The solstice of winter is a severe winter season. People use food to keep warm and cure diseases. After thousands of years of development, they gradually formed a unique seasonal food tradition, such as wonton, jiaozi, glutinous rice balls, red bean porridge, dog meat and mutton. There are many Han folk stories along with the dietary customs from winter solstice to Sunday.

The custom of eating wonton on the solstice in winter has a long history. According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu in the north often harassed the frontier, and the people were restless. At that time, there were two leaders, Xiongnu tribe and Tun tribe, which were very cruel.

The people hated it, so they wrapped it into a corner with meat stuffing and called it "wonton" with the voice of "muddy" and "tun". They hated it and prayed for peace and peace. Because wonton was originally made on the winter solstice, every family later ate wonton on the winter solstice. In the Southern Song Dynasty, people in Lin 'an still ate wonton on the solstice in winter, which also contained hatred for foreigners and longing for peace.

People in Henan have the custom of eating jiaozi from the winter solstice, which is called "pinching frozen ears". There is also a legend: it is said that Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in Nanyang, was originally a medical officer, and it was a snowy winter when he retired in his later years. He saw that the villagers in Nanyang were hungry and cold, and many people's ears were frozen.

So he asked his disciples to set up a medicine shed in Guandong, Nanyang. They cooked mutton, peppers and some herbs for removing cold in a pot, fished them out and chopped them, kneaded them into ears with leather bags, and then put them down to cook them in a pot to make a soup for removing cold and correcting ears for the villagers to eat. After the villagers had eaten, their frozen ears were cured. Later, on the solstice in winter, people imitated this way of eating by pinching their ears, saying that eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter would not freeze people.

In Jiangnan water town, there is a custom of eating red bean porridge from winter to night. This is also due to the ancient legend, the son of Gong, the leader of the southern tribe, suffered many battles and defeats. He died in the winter solstice, and became a plague ghost after his death, which continued to harm the people.

Because this epidemic ghost is most afraid of red beans, people cook red bean porridge on the solstice in winter to drive away the epidemic ghost and prevent disasters. Later, this kind of red bean porridge was also called "winter solstice porridge", in which in addition to red beans, red dates and walnuts were added to supplement the body.