December 22, 2006

Dumpling Day...
Today is the winter solstice, called 冬至 (dong1zhi4) in Chinese, which is also celebrated as the 22nd solar term festival. The traditional (and still often used) calendar is based on the lunar cycle, and is divided into 24 seasons. I prefer to call it "Dumpling Day".
I was of course oblivious to the whole thing, wondering at lunch why every stand in the cafeteria was selling dumplings (饺子, or 水饺). On my way out to dinner one of the aunties in my dorm told me I must eat dumplings today. Turns out that in Northern China it's traditional to eat dumplings today, while in the South they prefer red-beans and glutinous rice. Who knew?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you are feeling better. Are the dumplings anything special on "dumpling day"?

Stephen said...

They didn't have any 'special' dumplings -just the usual variety of meat or veggie with some cilantro on top.