The winter solstice and winter-festival balls
The winter solstice is called the winter festival in Chaoshan, and kept with glutinous rice balls called winter-festival balls. The gazetteer records: “At the winter solstice sacrifice rice balls are used, or they are stuck onto things, which is called feeding the wastage.”
1. What the gazetteer records
At the winter solstice sacrifice, rice balls are used, or are stuck onto things, which is called feeding the wastage.
From Gujin tushu jicheng, Chaozhou prefecture section, quoting the prefectural gazetteer (customs chapter of the Qianlong Chaozhou fuzhi). Punctuation added here.
2. Old record and present practice
“Rice balls” is the glutinous rice ball. “Stuck onto things” means pressing them onto doors, windows and utensils; “feeding the wastage” is feeding the spirit of wastage, in the hope that it does no damage to the household’s goods. That part is all but gone today, and only the eating remains.
People here say the winter festival is as big as the New Year. Three things belong to it: the sacrifice to the ancestors, eating the balls, and sticking the balls on things. The first two are still going strong; the third survives only in the memories of old people in some villages.
3. Differences between counties
The gazetteer covers the prefectural city and its neighbourhood only. The dates, offerings and rites of the seven counties differ, and have to be checked county by county against local gazetteers and field records before being added here. The gazetteer records no further than this.
4. Calendar anchor
The solar terms, lunar phases and lunar dates referred to in this section can be checked on the corresponding pages at Kuang Chujia’s research site on historical astronomy and calendars. That the timing of a custom is never cut loose from the calendar is a standing rule on this site.
Sources
Gujin tushu jicheng, Chaozhou prefecture section, quoting the prefectural gazetteer; the Qianlong Chaozhou fuzhi (compiled by Zhou Shuoxun, completed in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong), customs chapter. Accessed 18 October 2026.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026