The Dong Zhi or Winter Solstice Festival
In the olden days the Chinese people celebrate Dong Zhi (Winter Solstice Festival) much like Chinese Lunar New Year by visiting relatives and friends. There is the usual feasting and businesses will take a break on that day. On this day, people will gather around to eat “tang yuan” (glutinous floor balls) which is symbolic of family unity and harmony.
What do we mean when we use the term “winter solstice”?
A solstice is an astronomical term used to describe the day of the year when the sun is the greatest distance from our equator. There are two solstices, therefore, one in the summer and one in the winter each causing either the longest or shortest day of the year. The times of these vary, however, depending on which hemisphere you are discussing.
The winter solstice is caused by the Earth reaching its furthest point away from the sun. As the Earth circles the sun it simultaneously spins on its axis. When this tilt occurs, one hemisphere is further away from the sun and so it is in winter. At the same time, the other hemisphere is closer to the sun and has summer.
The term solstice actually come form the Latin word solstitium. They derived the word solstitium from sol meaning the sun and stitium, which means to stop. During the solstice, the sun appears to do exactly that. It reaches almost the same elevation everyday at noon for the several days before and after the solstice.
December 21st or 22nd are the choice of days that the winter solstices happen and the sun beams right over the tropic of Capricorn. In the southern hemisphere, winter solstice is celebrated on June 20th or 21st. This is the time when the sun is located just above the tropic of Cancer.
The winter solstice marks the day of the year that has the shortest amount of daylight and the longest amount of night. This is the midpoint of winter for many culture’s calendars. Amazingly, in over three thousand years, the date of solstice has been moved by only a single day.
A lot of older civilizations observed the winter solstice as a period of being reborn, because the sun looks like it is regenerated and the daylight lasts longer.
This was frequently thought of as a blessed transformation with the removal of evil from the earth since the darkness is considered evil, and this was overcome by the light which is considered to be good. Currently, celebrations of light are still observed by some cultures. As well as the Chinese Dong Zhi festival, the Germanic society observes Yule and the Hindus observe Diwali, a festival of light.