Saturday, December 20, 2008

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE

I want to take the opportunity here to wish my family, friends and everyone a Happy Winter Solstice; 冬至快乐!

Here is a brief description and history of the celebration of Winter Solstice.
The Chinese in ancient times found out that the Winter Solstice was the shortest day in the year.
There may be two reasons why Chinese hold celebration on this day. One, is that after a hard working year, farmers always take a rest to enjoy their harvest. The second reason has to do with the theory of Yin and Yang (hahaha......... I don't understand this..).
To the Chinese, Winter Solstice often means a happy get-together. However, since the pace of living has become faster and people are now busier, some customs have fallen into oblivion.

Many youngsters nowadays don't know what is Winter Solstice and the meanings behind this celebration (including myself....haha....). We only know on this day, we eat Tangyuan, a kind of stuffed dumpling made of glutinous rice and served in soup...and I had helped to make some of those yesrterday night.. hahaha........ On this day, some families will have a reunion...which is very great..

The message or lesson I realised from this moment is it doesn't really matter if we know the full history of this Winter Solstice celebration or not, as long as all our family members, relatives and friends are in a good state of health and everyone is enjoying each other's company (in chinese 和和气气).. then nothing else matters....


Honestly, the history part is fully plagiarised from the Internet... haha........ Xiang Rong, don't 'bomb' me because of that..haha.......

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