Winter Solstice

Winter solstice is usually celebrated on 22December (sometimes on 21Dec) every year.

This year, winter solstice falls on 22December.   Although there is no four seasons here, it is still celebrated as a tradition.

On the night before, have to prepare some ‘tang yuen’ which is made from glutinous rice flour,  and the syrup. On the next morning, will cook the glutinous rice flour ball in the syrup and offer them to the deities and ancestors during the prayers.

This year, we decided to try something with the colouring; instead of using the normal

edible colouring that we had been using all the years, we use the red dragon fruit for

the red colouring.  Fussy M also getting pretty lazy this year, so we just had two colour, ie., white and red instead of a few more colour such as green and orange.

Also, the syrup is not in its usual colour this year as we use brown sugar !

For the Cantonese, Winter solstice is even more important than New Year!  Few years ago, I learnt that Winter solstice was actually the mark of New Year in the ancient calendar thousand/s years ago !  Presently, we celebrate the New Year according to the new lunar calendar.  No wonder the day is treated so importantly by some up to this day.

p.s. something I couldn't resist ...