冬至

My family has always been deeply traditional when coming to Chinese cultural rituals. My mother would painstakingly tell us the meaning behind different Chinese traditions and rituals, imbuing in me a deep respect for and strong affiliation with being a Chinese living in Singapore.

Yesterday, we celebrated a ritual that we had been commemorating since the roots of my memory - 冬至 (Dong Zhi).

Since time immemorial, I remember always looking forward to this day every year because I love eating Tangyuan, the traditional gourmet delight for many Chinese fromsouthern China. My mother would always remind my brother and I that we would be one year older and wiser after eating these Tangyuan, and we would devour bowls of these sweet orange-coloured delectation. This was also traditionally a time for families to get together, so I try not to miss any 冬至 with my family even after I was married.

Because of all these warm and fuzzy childhood memories, I am also trying to create similar mental frameworks for my children so that they have this memory structure of family life and Chinese culture. 

Big Bee now looks forward annually to this special day because, like me, she loves to eat Tangyuan. She also loves to make those delightful balls of glutinous rice, and we had been creating different shapes since she was 4. However, I chastised myself for notexplaining the meaning of this yearly ritual to her adequately. I shall do so today!

Getting their hands dirty and sticky when making the dough!

Little Bee is still increasing her awareness of the world around her, and this year, she was involved with her jie jie, Gong Gong, Popo and me in creating the Tangyuan dough as well as the different shapes, so she was chuckling in excitement all throughout. She also loves the sweetness of it, relishing each Tangyuan ball and slurping up the soup.

Some of the different shapes that we created

All ready to sink into a boiling pot of sweet soup with sugar and pandan leaves...

I hope to imbue them with the same fondness for family and cultural rituals, and we had an amazing time yesterday!

The final product :)