Calendar mix-up creates 2-day celebration
Print Edition
The 2013 winter solstice, which fell yesterday in the northern hemisphere, was miscalculated and marked one day early on some calendars and cell phones, triggering a pleasantly confusing two-day celebration across China.
Winter solstice day has the least amount of daylight hours in the year. According to the calendar of the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this year’s winter solstice fell at 1:11am on December 22 in China.
However, over half of the calendars in a randomly selected stationery store in Beijing marked Saturday, December 21 as winter solstice day. Some Android mobile phones also appeared to have the same problem, while iPhones showed the correct solstice date.
Experts said the calculation of the winter solstice is based on the tropical year, which is 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes long. This means it does not always fall on the same date. Last year the solstice fell on December 21.
The mistake was probably made by simply counting 365 days from the previous winter solstice, while neglecting the remaining 5 hours and 49 minutes, experts said.
Chinese people regard the winter solstice, which marks the beginning of the winter’s coldest period, as a golden opportunity for family reunions and a big meal.
Orient King of Dumplings, a popular dumpling chain restaurant, said it had more customers this weekend compared to usual.
Dumplings, a traditional food in northern China, are considered an essential on winter solstice day. Many northern Chinese believe their ears will freeze in the cold if they don’t eat dumplings on the day.
In southern China, where eating habits are very different from the north, people traditionally dig into sticky rice balls, noodles and chicken soup on winter solstice day.
In the past, Chinese emperors would worship heaven on this day to express gratitude for the year’s harvest and pray for good fortune in the next.
Chinese legend has it that Zhang Zhongjing, a renowned herbalist of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), prepared a huge pot of dumplings with mutton and herb fillings on a bitter winter day in what is now Henan Province.
According to the legend, he saw villagers with their ears frostbitten and desperate for food. Those who ate Zhang’s dumplings soon recovered and they passed on the custom, which spread to other regions of northern China.
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