Tonic Day 补冬日

Today is 8 November which is September 29 in lunar calendar. Back in Singapore, my dear mother will definitely ask me to go back to drink tonic soup. My mother always say the best day of the year to eat tonic as it will be best absorb into the body. Out of curiosity, I checked it out on the web and found something different.

In lunar calendar, 29 September is the beginning of winter (立冬) which used to be an important traditional holiday for ancient. There is a Chinese proverb [ 立冬补冬，补嘴空 ] , it was believed that if you start taking tonic supplement/soup today, you can actually increase your immunity to prevent severely cold attacks during winter period....Blah Blah Blah...

Sorry lah... donno how to translate further ..., check out the following Chinese site if you guys are interested ... :)

http://blog.3608.com/Article/5415.html
http://gh.ncepubj.edu.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=1705
http://www.haoday.cn/html/2006-11/5320.htm

Bad in Chinese? Free Translation here :)

Conclusion - hmmm...looks like that my mum got the wrong version of history??? Anyway, I still miss her tonic soup back home and I am cooking tonic soup for the whole family tomorrow... :P