as the Earth God. On the second and sixteenth days of each lunar month, people worshipped this deity in a ritual called “doing Ya.” The Weiya on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month was the final Ya of the year and also the grandest. The custom has been especially prevalent in southern Fujian, Taiwan, and related regions. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the Weiya banquet gradually evolved from a purely sacrificial act into a social occasion in which merchants rewarded employees and relatives and friends gathered together. By the Ming and Qing periods, Weiya had become one of the most important year-end customs of southern Fujian, and it has continued to the present.

Around Greater Cold, companies and businesses often hold Weiya banquets or annual gatherings, where employees can participate in meals, prize drawings, and other activities. At a Weiya banquet, one can pay attention to traditional dishes such as plain-cut chicken and the amusing custom concerning the direction of its head. Merchants may also set up a simple altar on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month to worship the Earth God and hold a modest Weiya meal.

Eating glutinous-rice foods during Greater Cold is a long-standing dietary custom. Glutinous rice is warm in nature and has the effects of tonifying the center and replenishing qi, strengthening the spleen, and warming the stomach, matching the seasonal need to dispel cold and preserve warmth during Greater Cold. Each region has its own way of eating glutinous rice, but all revolve around a single idea: warmth.

The custom is closely connected with the long history of rice cultivation in southern China. Glutinous rice is an important grain crop of the south, and its warm nature, sweet flavor, and nourishing effects have long been recorded in Chinese medical theory. Greater Cold is the period of the lowest temperatures, and ancient people used warm glutinous-rice foods to dispel the chill and replenish energy, reflecting both the dietary wisdom that “medicine and food share the same source” and the seasonal philosophy of “not eating foods out of season.”

During Greater Cold, Eight-Treasure Rice can be prepared at home by soaking and steaming glutinous rice, mixing it with red dates, lotus seeds, longan, red-bean paste, walnuts, and other ingredients, pressing it firmly into a bowl, steaming it again, and inverting it onto a plate. Eight-Treasure Rice and glutinous-rice rice can also be sampled in southern restaurants, while Cold-Dispelling Cake can be purchased from long-established Beijing shops such as Daoxiangcun.

During Greater Cold, northern China is bitterly cold, and people make use of the naturally low temperatures by freezing fruit before eating it. Frozen pears, frozen persimmons, and frozen apples are all classic winter flavors. Frozen pears are made by placing varieties such as Huagai pear and Qiubai pear outdoors to freeze naturally. Once completely frozen and the skin has turned dark brown, they are ready to eat. Before eating, the frozen pear is soaked briefly in cool water until a thin shell of ice forms on its surface. When removed, the flesh inside has softened and is filled with juice. A bite is icy, sweet, and overflowing with liquid — one of the most satisfying ways of eating fruit in the northern winter.

Frozen persimmons are prepared by freezing persimmons before eating them. Persimmons are already sweet and soft, and freezing gives them a firmer texture. Eaten with a spoon, they are cool and sweet, almost like a natural persimmon ice cream. There is a folk saying, “大寒吃冻梨，来年不分离” — eat frozen pears during Greater Cold, and next year there will be no separation. Because “pear” and “separation” are homophones in Chinese, the phrase “not separating” transforms the fruit into an auspicious symbol expressing hopes for family reunion.

The customs of eating frozen pears and frozen persimmons are distinctive forms of food culture created by northern people under severe natural conditions. Before refrigerators existed, the northern winter itself served as a natural “giant freezer.” Fruit harvested in autumn could be placed outdoors and naturally frozen, allowing it to be preserved throughout the winter. Through generations of practice and refinement, the methods of preparing and eating frozen pears and persimmons developed into a distinctive northern winter flavor. The custom reflects the life wisdom of northern people in turning the disadvantages of a cold climate into advantages.

During Greater Cold, frozen pears and frozen persimmons can be purchased from northern fruit stalls. To eat them, place the frozen fruit in cool water for a short time, wait until an ice shell forms on the surface, then remove and peel it. Those outside northern China can also try freezing pears or persimmons at home.

Nanjing people have long placed importance on nourishing the body during Greater Cold, and folk tradition includes the custom of “one chicken for each nine-day period.” Beginning at the Winter Solstice, an old hen is stewed every nine days and a pot of chicken soup is drunk, continuing until the end of the ninth “nine.” Greater Cold falls between the third and fourth “nines,” making chicken soup a centerpiece of the winter table.

Nanjing chicken soup places particular emphasis on ingredients and heat control. A free-range old hen must be used and simmered gently for several hours without excessive seasoning, with only sliced ginger, sections of scallion, and a little salt. The finished broth is crystal-clear, golden and translucent, while the meat becomes tender enough to fall from the bone. A bowl of steaming old-hen soup warms the body from head to toe and drives away the chill.

The Nanjing custom of drinking chicken soup has a long history. “大寒大寒，防风御寒” — Greater Cold, Greater Cold: guard against the wind and defend against the chill — is a long-standing health proverb in the Nanjing region. Traditional Chinese medicine considers chicken warm in nature, with the effects of warming the center, replenishing qi, nourishing essence, and filling the marrow, making it particularly suitable for winter. The Nanjing custom of nourishing the body with chicken soup combines seasonal timing, regional food culture, and traditional Chinese medical ideas and reflects the wisdom that “medicine and food share the same source.”

During Greater Cold, old-hen soup can be sampled in Nanjing restaurants or prepared at home. Choose an old hen and simmer it slowly with ginger slices and scallion sections for two to three hours, adding salt before serving. Goji berries, red dates, and other nourishing ingredients may also be added according to taste.

Greater Cold is the time when northern ice reaches its greatest thickness and strength. Rivers and lakes freeze into firm, level surfaces, creating ideal conditions for winter recreation. Ice sleds, spinning ice tops, ice hockey, tug-of-war on ice, and other activities reach their seasonal height. People chase and play across the frozen surface, using laughter and excitement to dispel the severe cold.

Ice games have a long history in northern China. The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty repeatedly inspected “bingxi” performances at Taiye Pond, today’s Beihai, and ordered court painters to create the *Painting of Ice Games*, which has survived to the present. Folk ice games were freer and livelier, providing winter entertainment suitable for old and young alike.

During Greater Cold, visitors can experience ice activities at major urban park rinks throughout northern China. The rinks at Beihai Park, Shichahai, and the Summer Palace in Beijing remain open until around Beginning of Spring. Officially managed ice rinks should be chosen and safety precautions observed.

Sweeping away dust is one of the most important household activities before the New Year. “腊月二十四，掸尘扫房子” — on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month, dust and sweep the house. People clean homes thoroughly inside and out and remove a year’s accumulated dust, symbolizing “removing the old and establishing the new.” Cobwebs and dust are cleared from walls, windows, and roofs, while furniture and household utensils are polished until they look new. Sweeping away dust is not merely an act of hygiene, but a form of spiritual purification: the frustrations and ill fortune of the old year are swept outside, leaving a clean space for the new year.

The custom has a long history. The *Lüshi Chunqiu* already contains records of year-end “sui chu” house cleaning. The ancients saw a homophonic connection between “尘”, dust, and “陈”, the old, so sweeping away dust came to mean “removing the old and establishing the new,” carrying the auspicious meaning of bidding farewell to the past and welcoming the future. The custom has been transmitted from generation to generation and remains one of the most important household rites before the New Year.

Around Greater Cold, one can conduct a thorough household cleaning — sweeping rooms, wiping doors and windows, washing bedding, and organizing accumulated belongings — and welcome the Spring Festival in a clean and orderly environment.

As Greater Cold falls close to the Spring Festival, many families practice year-end ancestor worship. Offering tables are arranged in ancestral halls at home or before ancestral graves; incense and candles are burned, the three sacrificial animals are presented, paper money is burned, and solemn rites are performed. Year-end ancestor worship expresses gratitude for the protection of the ancestors throughout the year and also invites them to return home for the New Year and share in the reunion of Spring Festival.

The tradition can be traced to the La sacrifices of the pre-Qin period. At the end of the year, ancient people sacrificed animals obtained through hunting to ancestors and the many deities, thanking them for the protection of the past year and praying for good harvests in the next. The tradition has been transmitted for thousands of years and continues in many regions today.

Around Greater Cold, ancestral tablets may be set up at home or families may visit graves to conduct worship. Some traditional villages still preserve collective ancestor rites that visitors can observe.

During Greater Cold, northern winds are bitterly severe. In old rural houses, gaps around doors and windows allowed cold air to enter, so during the twelfth lunar month people repasted windows and sealed door gaps with fresh paper, both blocking wind and preserving warmth and expressing the idea of “replacing the old with the new.” Strong white paper or hemp paper was commonly used. Paste was first brushed onto the window frame, the paper was then applied smoothly, and the fingers were used to press it flat and firm. Once finished, the windows were tightly sealed and the cold wind could no longer easily enter.

The custom has long been practiced in northern rural areas and represents traditional wisdom for coping with severe cold. Before double glazing and modern sealing strips, pasting windows was an essential winter preparation for northern households. Greater Cold was the coldest time of year, and replacing the window paper during the twelfth lunar month both helped preserve warmth and welcomed the New Year through the ritual of “replacing old paper with new.”

During Greater Cold, visitors can observe window-pasting in northern rural areas. Urban households can substitute the practice by putting up paper window decorations or replacing curtains, preserving the same meaning of “removing the old and renewing the home.”

The folk saying goes: “年廿八，洗邋遢；年廿九，洗长久。” — on the twenty-eighth, wash away the grime; on the twenty-ninth, wash for enduring good fortune. Around Greater Cold, especially near the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people traditionally bathe and change clothes together, washing away a year’s fatigue and dust and welcoming the New Year with a clean body and mind. In Cantonese, “邋遢” means unclean or dirty, so “洗邋遢” literally means thoroughly cleansing the body. People believe that washing at the end of the year is not merely a matter of hygiene but also a ritual of “removing impurity and welcoming the new” — cleansing away the dirt and ill fortune of the old year and greeting the new one in a fresh and clean state.

The custom of bathing at the end of the year has a long history. The *Book of Rites · Monthly Ordinances* contains records of “bathing and purification” at year’s end. In traditional society, bathing during winter was inconvenient, so concentrated year-end bathing became an important part of New Year customs. The practice reflects both reverence for the coming year and the value placed on bodily cleanliness.

Around Greater Cold, one can bathe thoroughly, change into clean or new clothing, and welcome the Spring Festival in a fresh state.

During Greater Cold, winter is at its height. In northern China, farmland is largely in a state of rest, and farmers use the agricultural slack season to collect and prepare fertilizer, repair farm tools, and carry out other winter tasks. In southern China, farmers must protect overwintering crops such as winter wheat and rapeseed from cold and frost, clear drainage ditches promptly, remove excess water, and apply pre-winter topdressing to ensure that crops survive the winter safely. Around Greater Cold is also a key period for pruning fruit trees, and orchard growers cut back branches in preparation for the following year’s harvest.

The agricultural customs of Greater Cold are the accumulated product of thousands of years of Chinese farming civilization. Agricultural sayings such as “大寒不寒，人马不安” — if Greater Cold is not cold, people and horses will be uneasy — and “大寒见三白，农人衣食足” — if Greater Cold brings three whitenings of snow, farmers will have sufficient food and clothing — summarize climatic experience accumulated through long observation. This agricultural wisdom, passed orally from generation to generation, formed part of the traditional Chinese guide to agricultural production.

During Greater Cold, visitors can travel to rural areas to learn about winter-slack agricultural work such as fertilizer preparation, farm-tool repair, and fruit-tree pruning. Agricultural tourism parks also remain open in winter.

Lingnan has a tradition of “planting plum trees during Greater Cold.” Plum blossoms are in flower at this time, while soil temperatures are suitable and the spring rains have not yet arrived, making it an ideal period for transplanting plum trees. Lingnan households select plum plants around Greater Cold and transplant them into courtyards or pots, both decorating the home and drawing on the auspicious meaning of “plum blossoms announcing spring.” Plum blossoms are among the first flowers to open in the desolate winter and are regarded as the “first flower to announce spring.” Planting plum trees to welcome spring expresses people’s eager expectations for the coming season.

The custom is closely related to Lingnan’s warm and humid climate. Planting and transplanting plum trees require careful seasonal timing, and Greater Cold is considered a prime period for moving them. Southern Chinese people have long loved plum blossoms, and planting, viewing, and composing poetry about them are important parts of winter cultural life. The plum’s ability to flower in the cold has further made it a symbol of fearlessness in adversity and unyielding perseverance.

Around Greater Cold, plum plants can be purchased at flower markets and transplanted into courtyard beds or pots. Fertilize, water, and wait for the blossoms to open.

In Shandong, Hebei, Henan, and other northern regions, the period around Greater Cold is the season for “steaming offerings.” This means steaming flour foods intended as offerings to ancestors and deities during the Spring Festival, including decorative steamed buns, date mountains, date cakes, and flour fish. Using fermented dough, people shape auspicious forms such as peaches of longevity, pomegranates, lotus flowers, swallows, and carp. After steaming, red dots are added to the surface. These foods serve both as offerings to gods and ancestors and as gifts when visiting relatives and friends during the Spring Festival.

The “date mountain” is one of the most representative steamed offerings. Dough is kneaded into rounded forms and stacked layer upon layer, with red dates placed between each level, producing a shape resembling a mountain and therefore giving the food its name. On New Year’s Eve, the date mountain is offered before the stove or ancestral tablets, symbolizing “rising step by step and living a sweet life.”

The custom developed from northern China’s flour-food culture and Spring Festival sacrificial traditions. Wheat-based foods are the staple of northern China, where flour-working techniques became highly refined. Around Spring Festival, people prepared elaborate flour offerings to express reverence for ancestors and deities. Steaming offerings during the twelfth lunar month remains an important part of New Year preparations in northern rural areas, and is still very popular in Shandong, Hebei, and elsewhere. Steam rising together with the fragrance of wheat brings the atmosphere of the New Year early into the season of Greater Cold.

Around Greater Cold, visitors can observe the making of steamed offerings in northern villages — kneading dough, allowing it to rise, shaping it, and steaming it until decorative buns and date mountains emerge amid clouds of steam. Simple decorative buns or date mantou can also be made at home to experience the custom.