Winter solstice is the time of year when the pole is tilted furthest away from the sun.  In the northern hemisphere (where Hong Kong is located) our winter solstice is in December.  In 2023, it will be Friday, December 22nd.  In many cultures this time of year, with the shortest days and longest nights, are a time of festivals and significance.  Many celebrations have ancient roots and influences. 冬至 -  (dung1 zi3 - Cantonese) | (dong1 zhi4 - Mandarin) Close to home:  this is a straight forward festival, usually celebrated on the evening of the solstice. In Hong Kong, many businesses let staff out from work early to make it easier for them to gather with their family for a reunion meal. Often sweet dumplings called 湯圓 (tong1 jyun4-2 in Cantonese, tang1 yuan2) feature at the meal. There is a saying, ""冬大过年" - roughly translated as "Winter solstice is more important than New Year".   The general reasons given are because for an agricultural people, solstice as the coldest and darkest part of the year made it more important, for example in this article 2021 article from the Zhejiang Daily "冬至了！为啥广东人说“冬大过年”？"  and this  2022 one from HK01  "冬大過年！8項冬至習俗一定要知吃這些能添福招財帶旺桃花運". If you have trouble reading Chinese, try opening the articles in Chrome and use GoogleTranslate. ZHAO Rongguang  states, "During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the winter solstice was regarded as important as the New Year. "*. Perhaps the influence of the Tang dynasty practices remained strong among the Cantonese? After all, the overseas settlements of ethnic Chinese were self-names as "唐人街".