Rituals and Festivals
儀式與節日

Winter Solstice

冬至

The winter solstice is a natural occurrence that happens every year on the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, usually around December 21st.  As one of the 24 solar terms, ‘winter solstice’, the ancient people named it as the second Chinese New Year, usually eat dumplings symbolizing reunion with friends and relatives, also represents an increase of one year, winter solstice is also the longest day of the year, and winter solstice there is a legend is that if the winter solstice day is a good sunny day, the Lunar New Year will rain, which is the proverbial ‘dry winter solstice, wet New Year’. However, according to climate observation, the global temperature is increasing and the winter solstice is gradually becoming a day that is not the coldest of the year. Further analysis of the long-term trend of the maximum and minimum temperatures on the winter solstice also shows that the difference between day and night temperatures has become smaller, and the minimum temperature on the winter solstice is significantly warmer. Therefore, the wisdom of the ancients on the winter solstice prediction is still only for reference, needing to combine scientific technology and other weather forecasts on the winter solstice temperature prediction, so as to make planning arrangements for food storage actions.

冬至是每年北半球白晝最短黑夜最長的自然現象，通常在 12 月 21 日左右。作為二十四節氣之一的“冬至”，古人將其命名為第二個春節，平時吃餃子像徵著與親朋好友團圓，也代表著一年的增加，冬至也是白天最長的一天歲月與冬至有一個傳說，如果冬至這天是個晴天，那麼大年初一就會下雨，這就是俗語所說的“冬至乾，過年濕”。但是，根據氣候觀測，全球氣溫不斷升高，冬至逐漸成為一年中最冷的一天。進一步分析冬至日最高、最低氣溫的長期趨勢也可知，晝夜溫差變小，冬至日最低氣溫明顯偏暖。因此，古人對冬至預測的智慧仍僅供參考，需要結合科學技術和其他天氣預報對冬至溫度的預測，對儲糧行動進行規劃安排。