"Nourishing the winter"

“立冬補(bǔ)冬”

On the first day of Start of Winter, there is a custom, "nourishing the winter", in Southeast China in places such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces. To prepare for the oncoming cold winter, people there like to eat high-calorie food such as chicken, duck, beef, mutton, and fish, which are usually stewed with the four Chinese medicines: angelica, ligusticum wallichii, Chinese herbaceous peony and rehmannia glutinosa libosch, to enhance the effectiveness of the nourishment.

在立冬這天，中國(guó)東南部的一些地區(qū)，比如福建、廣東、臺(tái)灣省，都有“補(bǔ)冬”習(xí)俗。為了應(yīng)對(duì)即將到來(lái)的寒冬，那里的人會(huì)吃雞、鴨、牛、羊、魚(yú)肉這樣的高熱量食物，而且通常都會(huì)加入當(dāng)歸、川芎、白芍、熟地黃這四味中藥燉成“四物湯”來(lái)提高滋補(bǔ)效果。