Winter Solstice Festival

When the first rays of dawn sweep across the windowpanes at their most oblique angle, and when the fallen leaves on the streets finally cease their last drifting, we know that the shortest day and longest night of the year—the Winter Solstice—has quietly arrived. This day marks the pivotal shift between yin and yang, a stamp of time's passage, and a uniquely heartwarming ritual in the Chinese soul, bearing millennia of cultural memory and the warmth of everyday life.

In the south, the star of the Winter Solstice is often the tangyuan. ‘Every household pounds rice to make tangyuan, knowing tomorrow is the Winter Solstice.’ In some parts of Jiangnan, alongside tangyuan, people also eat ‘Winter Solstice balls’—glutinous rice flour wrapped around fillings like red bean paste or sesame, steamed until soft and sticky, symbolising ‘family reunion and harmony.’