The day of New Year's Eve is extremely important to Chinese people. On this day people prepare to get rid of the old and welcome the new by having a reunion dinner. In ancient China, some prison officials even let prisoners go home to spend New Year's Eve with their families, which shows how important the "New Year's Eve Dinner" was to the ancient Chinese.
The family is the cornerstone of Chinese society, and the annual New Year's dinner fully demonstrates the mutual respect and love of Chinese family members, which makes the relationship between the family even closer. Family reunion often makes the head of the family in the spirit of comfort and satisfaction, the elderly see children and grandchildren, the family size *** to talk about the family, the past care and raising children to pay the effort is not in vain, this is how happy. The younger generation, too, can take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their upbringing.
Children playing with firecrackers, but also the housewives in the kitchen is the busiest time, New Year's dishes are done a few days before, and the New Year's Eve dinner is always in the New Year's Eve on the day of the cook to do out. In the north, the dumplings on the first day of the New Year are also wrapped up on the evening of the thirtieth. At this time, the cutting boards in every house are thumping and busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of the chopping board from every household, the sound of firecrackers from the streets and alleys, small stores and stores out of the "chopping and popping" sound of the abacus and the rhythmic sound of the accounts, mixed with the sound of laughter everywhere, one after another, the ocean full of ears, interweaving into the New Year's Eve joyful music.
Speaking of the knife and anvil sound of New Year's Eve, Deng Yunxiang wrote "Yanjing Native Records" but recorded a very bleak story of New Year's Eve: the poor in the old days of life is difficult, thirty nights is a pass. There was a family whose husband had not yet returned with money by the late evening of the 30th, "the family had run out of bottles and corn, and there were no New Year's goods. Woman at home to put the children to bed, at a loss, heard the neighbor's anvil sound, pain to the extreme, do not know whether the husband can take some money or something back, do not know how to live tomorrow this year, but also afraid of their own home no anvil sound to make people laugh, then take a knife to chop empty anvil, while thumping the chopping, while the tears weeping down ......, this story makes people listen to it. Indeed heartbreaking.
Eating New Year's Eve dinner, is the Spring Festival families the most lively and enjoyable time. New Year's Eve. Abundant New Year's Eve dishes on the table, the whole family reunion, sitting around the table, *** eat a reunion dinner, the heart of the fullness is really difficult to describe. People are enjoying the table full of delicacies, but also to enjoy the happy atmosphere, the table has a big dish, cold pots, stir-fry, snacks, generally less two things, one is hot pot, one is fish. One is fish. Hot pot boiling, steaming, warm and provocative, indicating that the red hot; "fish" and "Yu" resonance, is a symbol of "good luck", but also a metaphor for "year after year". There are also turnips, commonly known as "choy tau", wishing good luck; lobster, popping fish and other fried food, wishing prosperity for the family, such as "blazing fire cooking oil". Finally, more for a sweet food, wishing sweet days ahead, this day, even if you do not drink alcohol, but also more or less drink a little. In ancient times, New Year's Eve drinking, pay close attention to the quality of wine, some wine is no longer available, leaving only many moving wine names, such as "wine", "orchid cocktail", "Yichun wine", "Plum Blossom Wine", "Peach Blossom Wine", "Tusu Wine" and so on.
[Edit]Origin of Folklore
On New Year's Eve, no matter how far apart they are and how busy they are at work, people always want to return to their homes and have a reunion New Year's Eve dinner. Sometimes really can not go home, the family always leave a seat for him, leave a set of chopsticks, said with him to reunite. This New Year's Eve dinner is also known as the "family reunion", which is a family banquet that people attach great importance to.
As the saying goes, a thousand hits, ten thousand curses, thirty nights to eat a meal. According to the traditional habits of our folk, the New Year's Eve dinner food is very delicate, usually have wontons, dumplings, long noodles, Lantern and so on.
New Year's Day to eat wontons to take its meaning of the beginning. Legend has it that Pangu's open the sky and split the earth, so that "the light and clear gas floating up for the sky, the heavy and turbid gas under the condensation for the earth", the end of the chaotic state, there is a universe in all directions. And then take "wonton" and "muddy hoard" of the harmonies, meaning grain full of hoard.
Dumplings are one of the traditional foods of China. Also known as flat food or boiled meat and potatoes. In ancient times, there were only wontons but no dumplings. Later, the wontons were made into a crescent shape and became dumplings. In the Tang Dynasty, the habit of eating dumplings had spread to the remote areas of China. On New Year's Eve, the dumplings are eaten as soon as the clock strikes twelve, so that it is the time of the day, taking the meaning of the change of the old and the new, the coming of the time of the day.
Long noodles, also known as longevity noodles, are eaten on New Year's Day in anticipation of a hundred years of longevity. In ancient times, all pasta is called cake, so the soup noodle was also called soup cake at first, the beginning of the noodle sheet is not rolled or pressed into, but will be and good noodles, hand to the pot to tear pieces, and now eat the north of the "crow's head", "monkey ear" and other practices are almost the same. After the Tang Dynasty began to use the board to roll out the noodles, there are long noodles, short noodles, dry noodles, vegetarian noodles, meat noodles, hanging noodles ......
Yuanxiao, also known as dumplings, more common in the South. It is made of glutinous rice rolled into a round shape (to which different flavors of fillings can be added) and then put into a pot to be cooked, signifying reunion. Yuanxiao is usually served as an early breakfast or as the main dish of the New Year's dinner, and the dish is popular in restaurants and hotels as well as at home.
Many places also have some side dishes with the New Year's dinner, to get a lucky mouth. Eat jujube (spring to early), eat persimmon cake (things as expected), eat almonds (happiness to come), eat tofu (the whole family blessing), eat three fresh vegetables (Sanyang Kaitai), eat longevity fruit (longevity), eat rice cakes (rice cakes rice cakes, a year higher than a year) ...... Of course, nowadays, New Year's Eve dinner varieties are even richer, what chicken, duck, fish, meat, mountain treasures, sea food. About the best dishes you can see in a year are on the table.
[Edit paragraph] evolution
In accordance with traditional folk habits, China's New Year's Eve dinner food customs vary from place to place: people in the north to eat dumplings, the south to eat rice dumplings, rice cakes, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian and Guangdong and other places to eat on the first day of the Lantern Festival, or deep-fried or boiled; people in Zhangzhou, Fujian, the first day of the morning to eat raw garlic and eggs; people in Teochew, Guangdong, to eat on the first day of the local special " The Hui people eat noodles and stewed meat on the first day of the first month, and only eat dumplings on the second day of the first month. Wonton New Year's Day to eat wontons to take its meaning of the beginning of the beginning.
Legend has it that Pangu's open the sky and split the earth, so that "the light and clear upward floating gas for the sky, the heavy and turbid gas under the condensation for the earth", the end of the chaotic state, there is a universe of the four sides.
Then take "hundun" and "hun hoard" of harmony, meaning grain full of hoard. Dumplings in ancient times only wontons and no dumplings, and later made the wontons into a crescent-shaped dumplings