“The winter solstice is as big as the year”, meaning that the winter solstice is as important as the Spring Festival. It is one of the traditional festivals that the Malaysian Chinese attaches great importance to. In Malaysia’s pluralistic society, the winter solstice is not only a festival for the Chinese community, but also a celebration of all ethnic groups with the Chinese to savor delicious “tangyuan” (glutinous rice balls served in sugary soup).

The event witnessed the preparation of about 150 “tangyuan” servings. Apart from tasting glutinous rice dumplings, it also had a dedicated introduction to the Winter Solstice culture and origin, and many Chinese traditional cultures such as dough figurine-kneading, paper cutting, stone rubbings, color painting and the likes. Several traditional games such as Kongming locks, Chinese chess and checkers were also made available to facilitate participants’ understanding of Chinese traditional culture.

Some people accompanying the children to participate in the activities said that although in the local Chinese tradition, the winter solstice is regarded as a big holiday in winter, many people are not unfamiliar with the custom of eating dumplings for the winter solstice, but the children do not know the origin of the winter solstice, so taking advantage of the introduction of China Cultural Centre deepen their understanding of traditional Chinese culture.

Mr. Mohamad Farid from Subang Jaya City, Petaling Jaya in his interview intimated that he brought his children to the event because he wanted them to have a deeper understanding of Chinese traditional culture. He revealed that he learned about the event on his Facebook account last week after participating in a coloring and painting competition organized by the China Cultural Centre in Kuala Lumpur. He also said that he would bring children to attend more such cultural activities again in the future if new opportunities arose.

The event was well covered and broadcast by Malaysia national news agency Bernama, television networks, and made it to the front page of Sin Chew Daily, the most influential local Mandarin newspaper.