Meals on Chinese New Year
EVERY culture has their own traditional dishes and we often get a taste of it especially during occasions and festivals.
Family is the basis of the Chinese society, which is seen through the significance placed on the New Year’s Eve dinner or during reunion get togethers.
Chinesenewyear.net reports this feast is extremely important for the Chinese.
All family members must come back. Even if they truly can’t, the rest of the family will leave their spot empty and place a spare set of utensils for them. In the legend of the Spring Festival’s origin, this was when the monster Nian would come and terrorise the villages. The people would hide in their homes, prepare a feast with offerings to the ancestors and gods, and hope for the best.
Food is one of the things that the Chinese take the most pride in. And of course, alot of care and thought is put into the menu for the most important holiday of the year. Spring Rolls
Eggrolls are probably the most well-known of Chinese cuisines. However, they’re actually “spring rolls.” They are eaten during the Spring Festival in Southern China to celebrate the coming of spring.
Dumplings
Another well-known dish, dumplings are the northern equivalent of spring rolls. They are eaten during every special occasion, but are the most significant during Chinese New Year. That’s a lot of dumplings! But there’s good reason. In Chinese, dumplings (jiao zi) sounds like (jiao zi). Jiao means “exchange” and zi is the midnight hour. Put together, jiao zi is the exchange between the old and new year. All dumplings should be wrapped at this time. By eating dumplings, you are sending away the old and welcoming the new. Noodles
In some places, it’s custom to cook dumplings and noodles together. This is called gold silk and gold ingots. It’s yet another dish to express people’s wishes for prosperity. Though the origin of noodles is heavily disputed, there’s no doubt that noodles are a staple in Chinese cuisine. In the beginning, they were called “soup pancakes”. People would tear the dough into little pieces and throw them into the pot. It wasn’t until the Tang Dynasty when people began rolling them into the noodle shape we know today. For Chinese New Year, people like to eat long noodles. They are also called (cháng shòu miàn), which means “longevity noodles.”
You aren’t allowed to cut them and should try not to chew either. The longer the noodle, the longer your life will be.