Since old times it is said that eating pumpkins and rice porridges with red beans is good for your health. Especially eating pumpkins is a common custom for the winter solstice day all over Japan, so every year grocery shops sell lots of pumpkins on the day.
According to an old saying, you won't get sick if you eat pumpkins on the winter solstice day. Also it means wishing a good fortune. The photo on the left hand side is showing a typical Japanese pumpkin dish "Kabocha-no-nimono". It is a boiled pumpkin with soy sauce and sugar. I also added some shiitake mushrooms and Yuzu peel for additional flavor.
Yuzu is a Japanese citrus that has a wonderful aroma. It is used a lot for Japanese winter seasonal dishes for flavor. However a major usage of Yuzu on the winter solstice day is not cooking. People put whole Yuzu fruits in their bath tab when they take a bath and enjoy the Yuzu aroma bath. The hot water with Yuzu fruits can make people's body warmer than plain hot water and people say the Yuzu aroma bath can prevent catching a cold.
Why people started these customs on the winter solstice day? Apparently the winter solstice day marks the start of a big traditional season's cycle since night is longest on that day. People in old times thought darkness becomes maximum on the day, but on the other hand it was considered as a re-start day because daytime starts to get longer from now on. The sun is recovering the power. Thus people believed things are getting better from the winter solstice day, and that may be the reason people started to practice the customs with a wish for good future.
So if you didn't eat pumpkins and didn't take a Yuzu aroma bath on the 22nd, don't worry, you have survived the day of maximum darkness!
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