DONGZHI 冬至, THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR Dec 21, this Sunday, is the Winter Solstice, a festival shared by Eastern as well as Western cultures. Dec. 21 celebrates the shortest day of the year. Due to the fact that Christmas, the biggest commercial event for modern business, and a devotional day for Christians, is celebrated just 3 days after the Winter Solstice, we often forget to celebrate with equal enthusiasm this important cosmic event. In China, Japan and other East Asian cultures, Winter Solstice is celebrated by an evergreen cutting, similar to the Christmas tree, made by clipping off the branch of a tree, and hanging it over the household spirit shrine. Like the Christmas tree, it is decorated with fruits and candies. South China, Gwangdong, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, also decorate homes and offices with shrub like tangerine trees. The orange fruit brightens homes and business through the solar and lunar New Year festivals. The winter months, celebrating nature’s annual rest and rebirth, are also blessed by the flowering of the winter plum blossom, placed beside the colorful tangerines of winter. Modern Chinese families celebrate the Winter Solstice with a family banquet. The most important item is a sweet soup, made of glutinous rice balls filled with nuts and sesame seed, called Tangyuan 糖圆. The Tangyuan is a symbol of yang’s rebirth in the depths of the ocean. In some families, both white and pink rice balls are put in the soup, signifying that after the solstice, the cold, short days of winter will soon begin to lengthen, with the returning sun’s warmth and brightness, The Winter Solstice was one of the biggest events of Imperial China. On this day the Emperor of China was required, from ancient times, to offer sacrifice to heaven, by ceremonially plough the ground, to insure good crops and blessing for the coming year. The place for performing this ritual, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, was the temple of Heaven, in Beijing. The Emperor would spend a period of prayer and retreat in the Temple grounds. Then he would go early in the morning to an elevated, circular altar, and stand in the middle of an outdoor stone platform. Here he would address heaven, while standing on a convex, circular stone, which stands right in the middle of the outdoor altar, directly under the heavens. Until 1949, it was strictly prohibited for anyone, other than Court mandarins, and members of the Board of Rites, to enter the Temple of Heaven. Only the emperor himself could stand on this stone and offer prayer. Nowadays, we can all experience what the emperor felt, when he made this Winter Solstice prayer to heaven. But to do so, we must wait patiently in a line of daily visitors who stand on the stone, making the “V” sign with their fingers, while being photographed by family, friends, or suitors. Please try to do this, when you are in Beijing. Go early in the morning, or just before closing, to this stone. Stand on it, look up to the heavens, and speak. You will experience a most amazing phenomenon, as your voice is carried straight upward, with an echo, into the heavens. Whether by plan, or by chance, prayers made out loud on this stone, are by the laws of physics, carried heavenward. You will feel it so, if even for a moment, before the next set of waiting tourists climb onto the stone for a picture.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 07:19:52 +0000
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