Start of Winter: why everyone eats dumplings this week

On an American calendar, winter starts at the solstice in late December. On the Chinese calendar it starts about six weeks earlier, at 立冬lì dōng, the Start of Winter. This year it falls on Saturday, November 7.

You might not feel much difference outside. But in Chinese homes it's a real turning point: the day to start eating for the cold, and in the north, the day a lot of families make dumplings.

A calendar that follows the sun

The Chinese year runs on two clocks. Holidays like Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival follow the moon, so their dates move around. Farming followed the sun instead, through the 二十四节气èr shí sì jié qì, the 24 solar terms. Each term lasts about 15 days and marks a change in the weather, the crops or the light. Because they track the sun, they land on almost the same date every year.

Start of Winter is the 19th term. Five more follow before the year turns over:

In 2016 UNESCO added the 24 solar terms to its list of the world's intangible cultural heritage. They are still printed on Chinese calendars and still guide what people cook.

The three signs of early winter

Old almanacs split each term into three five-day stages, each with a sign to watch for. For Start of Winter they are: water begins to freeze, the ground begins to freeze, and pheasants go into the sea and turn into giant clams.

Ancient observers noticed that pheasants disappeared as the weather turned, just as large clams with similar striped shells turned up along the coast. They drew the obvious conclusion. It's wrong, but you can see how they got there.

Why dumplings?

The best-known version of this saying is about the Winter Solstice, but plenty of northern families say it at Start of Winter too:

立冬不端饺子碗，冻掉耳朵没人管 lì dōng bù duān jiǎo zi wǎn, dòng diào ěr duo méi rén guǎn If you don't pick up a bowl of dumplings at Start of Winter, nobody will care when your ears freeze off.

The ears are the joke. 饺子jiǎo zi are shaped a bit like ears, and a popular story ties them to 张仲景Zhāng Zhòngjǐng, a doctor of the Eastern Han dynasty, nearly 1,800 years ago. Coming home one winter, he found villagers with frostbitten ears. He stewed mutton with warming herbs, wrapped it in dough folded into ear shapes, and handed them out with hot broth.

It's a folk story, not history, and it's usually set at the Winter Solstice. Families don't agree on which day the dumplings belong to. Plenty settle the question by making dumplings on both.

There's also a practical reason. Start of Winter was the end of the harvest season. The work was done, there was time to sit around a table and fold, and making dumplings is easier with many hands.

"Filling up" for winter in the south

In Fujian, Taiwan and parts of Guangdong the custom is called 补冬bǔ dōng, "replenishing for winter." Instead of dumplings, families make rich, warming dishes: ginger duck (姜母鸭jiāng mǔ yā) and sesame oil chicken (麻油鸡má yóu jī) in Fujian and Taiwan, mutton soup (羊肉汤yáng ròu tāng) or hot pot in other places.

The thinking comes from traditional Chinese ideas about the seasons. Spring is for growth, summer for growing tall, autumn for harvest, and winter for 冬藏dōng cáng, storing up. In practice that means warming food, more rest, earlier nights and fewer big projects. It's a cultural tradition, not medical advice, and good luck convincing anyone's grandmother otherwise.

An old ceremony for welcoming winter

This day once mattered at the highest levels. According to the Book of Rites, a classic compiled more than 2,000 years ago, the court astronomer announced the date three days ahead, the emperor began a fast, and on the day itself he led his officials to the northern edge of the capital to "welcome winter" (迎冬yíng dōng). North was the direction of winter, the same way east belonged to spring.

Nobody does that anymore.

How to mark it at home

Pick one or two:

• Make dumplings together. Buy wrappers, make a simple pork and napa cabbage filling, and let the kids fold. Lumpy ones taste the same. Here's a full recipe, with a cooking mode that walks you through it.
• Cook one warming dish. Anything with ginger, lamb, bone broth or black sesame counts. Even a mug of ginger tea with brown sugar is a start.
• Go to bed a little earlier this week. That's the whole idea of winter storage.
• Notice the season. Take a walk and look for the first frost, the last leaves, or the first morning you can see your breath. Write the date down and compare next year.
• Call someone older. Ask how they marked the start of winter when they were young. (Questions below.)

Ask your grandparents

Bring these to your next call or visit. Write down what they say, in their words.

1. Did your family eat anything special when winter started? Dumplings, soup, something else?
2. Did you make dumplings at Start of Winter, at the Winter Solstice, or only at New Year?
3. How did you keep warm as a child? Was your home heated? In many northern Chinese cities, public heating still switches on around November 15.
4. What did winter smell or sound like where you grew up?