People across China would celebrate Xiaohan in traditional ways.
Cuisines fit for Minor Cold
In Tianjin, there is a custom to eat huangyacai, a kind of Chinese cabbage, during Minor Cold. Abundant amounts of Vitamins A and B can be found in huangyacai. As huangyacai is fresh and tender, it is fit for frying, roasting and braising.
According to tradition, the Cantonese eat glutinous rice in the morning during Minor Cold. Cantonese people usually add some fried preserved pork, sausage and peanuts and mix them into the rice. According to the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine, glutinous rice has the effect of tonifying the spleen and stomach in the cold season.
In ancient times, people in Nanjing took Minor Cold quite seriously, but as time went by, the celebration of Minor Cold gradually faded. However, the custom of eating vegetable rice is still followed today. The rice is steamed and is unspeakably delicious. Among the ingredients, aijiaohuang (a kind of green vegetable), sausage and salted duck are the specialties in Nanjing.
Another special cuisine fit for Minor Cold is Laba porridge.
Volunteers pack laba porridge, a kind of rice porridge with nuts and dried fruit eaten on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month which falls on the Jan. 5 next year, at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 30, 2016. Linyin Temple were busy in preparing laba porridge which would be distributed to citizens and tourists for free at the temple and to some hospitals, nursing homes, welfare houses and migrant schools etc.. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)
