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Chinese Festivals - Winter Solstice Festival
As early as 2,500 years ago, about the Spring
and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), China had determined the point of
Winter Solstice by observing movements of the sun with a sundial. It
is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be
each December 22 or 23 according to the Gregorian
calendar.
The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day, so it should be celebrated.
The Winter Solstice became a festival during
the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and thrived in the Tang and Song
dynasties (618-1279). The Han people regarded Winter Solstice as a
"Winter Festival", so officials would organize celebrating
activities. On this day, both officials and common people would have
a rest. The army was stationed in, frontier fortresses closed and
business and traveling stopped. Relatives and friends presented to
each other delicious food. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the
Winter Solstice was a day to offer scarifies to Heaven and
ancestors. Emperors would go to suburbs to worship the Heaven; while
common people offered sacrifices to their deceased parents or other
relatives. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) even had the record that
"Winter Solstice is as formal as the Spring Festival," showing the
great importance attached to this day.
In some parts of
Northern China, people eat dumpling soup on this day; while
residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will
keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. But in parts of South
China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of
red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil
things. In other places, people also eat tangyuan, a kind of
stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. The Winter
Solstice rice dumplings could be used as sacrifices to ancestors, or
gifts for friends and relatives. The Taiwan people even keep the
custom of offering nine-layer cakes to their ancestors. They make
cakes in the shape of chicken, duck, tortoise, pig, cow or sheep
with glutinous rice flour and steam them on different layers of a
pot. These animals all signify auspiciousness in Chinese tradition.
People of the same surname or family clan gather at their ancestral
temples to worship their ancestors in age order. After the
sacrificial ceremony, there is always a grand banquet.
⇒ Chinese Calendar Wedding Dates
⇐ Chinese Festivals - Double Ninth Festival
✍: China Internet Information
2021-10-07, 2406🔥, 0💬
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