The 30th day of the Lunar New Year, also known as "New Year's Eve". According to custom, in addition to dishes, southern rice cakes, northern dumplings. Folklore experts say, "New Year's Eve" to eat dumplings and rice cakes have symbolic meaning, meaning that the New Year to be rich.

One, the north and south of the New Year's Eve logo food:

Dumplings become the northern New Year's Eve logo food,On the one hand, because of the dumplings itself flavorful, Chinese folk "dumplings on the wine, the more you drink, the more you have". "The more you drink it, the more it tastes." and so on. More importantly, dumplings have a cultural symbolism, dumplings are a symbol of time, the time of the old and new year alternates at midnight, as the so-called "one night and even two years, five nights divided into two years," eating dumplings to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and get rid of the old and bring in the new. For this reason, later generations have given dumplings the meaning of "changing the year and handing over the dumplings", with "子" as "子时" and "饺" as "饺" (dumplings). The word "zi" means "zi time", and "jiao" harmonizes with "dumpling", which means "joyous reunion" and "good luck". Because the dumplings are shaped like silver dollars, the pots of dumplings on the table also symbolize the "New Year's fortune, Yuanbao rolled in".

According to historical records, dumplings really became an auspicious food for the Spring Festival after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Laihua said that eating dumplings on the Spring Festival has many good meanings, especially on New Year's Eve. The reason why the dumplings on New Year's Eve are so unusual is that from 23:00 on the night of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year to 1:00 on the first day of the first month of the new year, it's just the right time to hand over the dumplings to take the meaning of "the year of the new year," and the "son" is the "son time" to hand over the dumplings to the new year. The first is the first day of the first month of the new year, at 1 o'clock, it is the time of the year, "Zi" for "Zi Shi", "Zi Shi", and "Diao" and "Diao" resonance, "celebratory reunion" and "good luck" meaning. The second is that people expect to eat the past year's troubles, like a piece of dumplings, and pray for good luck in the new year. Thirdly, eating dumplings is also a way of praying for an early birth in the coming year, for a prosperous family, and for the children to have a bright future.

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The same is true for rice cakes in the south, which have the harmonic meaning of "high yearly" and are therefore eaten on New Year's Eve. "There are many styles and colors of rice cakes, especially the square-shaped yellow and white rice cakes, which symbolize gold and silver treasures, implying that the New Year will bring wealth and prosperity."

Eating rice cakes can be "yearly high" and better year after year.? The wonderful thing about rice cakes is the beating. Glutinous rice is ground into powder and placed in a stone mortar, where several physically strong adults alternately beat it down with a hammer until it is fine and sticky, and then take it out and cut it into cakes. There are many ways to eat the rice cakes, stir-fried, eaten in soup, and boiled with sugar, all of which are delicious.

Two, the northern people ate dumplings on New Year's Eve:

Because dumplings and could be called "cross", there is the meaning of the old and the new in it. That's why people in the north eat dumplings for New Year's dinner, to celebrate the old and welcome the new. Dumplings were not invented to feed and clothe, but to heal. Legend has it that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of medicine, invented it to treat patients who had frostbite on their ears.

Particularly in cold winter, a bowl of steaming dumplings not only drives away the cold but also brings psychological satisfaction. In many areas of northern China, it is customary to eat dumplings during the New Year's Eve vigil. People often compare dumplings to the "New Year's Eve" dumplings, which are very popular among the common people because of their auspicious meaning. Even poor people would make a bowl of dumplings at the Spring Festival to look forward to a better life in the new year.

The origin of dumplings dates back to the Han Dynasty: during the Han Dynasty, the winter weather was so cold that many people's ears froze. Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor, thought of a good way to wrap cold-repelling herbs and mutton and other things in the dough and boil it in water to give it to the poor people to eat. Because it resembled an ear and cured frostbite, people called it "Jiao Er". Later, people copied Zhang Zhongjing's method of making dumplings and gradually changed the name from "Jiao Er" to "Jiaol". The name of the dumpling was then changed to "交耳", and then to "饺子", for the sake of consistency.

Three, southerners eat rice cakes on New Year's Eve:

Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a monster in the mountains named "Nian", and in the severe winter when there was a lack of food, it would come down to the mountains and eat people to feed their hunger. In order to cope with the threat of the beast, the clever "Gao Clan" tribe made a large amount of food with grain before the beast came down from the mountain, rolled it into strips, and pressed it into pieces and put it outside the door, while people hid in their homes. The beast could not find anyone, so it ate all the food outside the door and returned to the mountains. The people thus escaped the disaster of Nian and were able to start plowing in the spring. This method of avoiding animals was passed down from year to year. Because the Gao family made the food bars, the words "nian" and "gao" were combined and called "nian gao.

Southern people like to eat rice, northern people like to eat pasta; on the first day of the Lunar New Year, many families will eat dumplings, which can be wrapped in a variety of fillings, such as sesame and bean paste, and eating dumplings means a reunion; Southern people can't go without a fish on New Year's Eve, which is symbolic of the meaning of the year; Sichuanese will also arrange preserved sausage and bacon.

Cake made of glutinous rice, which is a specialty of the south of the Yangtze River, in the north there are sticky grains like glutinous rice, and in ancient times, the first sticky corn (commonly known as small yellow rice). This millet hulled and ground, steamed with water, and yellow, and sticky, but also sweet, is the Yellow River Basin people to celebrate the harvest of food. Ming Chongzhen years engraved in the "Imperial Beijing Scenery" documented that the Beijing people at that time in the "New Year's Day in the first month, eat millet cake, said the year cake". It is easy to see that "Nian Nian Cake" is a homonym of "sticky cake" in the north.

Three, China's food culture differences between the north and south:

On the first day of the first month, people get up early, and bless each other. Breakfast northern people eat dumplings, southern people eat soup dumplings, etc., almost all over the country to eat rice cakes, "sticky" word and "year" word harmonized, and "year" word originally is the meaning of grain ripening,


Eating sticky cake is not only a good idea, but it is also a great way to make sure that you have the right food and the right food for you. strong>Eating sticky cake symbolizes a year of harvest is better than a year, a year is higher than a year. Nowadays, it is commonly known as "nian gao" (年糕). After breakfast, people put on their new clothes and go to their relatives, friends and neighbors to pay their respects to the New Year, wishing all the best for the new year. Each family entertains their guests with snacks such as melon seeds, peanuts and candies. On this day, people eat most of the food prepared before the festival, i.e., to take the meaning of "surplus". North mostly eat steamed bread, the South is still mainly rice.

In the northern countryside, the dumplings are women's package, when sisters-in-law sit together *** with the package, this is the time of the year to get together, if there is no such work as dumplings, they can not sit together, so this custom is very important, cohesion of the family. In the city, the men also had to make dumplings, and the whole family, old and young, sat down together to make dumplings, a kind of heavenly happiness that was rare throughout the year, and therefore especially valued.

So eating dumplings is not a delicacy in itself, but wrapping dumplings and sitting together as a family is much more symbolic.

In addition, loved ones to go out, Shandong people will also be wrapped in dumplings to send off, which has to say, dumplings and feet homophonic, the pro-existence of eating dumplings, you walk feet strong, which is a piece of the heart of the loved ones.