Preserved meats and customs are an essential part of the celebration as Lunar New Year commences, Zhang Lei reports.

A tourist enjoys snow tubing at the Happy Magic Watercube in Beijing on Jan 9. (FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY)

Greater Cold, or dahan, like the previous Minor Cold, is a solar term that expresses the degree of severe chill. Dahan, spanning 15 days, is in the period of the third and fourth "nines" chart, a folk observation method of seasonal changes starting from Winter Solstice, in which every nine days count as a period until the "ninth nine", the 81st day, heralds the official arrival of spring. During dahan, the cold waves frequently move southward, making it the coldest season of the year. Greater Cold arrives when the sun reaches 300 celestial degrees. In ancient times, it meant that the break in farming in winter is coming to an end.

Greater Cold, the last of the traditional Twenty-Four Solar Terms, falls on Friday this year, one day before Lunar New Year's Eve. As eating cured meat is one of the customs of dahan, the demand for preserved food, in these more prosperous times, is more than in previous years. Statistics from Ele.me, one of China's nationwide food delivery platforms, show that in the past week, sales of preserved meat, such as Sichuan-style sausage, Hangzhou seasoned duck and Cantonese-style sausage, rose by more than 20 percent year-on-year. The meat is marinated with salt or sauce, and then placed in a ventilated place to dry during Major Snow, three solar terms prior to Greater Cold. There have been records about the tradition of eating preserved food as early as in the Rites of Zhou, a publication documenting bureaucratic systems during the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC).

Greater Cold is divided into three subterms according to phenomena recorded by folk observations. In the first five days, hens start to hatch chickens; during the middle term, falcons and eagles are in a state of extreme predation; and the last five days see ice in a lake freeze from the edge to the center, where it is strongest and thickest.

Waves of seawater frozen on fences at the beach in Yantai, Shandong province. (TANG KE / ZOU ZHONG / CHEN YOUZHU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Although the wind is blowing outside, Yang Xiaobo, a Beijing resident, who sits comfortably, binge-watching TV soap operas in his warm home, expresses his satisfaction. "It's just in time for the cold.The temperature dropped suddenly a week ago before dahan," says Yang. "I come from a rural family. Back in my hometown, we all know that if it is particularly cold during dahan, the crops will grow extremely well in the coming year."

Ye Chunsheng, a doctoral supervisor of the Chinese Department at Sun Yatsen University, explains the folk wisdom, saying the severe cold at this time of the year is a good sign, which means that pests and disease will not be able to survive the winter, and there will be a good harvest next year.

In Guangzhou, Guangdong province, the downtown market is buzzing with people who are looking to buy glutinous rice, as it is the local custom to eat it on dahan. Although this custom sounds simplistic, it contains the life experience accumulated by the ancients. Glutinous rice is a type of food with relatively high calories, which is good at keeping out the cold.

The customers, mainly middle-aged and elderly people, bring three or four catties (a catty is a Chinese measure equal to 500 grams) to eat with the whole family. Many neighbors chat with the stall owners, discussing how to cook glutinous rice on the morning of the dahan day to make it tastier. An owner of a grain store in Longjin Market, surnamed Liang, says the supply in his small shop has fallen short of demand since Minor Cold, so for dahan, he deliberately stocked more than 200 catties. All have been sold.

A volunteer helps a villager decorate the window with auspicious paper-cuts for Spring Festival. (TANG KE / ZOU ZHONG / CHEN YOUZHU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The Cantonese put a special emphasis on dietary tonic. Glutinous rice has the effect of toning the spleen and replenishing qi, the body's innate intelligence according to traditional Chinese medicine. Glutinous rice is sweet in taste, warm in nature, and has the effect of protecting against cold. People in Guangdong steam it, adding a variety of cured meats to enhance the flavor. The cured meat usually includes sausage, chicken and duck. They take a little of each, put them into a clay pot, cook them with the rice, and add a spoonful of soy sauce when serving.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, people steam glutinous rice with red bean, barley, lotus seeds, goji berries, longan flesh and red dates over a high heat, and then add sugar to make it into the "eight-treasure rice". It tastes sweet and is regarded as a good treat for guests on dahan. Equally, the Beijing custom of eating cakes made of glutinous rice embodies the same auspicious goodwill, not only because glutinous rice has higher sugar content, it also has the effect of dispelling cold, moisturizing the lungs and strengthening the stomach.

In this cold winter season, stews and soups are added to the daily diet of Nanjing people in Jiangsu province. The traditional "one chicken every nine days" custom since Winter Solstice is still respected by many families. Nanjing people mostly choose old hens, which are either stewed alone, or cooked with ginseng, wolfberry and black fungus.Chicken soup in the cold winter is a real treat. However, perhaps more characteristic of Nanjing is the stewed pork hock with pickled vegetables made during Greater Cold, a delicacy rarely found in other places across the country.

Winter swimming enthusiasts in Langfang, Hebei province. (TANG KE / ZOU ZHONG / CHEN YOUZHU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Although the Greater Cold refers to a solar term, folklore expert Liu Xiaochang's recollection of his childhood is quite the opposite. "I was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Greater Cold rings the bell for Lunar New Year.Every corner of the city is filled with the lively festive atmosphere, and the strong flavor of Spring Festival blows in our faces," Liu says. "No matter how cold the weather is, it can't stop the enthusiasm of the people for celebrating Spring Festival. We often say 'it's not cold when it's cold'."

The Kitchen God Festival, or Little New Year, the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month usually collides with Greater Cold, so the custom of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God is naturally indispensable. Legend says zaoshen (or "the god of stove or kitchen") was sent by the Jade Emperor to every home to monitor people's daily good and evil. He returns to the Heavenly Palace at the end of each year to report the people's behavior to the Jade Emperor so that he can reward or punish them.

Therefore, when honoring zaoshen, people put candies, purified water, beans and hay on the table in front of the kitchen god's statue, the last three of which are offered to prepare his mount for the ascension to heaven.When offering the sacrifice, the candies should be melted with fire and applied to the mouth of the statue. The purpose of this is to prevent him from speaking ill. Commonly used written couplets often contain words and sentences such as "kitchen god speaks good things, return to the palace to bring auspiciousness" and "kitchen god speaks good things, and the lower realms on earth keep safe".

As the season often coincides with the end of the year, it naturally has a little more meaning when saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. In addition to doing farm work in accordance with the solar terms, people in rural regions also have to run around for Spring Festival, catching up with the temple fair, buying New Year's goods, writing Spring Festival couplets, preparing various sacrificial offerings, sweeping dust and cleaning things, and preparing various Lunar New Year dishes, such as chicken, duck and fish. At the same time, they worship ancestors and various gods and pray for good weather in the coming year.

Cured meats hang on racks to dry in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province. (TANG KE / ZOU ZHONG / CHEN YOUZHU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

In the old days, there were often lines of people scrambling to buy sesame straws on the streets, as people believe in the old saying "sesame blossoms, fortunes up and high". On New Year's Eve, people sprinkle sesame straws on the road for children to crush, an auspicious token for "stepping on the year", because the pronunciation of words "crush" and "year" are homophonic in Chinese, both as sui. Folklore expert Wang Laihua says these interesting folk customs during the Greater Cold season reflect people's desire to pursue a happy life and good health in the new year, and also add rich and diverse color to China's folk festivals.

Dahan also collides with weiya ji, or the year-end dinner, a traditional annual celebration for tudigong, or the "earth god". Weiya originated from the custom of worshipping the earth god by counting ya (tooth) as one period and offering sacrifice every ya. The second day of the second lunar month is the first ya. From then on, ya will be counted on the second and 16th day of every lunar month.The 16th day of the 12th lunar month happens to be the final ya, called "tail tooth", or weiya.

Doing "tooth" means that, on these days, people must worship the earth god with various offerings on the table, so that he can enjoy the banquet. The offerings include meat (chicken, fish and pork), four fruits, among which citrus and apples are a must, and spring rolls.

On the day of weiya ji, businessmen hold a banquet, and sliced cold chicken is an indispensable dish. It is said that whomever the chicken head faces will be fired in the next year. Therefore, some bosses generally point the chicken head toward themselves, so that employees can enjoy the delicious food with peace and have a prosperous year after returning home.

"These activities collide with dahan. Their formation is not necessarily related to this solar term, but it enriches the cultural content of the Greater Cold," says An Deming, vice-chairman of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association.

An says the Twenty-Four Solar Terms are like memos, reminding people to follow nature and go with the times. They contain culture and common sense.They also reveal the philosophical wisdom of "harmony between man and nature" and require respect for nature, which is still applicable today.

"The traditional concept of healthcare pays attention to 'autumn harvest and winter storage', which also reminds people that when Greater Cold comes, we must follow the laws of nature, especially in winter, to recuperate and not consume too much energy and physical strength," An says.

He believes that with the development of the times and people's needs, some customs related to solar terms will be strengthened, while others will gradually fade. At the same time, new customs may also slowly form and become popular.