Precipitating the big chill

Xiaoxue, Zhang Lei

2022-11-22 -

Minor Snow, or is traditionally a time of preparation and feasting as temperatures drop and winter draws near, reports.

It was Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) scholar Wu Cheng who compiled A Collective Interpretation of the Seventy-two Phenological Terms, in which he defined the laws of the traditional 24 solar terms and each term’s seasonal features into three minor terms. He portrayed Minor Snow, or

xiaoxue, the 20th solar term, as a time when the rain falls and is thinned by the cold, condensing into light snow.

Xiaoxue, which falls on Tuesday this year, is when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 240 degrees. It is a solar term that reflects precipitation and temperature with a high frequency of cold snaps and strong cold air activities. The arrival of the solar term heralds colder currents and increasing precipitation. Sometimes it arrives in a half frozen state, which is called wet snow in meteorology, and sometimes in the shape of white ice particles the size of rice grains.

Customary behavior

In the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the White Snow Festival is usually held around this time of the year, when family and friends gather to dine, sing and dance in celebration of the first snowfall and pray for a good harvest in the coming year.

The Uygur people have a kind of reverence for the color of white, as, to them, it symbolizes the rays of sun.

Out of their many customs, one of the most intriguing is the sending of “snow letters”.

At the beginning of the snowfall, several friends will jointly write a “snow letter”, and select one of them to “deliver” it to another friend’s house. They congratulate the friend and his family in the form of poetry, and finally in the letter asks the recipient to host an evening of entertainment. The messenger must skillfully place the letter somewhere in the recipient’s home that it will not be easily found. If the host finds the letter before the messenger leaves, the messenger will be forced to host the party.

Moreover, the intended recipient will smear coal on the face of the messenger and make him ride back home on a donkey. At the party, each participant must perform to praise the snow, or their pure friendship and peaceful life, like the snow, will melt away.

The party will enter a climax when everyone plays and dances with joy. The dances of the Uygur people are known for their fast and varied rotations. The young men and women at the party perform various dances one after another until late into the night.

The ancients divided xiaoxue into three equal minor terms, describing the climate change with three omens. During the first five days, rainbows are nowhere to be seen. In the second minor term the yang energy begins to rise and the yin energy will sink. The last term sees all things turn silent.

Xiaoxue signifies that winter has officially arrived. Everything loses its vitality as the ancients described.

However, in Beijing, one particular custom makes the solar term come alive.

“Beijing people have the traditional habit of growing daffodils at this time of the year, known as ‘drying’ daffodils,” says folklore expert Gao Wei.

“On the day of xiaoxue, the potted plant should be taken out and bathed in the open air. In the early years, it was difficult to cultivate flowers in winter. As such, flower farmers cultivated some small and highly ornamental flowers that grow in greenhouses. Daffodils later became a favorite.”

In northern China, around xiaoxue, farmers begin to prune the fruit trees, wrapping the trunks with straw-woven foil to prevent fruit trees from freezing, and storing cabbage for consumption in winter.

Pickling time

For thousands of years, xiaoxue has not only lent itself to the poems and songs of literati, but has also infiltrated people’s daily life.

China is a country with vast land and abundant resources. Chinese people love to eat. When the snow falls, people across the country celebrate the arrival of xiaoxue and feast with gusto.

In ancient times, there were fewer varieties of food, and even fewer storage options. In order to have enough vegetables and meat to endure the winter, people invented the method of pickling or drying vegetables, mainly cabbage and radish, or meat, to prolong their shelf life as long as possible to make it through the winter. Today, although preservation is no longer a problem, the custom of pickling has been preserved and the resultant delicacies have become signature foods in many regions.

In Nanjing, Jiangsu province, it is a custom to start pickling vegetables on xiaoxue, and cure meat on daxue, or Major Snow.

Many housewives will be busy washing the jars and arranging pickles.

Wang Shenglin, who lives in the city’s Chananluyuan neighborhood, recalls his childhood days when, every year after xiaoxue, his mother would buy vegetables and pickle them in a large pot so that the whole family could eat for the entire winter. “For a long time, our mantra has been: There’s no panic in winter if you have pickles,” he says.

Gu Zhong, a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) gourmet from Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, introduced seven kinds of pickled vegetables. In his book he elaborated on the ingredients, pickling methods, eating time and taste in detail. Like people in Nanjing, those in Jiaxing take the ritual of pickling during xiaoxue very seriously.

“Jiaxing people prefer pickling potherb mustard. Before pickling, the washed vegetables are usually dried on bamboo poles or clotheslines, and some are hung on the wall, or even on the roof tiles of the house. They are part of the landscape in rural Jiaxing around xiaoxue,” says Zhu Qiao, a local pickle aficionado.

“We love to eat it, especially after having a big fish or meat. Its leaves will turn red and purple after heavy snow, so it is literally called ‘red in the snow’.”

Drinking in the season

In ancient times, making wine was mostly done during xiaoxue. Drinking was often an essential part of sacrificial ceremonies. The end of the year was the peak period for various sacrificial activities, and there was a great demand for wine. This custom of making wine in early winter has continued into modern times, especially in Zhejiang.

In Anji, people are still used to preparing New Year wine around xiaoxue. In Pinghu, the local wine is stored during the first 10 days of the 10th month on the lunar calendar, and is called “October White”. It is made with white rice and spring water. When the spring comes, people add peach blossom petals to the wine to cultivate the aroma. In Changxing, wine must be made on the actual day of xiaoxue. It is said that the spring water is particularly clear and sweet at that time.

In many regions in southern China, there is still the custom of eating ciba, or glutinous rice cakes, during xiaoxue. In ancient times, glutinous rice cake was a traditional festival offering. It was first used as a sacrifice by farmers to the god of cattle.

Ciba is made by steaming glutinous rice and then punching it through special stone grooves. It is very labor-intensive to make by hand, but the finished product is soft and delicate. For the Hakka people of Guangdong and Fujian provinces, ciba is the same as the word “roll”, as the dish involves rolling the rice dough many times and finishing by topping it with sesame and peanut crumbs.

The Tujia people in Guizhou province will carry out the annual tradition of slaughtering pigs to welcome the new year during xiaoxue. The farmers use the premium fresh pork to cook up a feast, and they invite neighbors and villagers to gather and share.

A divine tradition

“In the traditional farming society, there is no farm work after the arrival of xiaoxue. In northern China, people begin to ‘cat the winter’, a term to describe how people curl up in bed like a cat,” says Liu Yida a writer from the Beijing Folk Literature and Art Association.

In the old days, people in Beijing liked to play “winter worms”, that is, they began to raise crickets. Even now, people have kept the custom of flying kites and shaking diabolo, or Chinese yo-yo, if the weather permits.

“As well as all that, there was a custom of ‘divining snow’ in old Beijing,” Liu says. “If there was no snow, farmers would hold a ceremony to pray for some, hoping for a good harvest in the coming year; fur traders in the city would gather to drink and wait until night. At midnight, they burned incense and kowtowed to the northwest, hoping that the weather would become colder and their clothes would sell well.”

As xiaoxue is a solar term with a high frequency of cold snaps and strong cold air currents, in addition to keeping warm, sunbathing and exercising to keep out the cold, Wang Shidong, chief physician at the Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, suggests eating more black foods, such as rice, sesame, dates and fungus, to quickly restore energy.

“We should also pay attention to strengthening our physique and improving our resistance to the cold. Some essential steps are to ensure adequate sleep and soak the feet in hot water every night to promote blood circulation in the lower body,” he says.