冬節 Winter Solstice

I had an uncle who was a traditional Chinese practitioner and over the years managed to pick up useful tips from him. My mother is a Chinese scholar. She read all Chinese classics and she taught me how to read the Chinese almanac 通勝.

I confess that what I know is only the tip of a giant iceberg.

I hope you all enjoyed your 冬節 Winter Solstice.

Winter Solstice is one of the most if not the most important day in the Chinese calendar because it symbolises new beginnings. So if you had a difficult year there is hope for change.

Tang Yuan 湯圓 glutinous rice balls are eaten and the significance is a play on words again.

Chinese is a tonal language and words may have same pronunciation but different meaning.

In this case 圓 (round) sounds like 缘 a binding positive force. Yuan fen 缘分 means positive encounters with love, friendship and business and even meeting the right doctor with the healing touch.

Our family believes very much in 醫缘. We do not doctor hop.

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Glutinous rice balls are smooth and round. Consume them to have an obstacle free year ahead. Well we can only hope!

You may be wondering why I made 13 rice balls

Well, because the year of Rat has one leap month (4th lunar month)

Louisaz says our Chinese civilisation dates back to more than 3000 years. Let us enjoy a renaissance or rebirth of speaking dialect again.