The winter solstice

The winter solstice is one of the 24 solar terms in Japan. It is the 22nd of the 24. We don't use most of the solar terms in the 'west', but this one we do. Hence, there is an English name for it; the winter solstice. In Japanese it is called "touji", 冬至（とうじ). The winter solstice happens when the sun's ecliptic longitude is 270 degrees. In 2025, the winter solstice is today, December 22nd.  Often it falls on December 21st in leap years.

In the Northern Hemisphere, it is the day when the sun is lowest in the sky all year. As a result, this is the time of year when the days (from sunrise to sunset) are shortest and the nights are longest. It is also the time when the seasons change and the cold becomes increasingly severe.

It is said that if you take a bath with yuzu floating in it and eat pumpkin on this day, you will not catch a cold. These customs have been around since the Edo period, and some public baths even offer yuzu baths on this day. In some regions, there are customs such as eating red bean porridge, which is said to ward off evil spirits, or eating konnyaku, which is said to "clean the sand from the body" thus cleansing the body of bad things. Will you practice any of these customs today?