I never got to tell you about the Dongzhi Festival (Winter Solstice Festival) or the Dumpling Day, as we commonly refer to it around here.

Dongzhi literally means “arrival of winter” and it is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar. It usually takes place on or around December 22, when the daylight is shortest and the nights longest.

As with all the Chinese festivals, there are several traditional activities connected with the Dongzhi Festival:

• In the south of China, people traditionally make tangyuan (balls of glutinous rice) and eat them on this day.
• In the northern parts of China it is the dumplings that are made and eaten – thus our “Dumpling Day.”
• Ancestral worship is also part of the traditions observed on this day.

At our school students usually get together with their classes at night and make dumplings which they will eat afterward. And in most cases those dumpling parties turn into huge flour battles among the students, resulting in everyone being covered in white at the time the party ends.

Legend has it, that if you don’t eat dumplings on Dongzhi Festival, you risk the danger of losing your ears during the long and dreadful winter!

For information on the Dongzhi Festival you can check out the article on wikipedia HERE.