Winter Solstice Festival foods

The Winter Solstice is a solar term in Chinese lunar calendar, and a traditional festival as well. It falls on December 22 or 23 (solar calendar) every year. It is the day when the Northern Hemisphere has the shortest daytime and longest nighttime in the whole year. It is a custom to celebrate the arrival of winter solstice, which is regarded as worthy since it is the beginning of a solar term circulation.

In some parts of Northern China, people eat dumplings in the belief it will keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. But, in parts of South China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evils.

In other places, people also eat tangyuan, a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. The Winter Solstice rice dumplings could be used as sacrifices to ancestors, or gifts for friends and relatives. The Taiwan people even keep the custom of offering nine-layer cakes to their ancestors.