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Saturday 22 December 2007

Winter Solstice Festival


Literally meaning the "arrival of winter”, Dong Zhi is the second most
important festival of the Chinese calendar, and is considered the thanksgiving
of the Chinese calendar. Dong Zhi is the last festival of the year. Coinciding
with the winter solstice, it is a time for the entire family to get together to
celebrate the past good year. Glutinous rice balls known as Tang Yuan
are cooked and eaten to signify unity and harmony within the family.


Dong Zhi is the celebration of the good year one and his family has enjoyed.
In ancient China, many poor people were not able to protect themselves from
the blistering cold winter, and they would often resort to eating bowls of
warming tang yuan (sweet soup of glutinuous rice flour balls) together in order
to keep warm.


The Chinese word tang (meaning 'soup') sounds like tuan which means reunion, while yuan means round, signifying "yuan man" (complete ). The entire phrase tang yuan therefore symbolises "tuan yuan" (family reunion), and eating tang yuan on Dong Zhi represents family reunion and harmony, and also signifies family unity and family prosperity.
For good luck, some families prefer to have some pink tang yuan to mix with the white ones.


Now only i know why my mum will coloured some tang yuan to pink .hahaa...

2 comments:

HJ® said...

A-Boy & I got to eat tang yuen leh : )

You got or not? ; p

huey mei said...

nolar....aiyo...