冬至 - older and wiser?

冬至 is here today. eaten the peanut and sesame 汤圆 this morning - one year older than last year, age is fast catching up.

winter solstice festival is important to the people in old china and other temperate and northern places because people had to get ready for the winter that's coming right after today. preparing for winter means, storing a lot of dried food, vegetable and meat, and getting ready the tools to clear up the snow, store up the woods to burn for warmth, herding the animals to lower land... and eat the 汤圆

he remembered during his childhood years in a southern china village, when winter came, people would put on their thick cotton-stuffed clothing, and mitten and caps. kids would go outside the village gate, standing high up on the top of the edge of the wall, holding on to self-made paper windmills, having a good time with the on-coming northerly chilly wind.

and now, when winter comes, his hair will be whiter(with or without snow)....but lesser white, in brain matters!