Winter Solstice Festival - December 22

Winter Solstice occurs exactly when Earth's axial tilt is furthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23 degree 26'. It provides the longest night of the year.

Tomorrow, December 22, is the 'Dongzhi' Festival's for Chinese. In the olden days this festival was the 2nd most important festival, all the family members that were working away from home were expected to return home for the reunion dinner and to stay back until the 15th day of the Chinese new Year before leaving home for another year for their businesses or works again.



Glutinous rice ball in sugar syrup is the first item to serve the family members early in the morning. In the olden days, after eating the rice ball, one could consider himself one year older. For 'Teochew', married daughters are forbidden to see the rice ball, don't talk about eating the rice ball. The saying is that the wealth and prosperity of the family would leak to their in-law's family.

In the Chinese Lunar Calender, there are these things called 24 seasons that are fixed according to the sun's movement for agriculture purpose to guide the farmers in their farming activities. The Winter solstice or Dongzhi is the 22nd season.




During the Warring States period before 221 BC, the ancient Chinese had only two seasons in a year, Spring and Autumn. That is why that warring period in Chinese history is referred to as Spring Autumn Warring States.



It was during the Qin Dynasty that a year was divided into seasons based on the sun's movement for purpose of better farm management and for coordinating agriculture activities.


Based on historical record, the current 24 seasons were established during the Han dynasty at around 104 BC

Courtesy of Allen Tsai

The ancient Chinese determined the seasons by observing the movement through measuring the length and direction of the shadow of a pole as well as the orientation of the Big Dipper at night. For example, they noticed that when the Dipper points to the east, it is spring; points to the south, it's summer; points to the west, it's autumn and when the Dipper points to the north, it's winter.

They were also able to find out the length of one complete solar cycle was 365.25 days. They also found out the discrepancy between the a solar cycle (year) that has 365.25 days and a lunar year formed by 12 lunar cycles that has 355 days. The difference is 10 days. To solve the problem, they added an extra lunar month to the year, once every 3 years. That is why the Chinese New Year that is based on lunar calender keeps on shifting between mid-January to mid-February. Without this 13 months arrangement once every 3 years, the Chinese would have cerebrated the Chinese New Year in August like the Muslim Hari Raya Puasa. Hehehe.

(Courtesy of Allen Tsai)