Even as Dongzhi loses relevance, it keeps public holiday status

A passerby in downtown Macau wraps up warm during last year’s cold snap

As the cold snap in Macau recedes today, the city is preparing to welcome the lesser-known Chinese festival of Dongzhi (Cantonese: Dungzi).

Overshadowed by the Christmas holiday season, the Macau SAR Establishment Day and the forthcoming Chinese New Year, this traditional festival has somewhat lost its status as a key date in the Chinese calendar.

Falling on either December 21 or 22, Dongzhi is equivalent to the Winter Solstice in the Gregorian calendar and marks the extremity of winter and the end of shorter daylight hours.

In China, it was originally celebrated as an end-of- harvest festival, but today is observed as a family gathering event, where hot food is served to guard against the impending cold.

“Dongzhi is a very important festival in the Chinese calendar; one of the most important after Mid-Autumn Festival and the day before Chinese New Year,” Jenny Lao-Phillips, a local scholar on Chinese culture, told the Times yesterday. “It is traditionally a family dinner, [however,] it has lost some of its importance in recent years.”

It’s rather easy to overlook this discreet holiday, given the noise of its immediate neighbors, Macau SAR Establishment Day on December 20 and Christmas on December 25.

Nevertheless, some organizations in Macau still use the festival as an opportunity to visit families and senior citizens to share a hot meal, while some tourist and religious sites, like the A-Ma Temple, hold a special service or celebration in recognition of the occasion.

And despite its dwindling importance, Dongzhi remains uniquely venerated in Macau.

Although celebrated in countries such as mainland China, Taiwan and Korea, Macau is the only jurisdiction in the world that regards the festival as a public holiday, according to calendar firm Office Holidays.

Lao-Philips said she was not sure why the festival is uniquely celebrated as a public holiday in Macau.

“I think it’s just that Macau has a lot of public holidays,” she said. “I remember that Dongzhi was celebrated as a public holiday even before the handover.”

Dongzhi is enshrined as a public holiday in Macau Decree-Law no. 4/82/M.