Dong Zhi Festival: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

The Dong Zhi Festival, also known as the Chinese Winter Solstice, is celebrated between December 21st and 23rd each year. This festival marks a time for families to gather and celebrate. One of the most cherished activities during this festival is making and eating tāngyuán (汤圆), glutinous rice balls that symbolize reunion.

The Significance of Dong Zhi Festival

The Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice Festival is deeply rooted in the yin and yang philosophy. It emphasizes balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, days will gradually become longer, symbolizing an increase in positive energy. This shift is represented by the I Ching hexagram fu (复), which means "Returning." It is a day with the shortest daylight and the longest night.

In Chinese, "Dong" means "winter," while "Zhi" translates to "arrival." Thus, the festival literally means "the coming of winter." Dongzhi celebrates the winter solstice, observed on the longest night of the year. It symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, indicating that days will start to grow longer, bringing balance and harmony to people's lives. According to Chinese beliefs, "Yang" represents positive energy, warmth, and light.

Following the Dongzhi Festival, daylight will gradually lengthen, and "Yang" energy will increase. Some believe this day marks when the Kitchen God ascends to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the family's conduct.

Historical Roots of the Festival

The festival's origins date back to the Zhou dynasty (1045 BCE–256 BCE) and was officially recognized during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). During the Han era, families would pause their work to celebrate together. They would worship the heavens and honor their ancestors by burning joss paper at ancestral shrines to express gratitude.

In ancient times, this day was known as the "festival of extreme length" (长至节; Cháng Zhì Jié) due to the sun's extreme position, which lengthens shadows. It was a significant holiday, comparable to the Chinese New Year.

Modern Celebrations and Customs

Today, the Dongzhi Festival is still celebrated with various traditional practices. Family unity remains a core theme. In Hong Kong, many businesses allow employees to leave early to spend time with their families. In some areas, shops close for the holiday. In Suzhou, it is customary to light incense at dawn.

The festival is also linked to agricultural activities, especially in rural areas. As it marks the winter solstice, it's a crucial time for harvesting winter crops like wheat, barley, and radishes. Additionally, it is a time to pay respect to livestock, providing them with special meals to celebrate the occasion.

Traditional Foods and Their Meanings

The Dongzhi Festival is a time for families to gather and share meals. One of the most popular activities is making and eating tangyuan (汤圆), which symbolize reunion. These rice balls are made from glutinous rice flour and can be colored pink or green. Each family member typically receives at least one large tangyuan along with several smaller ones. The balls are cooked in a sweet soup or savory broth, served together in one bowl. They are often accompanied by jiuniang, a mildly alcoholic, unfiltered rice wine containing whole grains of glutinous rice and sometimes sweet osmanthus flowers.

Another traditional dish enjoyed during the Dongzhi Festival is dumplings (冬至糰; dōngzhìtuán), which sounds like "reunion." This custom originated with the renowned physician Zhang Zhongjing during the Han dynasty. One cold winter's day, he saw that the poor were suffering from chilblains on their ears. Moved by their plight, he instructed his apprentices to make dumplings filled with lamb and other ingredients to distribute among the needy. This dish was named "qùhán jiāoěr tāng" (祛寒嬌耳湯), or dumpling soup that expels the cold. Since then, eating dumplings on Dongzhi has become a cherished tradition.

Dumplings are not only enjoyed by family members but are also shared with friends and relatives as a gesture of blessing. They can be shaped like animals such as dogs and cats. Superstitions suggest that married individuals should leave two uneaten dumplings to have their wishes come true, while single people should leave one for a prosperous year ahead.

According to tradition, dumplings should be eaten by an even number of people for good luck. Many people take some of the tangyuan used as offerings and place them on the back of doors or on windows and tables. These "empowered" tangyuan act as protective talismans to ward off evil spirits from children.

Old customs also dictate that individuals sharing the same surname or clan gather at ancestral temples to worship on this day. A grand reunion dinner typically follows the sacrificial ceremony.

Other traditional foods enjoyed during this festival include hot pot and wontons. In northern China, shuijiao dumplings are particularly popular.

The festive food serves as a reminder that celebrators are now a year older and should strive to behave better in the coming year. Even today, many Chinese people, especially the elderly, insist that one is "a year older" right after the Dongzhi celebration, rather than waiting for the Chinese New Year.

Dong Zhi Festival in Taiwan

In Taiwan, similar to the culturally related province of Fujian, Dongzhi is a day for family gatherings and ancestor offerings. Taiwanese people traditionally eat tangyuan on this day, using the festive food as an offering for ancestor worship.

In addition to customs from mainland China, Taiwan has a unique tradition of offering nine-layer cakes as a ceremonial sacrifice to honor ancestors. These cakes, made from glutinous rice flour, are shaped like various animals—chicken, duck, tortoise, pig, cow, or sheep—and steamed in layers. Each animal signifies auspiciousness in Chinese culture.

During this winter festival, many people consume invigorating tonic foods. For the Taiwanese, winter is a time to limit physical activities and nourish the body. This practice mirrors the habits of many animals that hibernate during winter to rejuvenate and preserve life. To combat the cold, it is essential to eat richer, fatty foods during winter when the body can better absorb these nutrients due to a slower metabolic rate.

Since Dongzhi represents the "extreme of winter," it is considered the best time of year to enjoy tonic foods. Popular winter tonic dishes in Taiwan include mutton hot pot and ginger duck hot pot. Other common ingredients in tonic foods include chicken, pork, and abalone, often combined with nurturing herbs like ginseng, deer horn, and cordyceps fungus.