Tung chek, winter solstice

No, not marbles but only Tung Chek, that time of the year when Chinese the world over will celebrate the winter solstice which is the turning point of the weather in China. Custom says that at Tung Chek and not the Chinese New Year, we Chinese are all one year older. That is why Tung Chek has a lot of significance and it is sometimes a celebration on a pretty large scale in some communities.

Tung Chek is one of the few celebrations that are observed on a fixed date on the solar calendar. It always falls on 22 Dec every year, unless it is a leap year when it is observed on 21 Dec. The other festival which falls unchanged on a fixed date is of course, Cheng Beng, which is counted exactly 100 days after Tung Chek. You don't believe me? Just count and see. But next year's Cheng Beng is on 4 Apr and not 5 Apr because of the leap year.


How we celebrate it is by colouring and rolling those little balls of glutinous rice and cooking them until they are soft, gooey and sticky. Best served in a light sweety solution. They're round to signify unity, which is the essence of the family reunion.

When my grandma was still around, she used to stick two or three of these balls - she'd use the bigger white ones - on the top portion of the main door and then slowly let them make their way to the base. Why, she did not tell me and I did not think about finding out. Nevertheless, I was very fascinated by the custom. I would return to the door every now and then to watch how far the balls had descended. The concept of gravity is totally unknown to any child of five-years-old!

Today, I do not practise these old customs any more which is a pity since they are pretty much lost in the mists of time. Today, we'll just offer these glutinous rice balls at the altars in remembrance of the occasion.