Winter Solstice Traditions Around the World

Winter Solstice Traditions in East Asia

In China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan the solstice is a solar term called Dongzhi, and families mark it with food.

1. Dongzhi was once as big as Chinese New Year The Dongzhi Festival was first celebrated during the Zhou dynasty and became an official celebration under the Han dynasty, when people took a break from work to be with their families. It was traditionally a very important holiday, comparable to Chinese New Year. In Hong Kong many businesses still let employees leave early that day. ↳ Dongzhi
2. Families eat tangyuan for reunion On Dongzhi, families make and eat tangyuan, balls of glutinous rice cooked in a sweet soup or savory broth. Each family member gets at least one large ball plus several small ones. The name sounds close to the Chinese word for reunion, which is why the dish stands for togetherness. ↳ Tangyuan
3. Dumplings shaped like ears Legend says the custom of solstice dumplings started with the Han dynasty physician Zhang Zhongjing. Seeing poor people with chilblains on their ears, he had dumplings made with lamb and handed them out to keep them warm. The dumplings were shaped like ears. ↳ Dongzhi
4. Korea eats red bean porridge In Korea the winter solstice is called the “Small Seol”. People make patjuk, a red bean porridge with round sticky rice cakes in it. In the past the porridge was sprayed on walls or doors, because it was said to ward off bad ghosts. ↳ Dongzhi
5. Japan takes a yuzu bath In Japan, bathing with yuzu citrus on Tōji, the winter solstice, dates to at least the early 18th century. Whole fruits float in the hot bath, sometimes in a cloth bag. The yuzu bath is said to guard against colds, warm the body and relax the mind. ↳ Yuzu
6. Taiwan offers nine-layer cakes In Taiwan families spend Dongzhi together and eat tangyuan. They also offer nine-layer cakes made of glutinous rice flour to their ancestors, shaped like a chicken, duck, tortoise, pig, cow or sheep. Many people eat tonic foods such as ginger duck hot pot and mutton hot pot to fight the cold. ↳ Dongzhi

Ancient Winter Solstice Traditions of Rome and Persia

Some of the oldest winter solstice traditions we can still read about come from Rome and Iran.

7. Yalda Night is spent reading Hafez On Yalda Night, the longest night of the year, families in Iran and neighbouring countries stay up past midnight to eat, drink and read poetry, especially Hafez. Pomegranates and watermelons are served because their red colour stands for dawn and life. Yalda was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists in December 2022. ↳ Yalda Night
8. Yalda is at least 2,500 years old Yalda Night was included in the official calendar of the Achaemenid Empire from at least 502 BCE, under Darius I. The name Yalda comes from a Syriac word meaning “birth”. ↳ Yalda Night
9. Saturnalia turned Rome upside down Saturnalia began on December 17 and by the 1st century BC ran until December 23. Gambling was allowed, masters served their slaves at table, and a “King of the Saturnalia” was chosen to give orders. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days”. ↳ Saturnalia
10. Romans gave each other gag gifts Saturnalia gifts were usually gag gifts or small wax or pottery figurines called sigillaria. Candles were also part of the festival, and celebrants shouted “io Saturnalia”. ↳ Saturnalia
11. December 25 was the Sun’s birthday In the old Roman calendar December 25 was the date of the winter solstice. In AD 274 the emperor Aurelian made it the festival of Sol Invictus, the “Invincible Sun”. Whether this influenced the date of Christmas is debated, and one scholar calls the evidence “paltry”. ↳ Winter solstice
12. Brumalia lasted until the 11th century Brumalia was a winter solstice festival of the eastern Roman Empire, with night-time feasting and drinking. Its name comes from bruma, Latin for “winter solstice”. It was celebrated at least until the 11th century despite Emperor Justinian’s repression of paganism. ↳ Brumalia
13. The Anglo-Saxons kept a Night of the Mothers The 8th-century historian Bede wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons celebrated Mōdraniht, “Mothers’ Night”, on or around the longest night of the year. Bede is the only source for it. ↳ Mōdraniht

Winter Solstice Traditions in Northern Europe

Yule, candles and fire run through the midwinter customs of the north.

14. Yule was a Germanic midwinter festival Yule was a winter festival of the pagan Germanic peoples that later merged with Christmas. Old Norse sources describe feasting, ceremonial drinking and oath swearing. Tales set at Yule often feature trolls and the undead visiting farms. Some modern pagans celebrate Yule as its own festival. ↳ Yule
15. The Wild Hunt rides at Yule Folk tales across north-western Europe tell of a host of noisy, harmful dead riding through the land in winter, stealing Christmas food and ale. In several regions Odin leads it. In the 20th century, tar crosses were painted on farmhouse doors in western Norway for protection. ↳ Yule
16. The Yule log was saved to light next year’s In the English custom, part of the Yule log was burned each evening until Twelfth Night, then kept under the bed for luck. In Yorkshire a piece was saved to light the next year’s log. The earliest solid evidence of a special Christmas log dates to 1184, in Germany. ↳ Yule log
17. Sweden’s giant straw goat keeps getting burned The Yule goat is a straw goat tied with red ribbons. The custom of building giant ones in towns started with the Gävle goat in 1966. It has been hit so often by vandalism and arson that it is now guarded. ↳ Yule goat
18. Saint Lucy’s Day was once the longest night On December 13, girls in Scandinavia dress as Saint Lucy, in white with a crown of candles, and carry saffron buns in procession. Under the old Julian calendar, December 13 fell on or near the winter solstice, which is why it is now a festival of light. ↳ Saint Lucy’s Day
19. Slavs lit fires for the dead on Koročun Koročun was a pre-Christian Slavic holiday on the longest night, around December 20 or 21. Western Slavs lit fires at cemeteries to keep their dead warm and held feasts to keep them fed. The first written use of the word, in 1143, refers to the winter solstice. ↳ Korochun
20. Koliada singers go house to house Koliada is the Slavic name for winter rituals around Christmas, held at the end of December to honour the sun at the winter solstice. Groups of singers called koledari visit houses to sing carols. ↳ Koliada
21. Cornwall burns the Mock Since 2007, the Montol Festival in Penzance has been held on December 21. Masked guise dancers parade with lanterns, a Lord of Misrule is chosen by drawing coloured beans, and the Mock, a Cornish Yule log chalked with a stick figure, is burned on a bonfire. ↳ Montol Festival
22. Brighton burns its clocks on the beach Burning the Clocks is a winter solstice festival held in Brighton, England, since 1994 as a response to Christmas commercialisation. Paraders in costumes with clock faces carry willow-and-paper lanterns through the city, then burn the lanterns on the beach with fireworks. ↳ Burning the Clocks

Winter Solstice Traditions at Ancient Monuments

Long before written records, people built stone monuments lined up with the midwinter sun.

23. Newgrange fills with sunlight for 17 minutes Newgrange in Ireland was built around 3100 BC. At the winter solstice sunrise, light shines through a “roofbox” above the entrance and down the passage into the inner chamber for about 17 minutes. The first person known to see it in modern times was Michael J. O’Kelly, on December 21, 1967. ↳ Newgrange
24. Getting inside Newgrange is a lottery To watch the solstice sunrise from inside Newgrange you enter an annual lottery. Of the tens of thousands who enter, sixty are chosen each year, and each can bring one guest. ↳ Newgrange
25. Maeshowe catches the midwinter sunset Maeshowe in Orkney is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave from around 2800 BC, built so that light from the setting sun enters the passage for a few days on each side of the winter solstice and reaches the back of the chamber. ↳ Maeshowe
26. Stonehenge faces the winter sunset Stonehenge is aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the sunrise of the summer solstice. Animal bones found there suggest people may have gathered at the site in winter rather than summer. English Heritage allows access to the stones at the solstices. ↳ Stonehenge
27. Germany’s Goseck Circle is about 7,000 years old The Goseck Circle, built around 4900 BC, has entrances aligned with sunrise and sunset on the winter solstice. After it was rebuilt with 1,675 oak poles, it opened to the public on December 21, 2005, the day of the winter solstice. ↳ Goseck Circle

Winter Solstice Traditions in the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere

In North America the solstice falls in December. In the Andes and southern Chile it falls in June.

28. The Hopi bring the sun back with Soyal Soyal is the winter solstice ceremony of the Zuni and Hopi peoples, held on December 21. Participants ceremonially bring the sun back from its long slumber, and pahos prayer sticks are made beforehand to bless the community, homes, animals and plants. ↳ Soyal
29. Zuni Shalako dancers are chosen at the solstice Shalako is a series of Zuni dances and ceremonies. The Shalako dancers are chosen at the winter solstice and begin learning the chants they will recite. The ceremony has been closed to non-Native visitors since 1990. ↳ Shalako
30. Inti Raymi was the Inca festival of the sun Inti Raymi honoured Inti, the Inca sun god, at the June winter solstice and was the most important festival of the Inca Empire. The Spanish banned it after 1535. Since 1944 it has been re-enacted each June 24 at Saksaywaman near Cusco, attracting thousands of visitors. ↳ Inti Raymi
31. The Mapuche keep a fire burning until sunrise Wiñoy Tripantu, the Mapuche celebration of the sun’s return, falls on the June solstice in Chile and Argentina. Families light a wood fire and keep it burning until sunrise, elders tell stories, and the ceremony ends with a communal breakfast. ↳ We Tripantu

Winter Solstice Traditions vs. Our Other Holiday Facts

This page covers the longest night itself. For the rest of the season, read our Christmas facts and our New Years traditions, which are sourced the same way. Yule logs, candles and fire show up on all three pages. Still in the autumn? Try our fun facts about November.

How to Use These Winter Solstice Traditions

Read one tradition aloud on the longest night, try one at home (a bowl of tangyuan or a citrus bath is easy), or turn the list into a quiz: which country floats fruit in the bath, and which monument fills with light for 17 minutes? Each takes 15 to 30 seconds. Want something darker for a long winter night? Browse our stories, try Krampus stories or weird history facts.

How We Checked These Winter Solstice Traditions

Every one of these winter solstice traditions links to the Wikipedia article we checked it against on October 23, 2026. Where a custom rests on legend, such as Zhang Zhongjing’s dumplings, or on a single source, such as Bede’s Night of the Mothers, we say so. We left out popular claims we could not confirm. If you spot an error, tell us through the contact page.

Winter Solstice Traditions Around the World — FAQ