Did you eat your jiaozi 饺子?
Diane Geng | Posted on December 24th, 2007 in Local Culture. 
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Holiday greetings have been floating around the RCEF email chain recently. But they’re not all about Christmas. 
Actually, Zhenzhong reminded us that December 22 was 冬至 （Dong Zhi), a very special day in Chinese culture because it’s “the day with the shortest time of sunshine and the longest night” in the Northern hemisphere. You’re supposed to eat jiaozi on this day to keep your ears from freezing off. So it was almost midnight and Jikky, JP, and I were in danger of losing our ears. Fortunately, JP’s stomach growled to the rescue and he cooked some frozen jiaozi so we were saved. And yes, we ate more than 2 each, Sandy and Cheng Tao, so don’t worry. Can anyone explain the jiaozi-frozen ears link?
More on 冬至 here: http://baike.baidu.com/view/16674.htm.
Modified
Sandy says:
Added on December 24th, 2007 at %I:%M %pAWWW haha
I’m sure you guys enjoyed it!
Cheng Tao says:
Added on January 3rd, 2008 at %I:%M %p…hehe maybe you should learn how to house make jiao zi yourself !
about jiaozi-frozen ears link… as usual, chinese memory somebody by eating special things hehe, like eat zhong-zi for qu-yuan.
每年农历冬至这天，不论贫富，饺子是必不可少的节日饭。谚云：“十月一，冬至到，家家户户吃水饺。”这种习俗，是因纪念“医圣”张仲景冬至舍药留下的。
张仲景是南阳稂东人，他著《伤寒杂病论》，集医家之大成，被历代医者奉为经典。张仲景有名言：“进则救世，退则救民；不能为良相，亦当为良医。”东汉时他曾任长沙太守，访病施药，大堂行医。后毅然辞官回乡，为乡邻治病．其返乡之时，正是冬季。他看到白河两岸乡亲面黄肌瘦，饥寒交迫，不少人的耳朵都冻烂了。便让其弟子在南阳东关搭起医棚，支起大锅，在冬至那天舍“祛寒娇耳汤”医治冻疮。他把羊肉、辣椒和一些驱寒药材放在锅里熬煮，然后将羊肉、药物捞出来切碎，用面包成耳朵样的“娇耳”，煮熟后，分给来求药的人每人两只“娇耳”，一大碗肉汤。人们吃了“娇耳”，喝了“祛寒汤”，浑身暖和，两耳发热，冻伤的耳朵都治好了。后人学着“娇耳”的样子，包成食物，也叫“饺子”或“扁食”。
冬至吃饺子，是不忘“医圣”张仲景“祛寒娇耳汤”之恩。至今南阳仍有“冬至不端饺子碗，冻掉耳朵没人管”的民谣。