A luxury poon choi from Hong Kong restaurant Duddell’s. Poon choi is a popular meal for family gatherings during the winter solstice in China. -- Photo: Nicholas Wong / Sixteen Photography/SCMP
BEIJING (SCMP): Around this time of the year, there is one very important day for Chinese families around the world, not unlike Thanksgiving in North America.
The winter solstice – dung zi in Cantonese, dongzhi in Mandarin – marks the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere.
In Chinese culture, dung zi is also a noted day on the “24 solar terms” that marks the end of the harvest season and the arrival of winter and the coldest weather.
The 24 solar terms, which form a Chinese lunisolar calendar, refer to specific points in the Earth’s orbit around the sun. To this day, these markers on the sun’s position and its effects on weather – which you can also find in the Chinese almanac, a divination guide – have a huge influence on people and their activities, from florists to farmers to practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.
This interpretation of the solar terms is specific to the northern hemisphere, as the seasons are inverted in the southern hemisphere.
The winter solstice was one of the first dates determined among the 24 solar terms. In ancient times, it helped a mostly agrarian society keep tabs on seasonal changes.
The ancient Chinese chose to designate this day marking a new cycle for celebration and family unity. In Cantonese, the term jo dung means a winter celebration.
Some in East Asia even argue that the winter solstice is more important than the Lunar New Year. In Cantonese, the saying dung daai gwoh nin – “winter (solstice) is bigger than (new) year” – reflects the festival’s cultural significance.
According to the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the winter solstice falls on December 21 this year. Here are six food traditions and other interesting things to know surrounding dung zi and how people jo dung in Hong Kong.
1. No escape from family dinners
You may be able to skip a regular family dinner due to work obligations, but for the winter solstice, most offices in Hong Kong allow their employees to leave early. Even some of the more local and casual Chinese restaurants close in the afternoon to respect the tradition.
Unlike Christmas and other Western-influenced holidays that are more party-centric in the city, dung zi is one of the only times of the year – together with the first three days of the Lunar New Year – that people are expected to spend quality time with their families and relatives, some of whom they may not have seen in a while.
Some families even make reservations weeks in advance at their desired Chinese restaurants.
People buy seafood at Hong Kong’s Bowrington Road Market in preparation for the winter solstice in 2024. -- Photo: Antony Dickson / SCMP
2. Poon choi and hotpot feasts
Because the winter solstice dinner brings together entire families and sometimes even extended family members, people often forgo cooking an elaborate meal and instead go with simpler options of abundance, namely poon choi (“basin feast”) and hotpot.
Both poon choi and hotpot have a buffet-like style where each diner can pick and choose the food items they like and dip them in sauces they make for themselves.
It eliminates a lot of decision-making and unnecessary hassle, both in the kitchen and on the dining table, and lightens the workload of the homemaker.
The laissez-faire practice also creates a cheerful, harmonious and festive jo dung atmosphere, an event that can be otherwise overcrowded and overwhelming – especially when involving hotpot, when everyone bonds over cooking together.
3. A film was made based on dung zi
Eric Tsang Hing-weng’s feature-length film debut, Hong Kong Family (2022), starts with a family’s disintegration during a winter solstice dinner. The son, provoked by the father’s hot temper, runs away from home. The family’s relationship remains distant for years thereafter.
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When a cousin returns to town and requests a dung zi reunion, the family members grapple with the hurt they have inflicted on each other and examine the possibility of healing.
In the director’s statement, Tsang revealed that the script was inspired by his experience of watching his own family fall apart.
Bowls of poon choi are prepared for a gathering in Sheung Shui, Hong Kong. -- Photo: May Tse / SCMP
4. The togetherness of tong yuen
Also known as tangyuan in Mandarin, these chewy, glutinous rice balls can be savoury or sweet.
While tong yuen are a popular traditional Chinese dessert that can be eaten throughout the year, they are a necessity during the winter solstice for those in the southern regions.
There are many different variations throughout East Asia. In Hong Kong, the savoury kind is stuffed with minced meat and served in a clear broth, while the sweet varieties are filled with black sesame or other sweet ingredients and served in ginger-infused, lightly sweet tong sui (“sweet soup”).
Not only does the spherical shape of tong yuen symbolise togetherness and completeness, but the name is also a homophone for “reunion” in both Cantonese and Mandarin. Because of this, it is considered bad luck to eat rice balls in odd numbers.
During jo dung, they are generally enjoyed after the meal as a wholesome round-off to the evening.
Black-sesame-filled tong yuen are a popular sweet variety of the traditional dessert. -- Photo: Shutterstock / SCMP
5. Smoky, sticky noh mai fan
It is starting to sound like the southern Chinese just really like glutinous rice. Noh mai fan (nuomifan in Mandarin) is glutinous rice steamed or fried with dung gu (shiitake/winter mushrooms), dried shrimp and Chinese cured sausages like lap cheong (“preserved sausage”) and yun cheong (“liver sausage”).
Like tong yuen, it is enjoyed all year round but is a festive highlight during the colder months.
Since the winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, it can also mean a drastic drop in temperature. And what better way to keep a body warm and restore yang (bright and active) energy than an oily, greasy, savoury, delicious bowl of glutinous rice, made with fatty, smoky, decadent ingredients?
6. Paying respect
While the living celebrate life, they must also honour those who came before and once sat at the same table.
Some common practices on dung zi include visiting temples, tombs or domestic shrines, worshipping and making offerings to ancestors, and praying for a prosperous year ahead. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
