Chinese New Year eating customs

The Spring Festival customs of the Han people generally include eating rice cakes, dumplings, glutinous rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, poached eggs, large meatballs, whole fish, wine, oranges, apples, peanuts, melon seeds, candies, fragrant tea and delicacies. ; accompanied by dusting, washing bedding, preparing New Year's goods, pasting Spring Festival couplets, pasting New Year pictures, pasting paper cuttings, pasting window grilles, pasting blessing characters, lighting candles, lighting fires, setting off firecrackers, keeping up with the New Year, giving New Year's money, paying New Year greetings, visiting relatives, and There are many activities such as visiting ancestral graves, visiting the flower market, and having a social fire, which are the ultimate family fun. Chinese people have the habit of hanging Chinese knots during the Spring Festival. Before the New Year's Eve, Tianjin people have the custom of going to Qiaoxiang Pavilion in the ancient cultural street to ask for Chinese knots, which means Qiaoxiang receives blessings.

Northern people like to eat dumplings during the Spring Festival, which means reunion, good luck and farewell to the old and welcoming the new. In order to increase the atmosphere and fun of the festival, people in the past dynasties have put a lot of effort into the stuffing of dumplings. People put money in the dumplings, whoever eats them will make a fortune in the coming year; they put honey in the dumplings, and whoever eats them will mean their life in the coming year. Sweet and so on.

When the children are playing and setting off firecrackers, it is also the busiest time for the housewives in the kitchen. The New Year’s dishes have been prepared a few days ago, and the New Year’s Eve dinner is always cooked on New Year’s Eve. Make it. In the north, dumplings for the New Year's Day are also made on the 30th night. At this time, every chopping board was busy chopping meat and chopping vegetables. At this time, the sound of chopping boards came from every house, the sound of firecrackers came from the streets and alleys, the sound of abacus and accounts came from the small shops, and mixed with the laughter everywhere, one after another, filled with ears, intertwined into a cheerful New Year's Eve movement.

Eating New Year’s Eve dinner is the most lively and happy time for every household during the Spring Festival. New Year's Eve. The table is filled with sumptuous New Year dishes, and the whole family is reunited. Sitting around the table and having the reunion dinner together, the sense of fulfillment in my heart is really indescribable. People not only enjoy the table full of delicacies, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold basins, hot stir-fries, and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable, one is hot pot. One is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, indicating that it is prosperous; "fish" and "yu" are homophonic, symbolizing "abundance in auspicious celebrations" and "abundance every year". There are also radish, commonly known as cabbage, which is used to wish good luck; lobster, fried fish and other fried foods are used to wish prosperity for the family, just like "fire cooking oil". The last part is usually a sweet dish, wishing you a sweet life in the future. On this day, even if you don’t know how to drink, you can drink a little.

There are many famous New Year’s Eve dinners, which vary from north to south, including dumplings, wontons, long noodles, yuanxiao, etc., and each has its own specialties. Northerners are accustomed to eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year, which means "Gengsui Jiaozi" (Gengsui Jiaozi), the transition between the old and the new. And because the white flour dumplings are shaped like silver ingots, serving them on the table symbolizes "making a fortune in the new year, and the ingots rolling in". When making dumplings, some people also wrap a few coins that have been sterilized in boiling water, saying that whoever eats them first will make more money. The custom of eating dumplings was passed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing saw that the ears of the poor were rotten by the frost during the twelfth lunar month of winter, so he made a "Quhan Jiao Er Decoction" to treat frostbite for the poor. He used mutton, chili peppers and some cold-warming medicinal materials, wrapped them in dough to make ear-shaped "Jiao Er", cooked them in a pot, and distributed them to the poor. After eating, people felt their whole body warm and their ears warm. Later, people followed suit and it has been passed down to this day. Eating wontons during the New Year means taking the beginning of the new year. Legend has it that the world was in a state of chaos before it was created. Pangu created the world, and then there were four directions in the universe and long noodles, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is a wish for a hundred years of longevity.

In the north, some families also provide a bowl of rice, which is cooked years ago and served during the New Year. It is called "every other year's meal". There is leftover rice every year, and they can't finish it all year round. They still have to eat it this year. It means to eat the food of the past year. This pot of rice and millet is usually cooked with a mixture of rice and millet. As the saying goes in Beijing, it is called "two rice rice" because it has yellow and white. This is called "gold and silver, and the pot is full of gold and silver". In many places, the cakes, melons and fruits prepared during the observance of the year are all intended to bring good luck: eating dates (early spring), eating persimmons (all goes well), eating almonds (happy people), eating immortality fruit (immortality) ) and eat rice cakes (which get higher every year). On New Year's Eve, the whole family ate, had fun, talked and laughed.