22nd of December is Midwinter, the day with the shortest daylight of the year. That simply means half of the winter season's already gone. Or we can view that spring won't be far. Nonetheless, Midwinter used to be celebrated by several different races in the world.
The Chinese celebrates Midwinter. In the ancient days, Midwinter celebration was grandly celebrated compared to the Chinese Lunar new year celebration. Unfortunately, this tradition's no longer maintained. However in my family, we still keep this practice to minimum. Every year on this day, my grandma will make us some "tong yuan" (glutinuous rice balls soup) for the whole family. "Tong" means soup, and "Yuan" means round. "Tong yuan" symbolises the family is reunited together. This also indicates that chinese emphasizes family values in its culture.
Since I left home, I haven't been celebrating Midwinter with my family that frequently. Needless to mention I haven't eaten my grandma's handmade "tong yuan" for ages. Once in a while, when I have this craving for "tong yuan", I'll rush to the Asian grocerry stores to get myself a packet of frozen "tong yuan". Yum.
I like Midwinter and the "tong yuan". Eh, it's just not about the food. It is actually the meaning behind. There is no where warmer than being at home. I missed "tong yuan" for this year's celebration too. But I'm too lazy to go and get myself a packet. I'll just visualize I'm eating up a big bowl of this. You want to have some?
♥ every page of my imagination
