Each festival has its unique festive food. Also, each kind of festive food has its own particular meaning. And each year, on the day of winter solstice, it is always the time for my family and me to have a celebration with a bowl of glutinous rice balls.
Glutinous rice balls are a kind of dessert which has sweet fillings with flavours like black sesame paste and peanut paste, which are also known as Tangyuan. They can be complemented perfectly with ginger tasted warm syrup. For no reason, my parents need my brother and I to eat at least two of them all the time, and the amount of glutinous rice balls we enjoy must have to be an even number.
Although having glutinous rice balls is a must do on winter solstice , the most heart-warming and enjoyable part of winter solstice for my family must be the time preserved for making the dessert. Instead of buying the frozen one in supermarkets, my family likes to make glutinous rice balls on our own. The point of having glutinous rice balls is that it symbolizes togetherness, this is related to their spherical shape which is similar to the moon. Many people believe that having glutinous rice balls can make a family always stay together. I believe that this is also the main reason why my family likes glutinous rice balls.
Nevertheless, having glutinous rice balls is not only a matter of connectedness for my family, it is also related to our health! My parents also care about the syrup, they think that the ginger syrup can help keep us warm during the freezing cold winter, and we will not get sick easily after drinking them. It is my family’s practice to drink all the syrup after finishing the glutinous rice balls.
Undoubtedly, celebrating festivals is important to all of us. With celebrations, people can have a chance to meet. For instance, we hold parties at Christmas, we gather and give blessings to each other on Lunar New Year. Nowadays, people spend more time on work and phone than for families and friends. I am sure that for many of us , festivals become the bridge that link people we know and us together and allow us to share joyfulness. Without festivals, we are likely to spend most of our time individually.
Festive foods make festivals perfect, and festivals enrich our life. We need to enjoy and treasure every festival with all the people around us.