The Winter Solstice
English

The Winter Solstice

by

culture

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It's called touji (冬至 とうじ) in Japanese.

On this day, we have several traditions such as eating pumpkins, red bean dishes or taking a bath with yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit).

Each tradition has its own meaning, but today I’d like to focus on the yuzu bath. The picture below shows yuzu, a fruit with a wonderfully distinctive aroma that I love. We use the fruit for cooking or baking too. I bought the organic yuzu for the winter solstice to make a yuzu bath.

Some people leave the fruit whole, but I wanted the aroma to be stronger, so I cut the yuzu in half.

I put them into a net and let them float in the bathtub.

I love the yuzu bath because the scent is absolutely incredible. Taking the yuzu bath on the winter solstice has been a part of tradition in Japan since the Edo Period. We believe that taking the bath on the winter solstice makes us stronger and we can avoid catching a cold. There are other benefits too: the strong citrus aroma is deeply relaxing, and yuzu is rich in vitamins, especially vitamin C, and citric acid. These are great for the skins and help us recover from tiredness quickly.

I have a three-year-old yuzu tree in my yard. However, it hasn't bloomed yet. I truly hope next year it'll start flowering.

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