TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Friday (Dec. 22) is the Dongzhi (冬至, extreme of winter) Festival or winter solstice based on the lunisolar calendar. Like other Taiwanese festivals, there are numerous taboos and traditions to follow.
Dongzhi is the longest night and shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere, with yin energy at its apex and yang energy at its nadir. Ancients believed that after this date, yang energy gradually increased and considered the day more important than the Lunar New Year.
The date is considered a day to give gifts, drink alcohol, have fun, and worship the gods. However, there are several customs observed to ensure a fortuitous year ahead.
The following are Dongzhi don'ts listed by numerology expert Hsiao Meng (小孟) on his Facebook page:
1. Do not have sex
During Dongzhi, the temperature is low and yin energy is vigorous. If men and women are too energetic together, it could result in a leak of men's yang energy and cause yin energy to enter men's bodies and harm their primordial spirit.
2. Avoid going out at night
In ancient times, Dongzhi was considered a ghost festival, and it is recommended that people do not venture out after 9 p.m. When going out, be sure to bring salt for protection.
3. Married women should not go to their parents' home
If the wife's journey to her parent's home is long, she could catch a cold and later transmit it to her parents-in-law. If this occurs, it is believed that their winter illnesses will be more severe for many years.
4. Do not stay up late
Due to the colder temperature, going to sleep too late will reduce one's yang energy, and strong yin energy could lead to a bad aura. In addition, because Dongzhi is considered a mini version of the Lunar New Year, negative energy acquired on this day could affect one's fortune in the coming year.
5. Do not eat an odd number of tangyuan
It is believed that eating tangyuan can boost yang energy, but when consuming them on Dongzhi, be sure to eat an even number. It is believed that eating an odd number of tangyuan will lead to loneliness in the coming year. Eating an even number symbolizes happiness, success in relationships, and increased longevity and blessings.
6. Avoid fierce fights
Dongzhi is a day the solar terms change. Lovers and friends should not get angry or quarrel when going out, so as not to affect their aura and destroy their protective magnetic field.
Instead, Hsiao Meng recommends the following do's on Dongzhi:
1. Worship deities and ancestors for prosperity
Dongzhi is considered an ideal time to place offerings to deities and ancestors and pray for blessings. This is done to express gratitude to the spirits for their support throughout the past year and to seek blessings and assistance for the coming year.
Offerings that should be placed on the ancestral altar include three kinds of meat, in-season fresh fruits, three bowls of tangyuan, fa gao (prosperity cake), and three cups of tea or wine.
As for deities, gold, longevity, and Tudi Gong (Land God) joss paper can be burned as offerings. For ancestors, both gold and silver joss paper can be burned.
2. Eat tangyuan for family unity and success
This spherical snack symbolizes the reunion of the whole family and success for the coming year. Red tangyuan symbolizes gold, attracting romance and popularity, while white represents silver, which can attract wealth and prosperous business.
You should eat at least one red and one white tangyuan, which symbolizes reunion and perfection and will lead to happiness in the new year. However, when eating tangyuan, they must be eaten in even numbers for good fortune.
In addition, there is a folk belief that consuming tangyuan adds one year to one's age, so giving them to children is thought to symbolize adding years to their lives.
3. Eat jiaozi to expand riches
The shape of jiaozi resembles sycee (silver or gold ingots), and eating them implies that one's wealth will expand.
4. Eat vermicelli with pork knuckle
Eating vermicelli with pork knuckles during the winter solstice is thought to bring good luck as it can dispel impurities and negative energy, as well as promote longevity.
Also, children can buy vermicelli with pork knuckles for their parents to eat. If children show their filial piety, they can avoid bad luck and increase their longevity.
5. Eat nian gao
After the winter solstice has passed, it marks the beginning of yang energy and symbolizes a new breath. Therefore, eating sweet nian gao (年糕, rice cake) signifies a good winter and represents the start of a new year.
6. Gift new shoes
In ancient times, on the Winter Solstice, younger family members would buy shoes as gifts for their uncles and aunts. This tradition has evolved, and in modern times, uncles and aunts give shoes to their nephews and nieces, symbolizing the addition of a year to the lives of the younger generation.
Also on this day, children can take their parents out for a walk. Buying new shoes and socks for parents, particularly parents-in-law, helps improve family bonds.
7. Take a tonic
In addition to eating tangyuan, people in Taiwan traditionally drink tonics to "warm" their bodies based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) core tenet of balancing yin and yang within the body, which in this case means trying to consume foods that are more yang (warm) in nature to counteract the yin (cold) of winter. Taiwanese believe that consuming tonics will help restore vitality to the body, refresh the mind, and draw good luck.
Examples of tonics that Taiwanese consume during this period that are more yang in nature include sesame oil chicken soup, ginger duck stew, mutton hotpot, herbal chicken soup, ginseng chicken soup, and silkie chicken soup.
8. Eat wontons
Eating wontons represents the exchange of fortune from heaven and earth. During this period, the alternation of yin and yang energies is chaotic, thus bad luck can be smoothly turned away.
Consuming wontons on this day is a way to celebrate the earth's renewal, signifying the end of bad luck and the arrival of good luck. It is also believed that eating wontons aids students who have been doing poorly in their studies to become wiser and more mature.
