Winter Solstice Heaven Worshipping Ceremony of Tang Dynasty

Winter solstice is a very important solar term on the Lunar Calendar. As one of the traditional holidays very important for the Chinese, the “winter solstice heaven worshipping ceremony” was used to the grandest ceremony performed on the winter solstice in ancient China. During the Tang Dynasty, the winter solstice heaven and ancestral worshipping ceremony through which people prayed for prosperity was the most popular of all time. In recent years, Daming Palace National Heritage Park has begun to perform the winter solstice heaven worshipping ceremony that day.

Daming Palace National Heritage Park is on the World Heritage List. It is located at Taihua South Road, Xi’an.

Daming Palace was the grandest and most magnificent palatial architectural cluster during the Tang Dynasty. Today, it is the biggest palatial architectural cluster in the world by area. It used to be a national symbol of the Tang Dynasty. Daming Palace was built in the eighth year of Emperor Taizong of Tang (634 A.D.).