Winter Solstice in China

Learning Chinese culture is of great importance for Chinese studies, especially to those who are learning Chinese for beginners, because it will largely generate your interest in Chinese language.

China is a country with long history and rich cultures. Among them are Chinese festivals, which occur throughout the year. From today, we will introduce some of them. Let’s first talk about Chinese Winter Solstice, an important time mark of the year.

For those who want to have Chinese studies, let’s get to know this festival. The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day, so it should be celebrated. It is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 22 or 23 according to the Gregorian calendar.

On this day, in the Northern part of China, people eat dumpling soup on this day, while residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. In other places, people also eat tangyuan (learning Chinese characters), a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. In some 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 evil things.

Are you interested in learning Chinese characters of this festival? You can go to online Chinese schools which are very popular today.