Yesterday was the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year, and also the official start of winter (p.s. non-existent in equatorial Singapore)

On this day every year, it is also a tradition for most East Asians to celebrate the Dong (冬) Zhi (至) Festival aka the winter solstice festival. Wiki has a succinct article which explains more here.

Without fail, on this day, my mum will cook pink and white balls of glutinous rice – “Tang (湯) Yuan (圓)”, a signature dessert that everyone in the family eats. As kids%rC we used to be told that your age will determine the number of tang yuan you should eat (so if I’m 10, I should eat 10 tang yuans). It was fun, till one grows up and then realized that no one actually followed this rule.

It’s nice to be home.

Happy holidays everyone.