Happy Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival !

Hi folks,

Today marks the Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival.

For Chinese,this is a significant event.Traditionally for my family, we would eat Tang Yuan, balls of glutinuous rice, which symbolize reunion as well as adding another year to each of us. Tang Yuan are normally cooked in a sweet soup.

From Wikipedia:
The Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival (Chinese: 冬至; Pinyin: dōng zhì; "The Extreme of Winter") is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the Dongzhi solar term on or around December 22 when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest; i.e., on the first day of the Dongzhi solar term hola The origins of this festival can be traced back to the Yin and Yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the I Ching hexagram fù (復, "Returning").

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For recipes on Tang Yuan, you can easily googled it. However, you can also find those ready-made tang yuan with fillings like black sesame, red bean and etc at supermarkets. For some places like the ever-populated Setapak area, you can even find some stalls selling those ready-to-cook dough which you can still enjoy the process of moulding the balls of Tang Yuan with your kids instead of using the instant ready-made package!

This reminds me of a entry I made two years ago again on the Dong Zhi festival while I was pregnant with Shone. How time flies, really! Now Shone is already 18 months of age!

We are getting older each day, each year, and hopefully we are growing in terms of maturity, wisdom and sense of priorities in life too!

Coming to an end to the year 2009 soon, marks the routine task for me that is yearly reflection as well as planning and wishes for the coming New Year!

I have this habit since I was young which is making New Year resolution.

What is your New Year resolution? What have you accomplished this year that makes you feel a sense of achievement and peace?

Stay tuned for my post after I done my yearly, year-end homework!

Cheers!