Happy Winter Solstice Festival!!

Happy Happy Winter Solstice Everybody!
As Chinese, we all know we grow a year older today! Wait.. I check describtions about this festival in all sorts of sites.. but none says about the getting older part. hmm.... But that's what my mama says! Anyway, if it's correct, a year older, a year wiser! So dear friends, be more matured ya?

Here I would like to say, Mama I love you! I'm sorry that I'm not back at home today to have tangyuan with you! Don't worry about me, I know how to take care of myself, I'm no longer a baby..(I know she won't be reading my blog.. Perhaps this is why I can say this out loud)

Friends from around the world, here I'll like to wish you a very happy winter solstice and hope that you'll be surrounded by love ones! Cherish those you love and appreciate them as they are still with you. Cheers!

*life is not entirely about the final destination; it is about the journey whr you touch people's life and allow them to touch yours.*

Cathryn

Excerpt from Wikipedia:-

The Dōngzhì Festival or The Winter Solstice Festival(Chinese: 冬至; Pinyin: dōng zhì; "The Extreme of Winter") is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the dongzhi solar term on or around December 21 when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest; i.e., on the first day of the dongzhi solar term

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the Yin and Yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the I Ching hexagram fù (復, "Returning").

Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers (especially in the southern parts of China and in Chinese communities overseas) is the making and eating of Tangyuan (湯圓, as pronounced in Cantonese; Mandarin Pinyin: Tāng Yuán) or balls of glutinuous rice, which symbolize reunion. Tangyuan are made of glutinuous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. Every one in the family receives at least one large Tang Yuan and several small ones. The flour balls may be plain or stuffed. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savoury broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

In northern China, people typically eat dumplings on dongzhi. It is said to have originated from Zhang Zhongjing of Han Dynasty. On one cold winter day, he saw the poor suffering from chilblains on their ears. Feeling sympathetic, he ordered his apprentices to make dumplings with lamb and other ingredients, distributed them among the poor to keep them warm. Since the dumplings were shaped like ears, Zhang named it "qǜ hán jiāo ěr tāng" or dumpling soup that expels the cold. From then on it became a tradition passed down to eat dumplings on the day of dongzhi to keep the ears from getting chilblains.

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