Dongzhi Festival 2026: Date, Exact Solstice Time and What Families Eat

Dongzhi 2026 falls on Tuesday 22 December 2026, and the solstice itself arrives at 4:50:14 am that day in UTC+8, the standard time in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Dongzhi is the Chinese name for the winter solstice and for the festival kept on it, when families sit down to a reunion dinner and bowls of tangyuan, glutinous rice balls in sweet soup.

When is Dongzhi 2026, and what time does it start?

The Dongzhi solar term begins at 4:50:14 am on 22 December 2026 in UTC+8, the 14th day of the 11th lunar month. In the Hong Kong Observatory's 2026 conversion table, the Winter Solstice falls on 22 December and the 11th lunar month starts on 9 December. We calculated the time to the second, and the US Naval Observatory's 2026 seasons table agrees to the minute with 20:50 UT on 21 December.

In all 50 US states that instant falls on Monday 21 December. Calendars printed for Hong Kong, Singapore or Malaysia still show 22 December, because they count the day in UTC+8.

Our solar terms table gives the exact time of every term, so the next one can be checked the same way.

When is Dongzhi 2027?

Dongzhi 2027 falls on Wednesday 22 December 2027 at 10:42:10 am UTC+8, the 25th day of the 11th lunar month in the Observatory's 2027 table. In the US it is still Tuesday 21 December, 9:42 pm in New York and 6:42 pm in Los Angeles, and the Naval Observatory gives 02:42 UT on 22 December.

Both years land on 22 December in UTC+8, yet the lunar date moves from the 14th to the 25th. Helmer Aslaksen explains why in The Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar, a paper he wrote in the mathematics department of the National University of Singapore. Dongzhi and Qingming are the two traditional festivals fixed by solar terms, so they keep their place in the Western calendar while their lunar dates drift. One of the calendar's rules also puts the December solstice in the 11th month every year, which is why Dongzhi never leaves that month.

What is the Dongzhi Festival?

Dongzhi, also written Dong Zhi, is the winter solstice, counted as the 22nd of the 24 solar terms, and the festival is the family gathering held that day. The Hong Kong Observatory's page on the 24 solar terms explains that the terms divide the sun's yearly path into steps of 15 degrees, with the Winter Solstice at 270 degrees as one of the twelve major terms. In the Northern Hemisphere it is the day with the least daylight.

The Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre's Culturepaedia entry dates the celebration to the Zhou dynasty, more than 2,500 years ago, when the 11th month opened the year. The centre's festival pages add that people treated the eve of the solstice as the last night of the year and called the day the Little New Year, until Emperor Wu of Han fixed New Year on the first day of the first lunar month. Under the Han the day was called dongjie, the winter festival, and Culturepaedia says family and friends visited one another with gifts of food.

Is Dongzhi bigger than Chinese New Year?

By a saying common in Hong Kong it is, while Lunar New Year remains the bigger public holiday. Taiwan's Central News Agency reported that in Hong Kong the solstice is commonly called 冬大過年 (dung daai gwo nin). Victoria Caplan of the HKUST Library translates the saying as "Winter solstice is more important than New Year". She links it to farming life, in which the solstice was the coldest and darkest point of the year, and cites Zhao Rongguang's observation that the Tang and Song dynasties held the solstice to be as important as New Year. Culturepaedia records the same saying in Mandarin as dong daguo nian.

Singapore's 2026 public holidays give Chinese New Year two days and Dongzhi none, and the Malaysian daily theSun described Dongzhi in 2022 as a low-key celebration often overshadowed by Lunar New Year. Our Lunar New Year traditions guide covers the fifteen days of that festival.

What do families eat at Dongzhi?

In Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan the dish people expect is tangyuan, small balls of glutinous rice flour in a sweet soup, while families from northern China often eat jiaozi dumplings. Florence Kuek, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at Universiti Malaya, told theSun that the balls are shaped round to signify togetherness, and Culturepaedia connects them with family reunion.

Culturepaedia describes Singapore's traditional tangyuan as pink and white, filled with black sesame, peanut or red bean paste, in a soup boiled from longan, red dates, slab sugar and pandan leaves. The magazine of the Peranakan Association Singapore describes kueh ee, the Peranakan tangyuan, as red and white and served in soup with ginger, pandan leaves and white or brown sugar. In Malaysia, Kuek mentions reddish-pink and white balls in a lightly sweetened ginger broth, and newer shapes such as pandas, bears and snowmen. A TAIPEI magazine article republished by Taiwan Scene recommends sesame tangyuan in sweet fermented rice soup with egg, or meat tangyuan for anyone who wants something savoury.

Hong Kong's solstice dinner has its own dishes. The Central News Agency report says many people eat chicken, because 雞 sounds like 吉, good luck, and lettuce, because 生菜 sounds like 生財, making money. It adds that hot pot is a popular way to eat that night, with tangyuan for the whole family.

Culturepaedia says northern customs have caught on in Singapore as more immigrants from across China settled there. It notes the northern habits of jiaozi and of mutton soup against the cold, and quotes the saying that if you don't eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice, your ears will freeze and fall off. Some restaurants in Singapore now offer mutton hotpot for homesick diners.

How is Dongzhi kept in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan?

Dongzhi is not a public holiday in Singapore or Malaysia, so families fit the gathering around work, while Hong Kong's Labour Department lists it as a statutory holiday that employers may choose instead of Christmas Day.

Singapore

Culturepaedia describes families gathering on the evening of Dongzhi to make tangyuan together, though many now buy them ready-made. Elders often serve the first tangyuan to the ancestors, to thank them for the year's blessings, before anyone else eats. Our guide to Chinese ancestor worship explains the household altar. The Peranakan Association's magazine also uses the name Tang Chek for the day.

Malaysia

With no holiday, Kuek told theSun, the festival is normally celebrated over lunch or after work, at a casual gathering with food and tangyuan. The same report quotes a 22-year-old in Miri, Sarawak, whose family makes and eats tangyuan in the morning and has dinner with the extended family at night. The Star reported on three generations of one Penang family shaping tang yuan together in 2020, a grandmother teaching her three-year-old grandson.

Hong Kong

The solstice dinner is called 做冬 (zou dung), and the Central News Agency report describes it as a meal cooked with care that the whole family attends. Many businesses let staff leave work early so they can get home for it, according to the HKUST Library. The Labour Department's 2026 statutory holiday list includes "Chinese Winter Solstice Festival or Christmas Day (at the option of the employer)", which means 22 or 25 December in both 2026 and 2027.

Taiwan

TAIPEI magazine quotes the Qing-era Taiwan Prefecture Gazetteer, which records that on the Winter Solstice every household made rice balls to offer to the gods and ancestors, and that the whole family then ate them together. Few people make tangyuan at home now, the magazine adds, but eating them on the solstice has continued.

Do you turn a year older at Dongzhi?

By the older way of counting you do. Aslaksen writes that Chinese age was traditionally counted from the December solstice, while some parts of China counted from Chinese New Year, from the seventh day of the new year or from Lichun. The Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre writes that the saying "everyone becomes a year older right after Winter Solstice" remains, and the Qing gazetteer quoted in TAIPEI magazine called the solstice rice balls tiansui, "growing older".

The lunar age (xu sui) rule in our guide adds the year at Lunar New Year instead, so the two counts disagree between Dongzhi and the new year.

Does Dongzhi change your BaZi month or zodiac year?

No. Dongzhi is a zhongqi, a term that falls in the middle of a month, and the BaZi month pillar changes only at the twelve jie terms that open each month, so a birth on Dongzhi stays in the month that began at Heavy Snow. In 2026 that month is Geng-zi. It runs from 10:52:32 am on 7 December 2026 to 10:09:58 pm on 5 January 2027, UTC+8, when Moderate Cold opens the next month. In the Hong Kong Observatory's terms the Winter Solstice is a major solar term, and Heavy Snow and Moderate Cold are minor ones. The free BaZi calculator applies these boundaries to a birth date and time, and our explainer on how the Four Pillars are built walks through a full chart.

The year pillar changes later. BaZi turns the year at Lichun, 9:46:18 am UTC+8 on 4 February 2027, two days before Lunar New Year on 6 February, when the zodiac animal changes by custom. Our 2027 Chinese zodiac dates guide sets out both boundaries for the Goat year.

On an iPhone, the Kaucim app has a free Lock Screen widget that counts the days to the next solar term.