Winter Solstice, or 冬至 (dung ji in Cantonese and dongzhi in Mandarin), is the twenty-second of the twenty-four solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, a day falling between 21st and 23rd December. 冬 (dung/dong) means ‘winter’, while 至 (ji/zhi) in this context connotes ‘extreme’. Placed together, the two characters refer to the day when the sun reaches the southernmost part of the Earth, as this was the day of the year when the ancients observed the longest shadow of a pole at noon.
On the Winter Solstice, the sun, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, appears to reach its most southerly point relative to the celestial equator, granting the Northern Hemisphere the fewest daylight hours seen throughout the year.
On this, the longest of dark nights, Chinese people reunite with their families, typically eating dumplings or tangyuan湯圓 (glutinous rice balls), depending on the region. Dumplings are said to have been created by Zhang Zhongjing, often regarded as the sage of Chinese medicine, to help people with frostbitten ears, hence the shape of a dumpling. 湯圓 (tong yuen in Cantonese and tangyuan in Mandarin) is a homophone for ‘union’ (traditional Chinese 團圓 tuen yuen; simplified Chinese 团圆 tuányuán), with 湯 meaning ‘soup’ and 圓 ‘round’, symbolising togetherness and completeness. In some parts of China, people also worship their ancestors on this day.
冬至 dongzhi was regarded as the beginning of the year from the Zhou 周 (1046 BC–256 BC) to the Qin 秦 (221 BC–206 BC) dynasties, while Emperor Wu of the Han 汉 dynasty (156 BC–87 BC) adopted a different calendar, regarding the Spring Festival as the beginning of the year and the Winter Solstice as the first of the 24 solar terms.
Those following the Han’s practice, whether knowingly or unknowingly, would say that the Winter Solstice is as important as the Spring Festival, while others are told by their grandparents that the Winter Solstice is more important.
Note: What is written here is in accordance with the Chinese tradition, mostly developed in the Northern Hemisphere. However, we are aware that for southern latitudes, this ‘winter solstice’ is, in fact, a summer solstice.
This year, 2023, the Winter Solstice is celebrated in China on 22nd December.
