Winter Solstice is as Significant as the Spring Festival

Off all the Chinese traditional festivals, people tend to pay the most attention to Mid Autumn Day and Spring Festival. However, for Cantonese, midwinter is also an important festival, or even more important than any others. Cantonese always celebrate the New Year in midwinter, so it is not hard to see how important the midwinter is to them.

In midwinter, although people do not typically have a long holiday and the atmosphere is not as bustling and exciting as SpringFfestival, Cantonese still celebrate the festival in their own ways by gathering together to pay respects to ancestors and enjoying a feast. They pray for good luck and hope everything goes well in the following year.

Most traditional Cantonese will cook many delicious dishes to worship ancestors during every traditional festival, but they pay the most attention to the midwinter. In midwinter, the traditional Cantonese cook not only the meat, but also vegetables to gather nine dishes. Then they put the nine dishes, liquor and some desserts on the table to pay respects to their ancestors.