Winter Solstice （I）     As the sun creeps further to the south, daytime in the northern hemisphere gets shorter and shorter, the weather colder and colder. Finally, the longest night of the year comes. It is the Winter Solstice, after which the sun begins its slow return to the north. The Chinese call this day Dongzhi. It usually falls on December 21 or 22.     Why do the Chinese celebrate the shortest day of the year？ Well, the custom comes from the theory of Yin and Yang. Yin symbolizes the feminine, negative and dark qualities of the universe, while Yang stands for the opposite – the masculine, positive and fiery qualities. In a sense, the theory is dialectical. When something goes to one extreme, it will then go to the opposite extreme.     On the day of Dongzhi, when sunshine is weakest and daytime shortest, the Yin qualities of the darkness, of cold, are at their most powerful. From this point on, they begin to weaken, giving way to the light and warmth of Yang. As has happened since the beginning of time, once again the black forces bringing sickness and death slowly submit to their opposites bringing life and health. From this day on, Yang gets stronger and stronger until it prevails with the earth’s awakening in the glorious rebirth of spring. It is a time for optimism, for joyful celebration.     The Winter Solstice has been an important festival for millennia. Records from the Eastern Han Dynasty about 1,800 years ago tell us that the emperor and court officials would take a few days off work for the occasion.     By the time of the fourth century, celebration of Dongzhi had developed into a grandiose ceremony. Regiments of soldiers and cavalry, smart in full dress uniform, were stationed in and around the Imperial City. Colorful flags flapped stiffly in the north wind. The sound of pipes and drums echoed through the brightly decorated streets.     The ordinary people also celebrated in style. The longest night of the year was a time to put on one’s best brand new clothes, to visit friends with gifts, to laugh and drink deep into the long night. The giving of gifts was particularly important. Three hundred years ago, a Qing Dynasty poet wrote a poem describing how people racked their brains out to buy the most appropriate presents only to get them back from other friends a few days later. When we think of Christmas and birthdays, this would seem to be a universal phenomenon！     During the Western Jin Dynasty about 1,700 years ago, shoes and socks were very popular presents among both royalty and the common folk. Court officials would present the emperor with elaborately－made shoes and socks, wishing the divine “Son of the Dragon” wansui or “10,000 birthdays.” Similarly, all married women were supposed to make a set of embroidered shoes and socks and present them to their in－laws. We are not sure why this custom evolved, perhaps it had something to do with the importance of keeping one’s feet warm in winter.     Food is an important part of all Chinese festivals. But the kinds of food people eat during the Winter Solstice vary from place to place. In Northern China, many people eat mutton and dog meat. These are hot Yang foods, bringing warmth to the body and dispelling the cold of Yin. Noodles are popular in many areas. For from now on, daytime starts to get longer and we say “every day gets longer by the length of a thread.” So the noodles specially made for the festival are called “Long Thread Noodles.”     In the old days, dumplings were often eaten in memory of Doctor Zhang Zhongjing. Doctor Zhang was not only a brilliant doctor, able to cure all sorts of diseases, he was also very kind to the poor.     One year the winter was so cold that many people in Zhang Zhongjing’s hometown of Nanyang, in today’s Henan Province, suffered from very painful chilblains. Seeing that his small clinic was no longer able to accommodate the ever increasing number of patients, Zhang asked his brother to put up a tent in the village square. A large cauldron was placed inside the tent to prepare a decoction of red pepper mixed with other medicinal herbs. Doctor Zhang had dumplings stuffed with mutton boiled in this medicinal soup. Every patient got a bowl of the spicy decoction with two dumplings. He had only just invented this mixture, but it worked like a dream: chilblains disappeared in a day or two. Doctor Zhang’s mixture soon became a popular recipe throughout the land. When Zhang Zhongjing died, people began to eat dumplings on the day of the Winter Solstice in memory of the kind doctor, and also, to prevent or cure chilblains. （to be continued）