China has a saying, I don't know if you have heard of it. This sentence is: "Nine for birthdays, eight for weddings and seven for funerals". This sentence directly expounds the strength of food culture. Maybe foreigners will be curious. Why do they combine it with numbers when eating? How much is seven, eight and nine? Let's talk about it below, that is to say, nine dishes must be arranged neatly on the table for the elderly in rural areas, because in the eyes of the ancients, the number nine is the same as long, so serving nine dishes is the best wish for the elderly and will lead to a long life.
When old people celebrate their birthdays, they are also very particular about their age. Usually they bring nine, seventy-nine or eighty-nine, and so on. No old man will celebrate his birthday all year round. They think it is a symbol of bad luck. After nine courses of treatment, the old people will feel very happy when they see nine courses of treatment. This is someone else's blessing. It is very happy to live for a long time, so what are the nine dishes?
As we all know, eating eight at the wedding banquet is a banquet for newlyweds when they get married, which is naturally a good blessing for newlyweds, so many things should be paired, and eight is the best moral. Now eight has another meaning, which is equivalent to hair, and it is also a good sign. If there are eight meals at the wedding reception, it is an expectation for the newlyweds to be happy, but it is not their specific food at the wedding reception.
In rural areas, there are two kinds of happy events, one is a white event and the other is a red event, so relatives and friends should be invited to dinner for a white event, but only seven dishes can be placed on the table. The number seven stands for seven, so we must pay attention to this when our loved ones die. It is said that people can ascend to heaven after 49 days, but it will take 7 days, so the food on the table is naturally 7, 7 and 7 are a bit the same.
But at a white wedding, people's mood is different, so naturally they should not eat and drink, and it is difficult to swallow after eating a few bites. Although it is a bad thing, the food on the table should not be mistreated. It's not as good as a red wedding, but it won't be too embarrassing. Therefore, the ancients in China would associate many things with numbers to form a proverb, which is convenient for future generations to remember, and it also reflects the wisdom of the ancients.
It's just that now everyone likes to pursue urban life. For young people, these rural proverbs have long been forgotten, let alone taken seriously, so they are gradually forgotten. But these words of the ancestors combined with the society of Beijing at that time still made sense.