Did you know, Winter Solstice / Dongzhi Festival is deemed more important and auspicious than the Lunar Chinese New Year because in Ancient China, the winters were treacherous and hard and often unforgiving.
At the end of Autumn where all the yearly crops were stored to withstand this uncertain season when no one was able to farm their fields or tend to their crops and animals anymore on a daily basis, the older ones were seen to be more vulnerable and most were more susceptible to death and often felt weary, wondering if they would live to see the coming spring.
For some, it would be their last year, but for most, they can only hope ...
So at Winter Solstice, the onset of the first night of winter, where the days are shorter and the nights terribly long, families gather, grinding rice they have to make flour for Tong Yuen to symbolize a full circle of life and to celebrate one more year added to the lives of everyone, especially the elderly.
Thus the belief that everyone was a year older than yesterday's autumn.
The significance of tong yuen is the binding of flour and water, family and strong tradition. The moulding with the hands of everyone in the family, old and young to shape round balls of togetherness and the syrup a sweet end to their year long hardships. A time well spent as a whole family.
It was never a religious celebration but rather a traditional one, one filled with love and hope, with grand food for everyone. A sort of celebration to mark the beginning or perhaps an end, a time of heed, a time for reflection and contemplation.
Then after the celebrations, they wait and listen for the coming of Spring.
Happy Winter Solstice everyone, may you always be surrounded by people who matter most, who would weather the coldest winters with you and stick by you no matter what.
❤
At the end of Autumn where all the yearly crops were stored to withstand this uncertain season when no one was able to farm their fields or tend to their crops and animals anymore on a daily basis, the older ones were seen to be more vulnerable and most were more susceptible to death and often felt weary, wondering if they would live to see the coming spring.
For some, it would be their last year, but for most, they can only hope ...
So at Winter Solstice, the onset of the first night of winter, where the days are shorter and the nights terribly long, families gather, grinding rice they have to make flour for Tong Yuen to symbolize a full circle of life and to celebrate one more year added to the lives of everyone, especially the elderly.
Thus the belief that everyone was a year older than yesterday's autumn.
The significance of tong yuen is the binding of flour and water, family and strong tradition. The moulding with the hands of everyone in the family, old and young to shape round balls of togetherness and the syrup a sweet end to their year long hardships. A time well spent as a whole family.
It was never a religious celebration but rather a traditional one, one filled with love and hope, with grand food for everyone. A sort of celebration to mark the beginning or perhaps an end, a time of heed, a time for reflection and contemplation.
Then after the celebrations, they wait and listen for the coming of Spring.
Happy Winter Solstice everyone, may you always be surrounded by people who matter most, who would weather the coldest winters with you and stick by you no matter what.
❤
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