Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. It is also called the midwinter and the longer time for nights occured and then shorter days for certain places..

For Chinese and Malaysian Chinese, we celebrate this as a festival and gathering of family members..
Most of the families in Malaysia would make the glutinious rice balls one night before cooking them by boiling..
This is the moment where family members gathered at the heart of the house and get together..
Some even believe that this is the Chinese Christmas..
The cooked 'tang yuen' will then be offered to gods during prayers..


Anyhow, my family followed the traditions and we made 'tang yuen' too.. We managed to make 3 colours only thus to lack of colours..
To make this; simply knead the glutinious rice flour with castor sugar and water.. Leave the dough to rest and dry up a little before rolling into balls.. Some people even make shapes of dogs, chicken, gold and stuffs some fillings..
For us, we just make it round, the traditional method..

The over nighted balls are then boilled with plain water and pandan leaves.. Drain them well and then place them into sugar syrup! Then you are done..
If for ginger soup, you might want to use:
1. Brown Sugar
2. Gula Melaka
3. Dried Longan
4. Ginger
5. Sago

So.. Winter solstice will be on 21st or 22nd of each year.. Remember yeah..