| What is the Winter Solstice? |
Dong Zhi, or the Winter Solstice Festival, was celebrated by the Chinese of ancient times. It was commemorated in much the same way Chinese Lunar New Year is now - with visits to friends and relatives. There is customary feasting and businesses will close up for the day. During this time, people will assemble to eat "tang yuan" (glutinous flour balls) symbolizing a united family and togetherness.
How do you define the winter solstice?
A solstice is an astronomical term used when describing the day of the year when the sun is furthest from the equator. Two solstices exist, consisting of one solstice during the summer, which lengthens the day to the maximum, and another solstice during the winter, which shortens the day to the minimum during the year. Timing of these vary depending on which particular hemisphere you are focusing on.
The winter solstice is caused by the Earth reaching its furthest point away from the sun. As the Earth circles the sun it simultaneously spins on its axis. When this tilt occurs, one hemisphere is further away from the sun and so it is in winter. At the same time, the other hemisphere is closer to the sun and has summer.
The word solstice is derived from "solstitium", which is a Latin word. The word solstitium is derived from the Latin word "sol", or sun, and "stitium", which translates to stop. When the solstice occurs, the sun looks like it has done exactly that. It reaches nearly the same elevation at noon every day during the several days prior to and following the solstice.
December 21st or 22nd are the choice of days that the winter solstices happen and the sun beams right over the tropic of Capricorn. In the southern hemisphere, winter solstice is celebrated on June 20th or 21st. This is the time when the sun is located just above the tropic of Cancer.
The winter solstice always marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. Most cultures consider this day to be the middle of winter in their calendars. The date of solstice has surprisingly only moved by one day in the past three thousand years.
Due to the fact that the sun seemed to be reborn as the days grew longer, a lot of ancient cultures naturally celebrated this time of rebirth as the winter solstice.
This was usually considered a beneficial change for the world as the evil signified by darkness was conquered by the good signified by light. At this present time some civilizations continue to celebrate festivals of light. Besides the Chinese Dong Zhi festival, the Germanic cultures observe Yule and Hindus commemorate Diwali, a celebration of light.
Henry Fong
Feng Shui Consultant
More on Feng Shui
http://www.henryfong.com
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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