This year's Dong Zhi 冬至 celebration was different. During the weekend, my in-laws invited my family over for dinner and tang yuan. What was also different was I had to start rolling the tang yuan since 1pm in the afternoon. I was rolling it together with Por Por, Sumini and Sri. They were teaching me how to roll so that it is Really Round...and also the symbolic meaning behind rolling (besides eating it..yum!) the balls.
Brown Sugar wrapped in each dang yuan
To make this, you will need glutinous rice flour. Well, Sri and Sumini both prepared the dough, the white and the pink respectively. The glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water till it "feels right". Sorry I don't know the recipe here, I mainly participated in the more fun bit, which was filling it with brown sugar in the middle, and rolling it into a ball.
Eating dang yuan in a must for the Dong Zhi celebration. This year, the festival falls on 21 December, Sunday. It is also known as the Winter Solstice Festival.
In modern times, many Chinese, especially Singaporeans, have probably stopped celebrating this occasion.
It is supposed to symbolize unity in a family. I ate 18 balls that evening!
Hopefully this rekindles your memory of having eaten dang yuan with your older generation. It is definitely easier to buy the frozen ones from Supermarket, but nothing beats gathering around a huge tray, chatting about the significance of this day, and rolling it for your family!
2 comments:
18! That's a lot! :P
haha yes! i ate 12 last year, actually increased to 18 this year... hmm thought we should be eating less as we age... oh well... ;)
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