New Year's Eve is extremely important for China people. On this day, people are ready to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and have a family reunion dinner. In ancient China, some prison officials even let prisoners go home to reunite with their families for the New Year, which shows how important "reunion dinner" is to ancient China people.
Family is the cornerstone of China society, and the annual reunion dinner fully shows the mutual respect and care among family members in China, which makes the relationship between families closer. Family reunion often comforts and satisfies the head of the family spiritually. The old people see their children and grandchildren all over the house, and the family is happy. How happy it was to care for and raise their children in the past. The younger generation can also take this opportunity to express their gratitude to their parents for their parenting.
When children are playing with firecrackers, it is also the busiest time for housewives in the kitchen. Chinese New Year's food is cooked a few days ago, and the New Year's Eve dinner is always cooked on New Year's Eve. In the north, jiaozi on the first day of New Year's Day will also be wrapped up on the evening of 30th. At this time, everyone's chopping boards are busy chopping meat and vegetables. At this time, the sound of chopping boards from every household, firecrackers from streets and alleys, the sound of "scratching" abacus, and the cadence of reimbursement from shops and shops are mixed with laughter and laughter everywhere, echoing with joy and interweaving into a cheerful movement on New Year's Eve.
Speaking of the anvil sound on New Year's Eve, Deng Yunxiang's "Yanjing Local Records" recorded a very bleak story on New Year's Eve: in the old society, the poor lived a hard life, and the New Year's Eve was a pass. There is a family whose husband hasn't brought money back until late at night. "There is no bottle of millet at home, and there is no new year's goods. The woman let her children sleep at home and could do nothing. She was in great pain when she heard the chopping block next door. I wonder if her husband can bring back some money or something. I don't know how to spend this year tomorrow, and I'm afraid there is no chopping block at home to make people laugh. So she chopped the chopping board with a knife, smashed and chopped, and shed tears ... This story is really sad.
Eating New Year's Eve is the most lively and enjoyable time for every household in the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve, a table is full of rich New Year's dishes, and the family get together, sit around the table and have a reunion dinner. The sense of fullness in my heart is really indescribable. People not only enjoy the delicious food on the table, but also enjoy the happy atmosphere. There are big dishes, cold dishes, stir-fried dishes and snacks on the table. Generally, two things are indispensable, one is hot pot and the other is fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and sultry, which indicates that it is thriving; "Fish" and "fish" are homophonic, which is a symbol of "auspicious celebration is more than enough" and also a metaphor for "more than enough every year". There are also radishes, commonly known as vegetable heads. Good luck. Lobster, fried fish and other fried foods, wish your family prosperity, such as "cooking oil with fire" Finally, I want a dessert. I wish you a sweet life in the future. On this day, even if I can't drink, I will drink a little. In ancient times, people paid great attention to the quality of wine when drinking during the Spring Festival. Some wines are gone now, leaving only many touching names, such as wine, Wei Lan wine, Yichun wine, Mei Huajiu wine, peach blossom wine wine and Tu Su wine.
[Edit this paragraph] The origin of folk customs
On New Year's Eve, no matter how far apart and how busy the work is, people always want to go back to their hometown for a reunion dinner. Sometimes I really can't go home, so I always leave him a seat and a pair of chopsticks at home to show my reunion with him. This kind of New Year's Eve dinner is also called "Family Fun", and it is a family dinner that people attach great importance to.
As the saying goes, hit a thousand and scold ten thousand, and eat at thirty nights. According to Chinese traditional folk customs, the food of New Year's Eve is very particular, usually including wonton, jiaozi, long noodles, Yuanxiao and so on.
Eating wonton in the New Year takes its original meaning. According to legend, Pangu split the heavens and the earth, making "the light and clear air floating up into the sky and the heavy and turbid air into the earth", ending the chaotic state and making everything in the universe exist. Then take the homonym of "wonton" and "mud hoard" to indicate that the food is full.
Jiaozi is one of the traditional foods in China. Also known as eating flat or cooking cakes. In ancient times, there were only wonton, not jiaozi. Later, wonton was made into a crescent shape and became jiaozi. In the Tang Dynasty, the habit of eating jiaozi had spread to remote areas in China. On New Year's Eve, at 12: 11, we began to eat jiaozi, so this is a year's time, which means that the old and the new alternate, which is a year's time.
Long noodles, also called longevity noodles, are eaten during the New Year. I wish you a long life. In ancient times, pasta was called cake, so noodle soup was also called soup cake at first. At first, the noodles were not rolled or pressed, but the noodles were torn into the pot by hand, similar to the practice of "crow's head" and "monkey's ear" eaten in the north now. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that noodles were rolled with chopping boards that long noodles, short noodles, dried noodles, plain noodles, meat noodles and dried noodles gradually appeared. ...
Yuanxiao, also called Tangyuan, is more common in the south. It is to knead glutinous rice into a round shape (different flavors of fillings can be added) and then cook it in a pot, which means round and round. Yuanxiao is usually the staple food of breakfast or New Year's Eve, and it is very popular in restaurants, hotels and at home.
In many places, some non-staple foods are also used when eating New Year's Eve, in order to have an auspicious taste. Eat dates (spring comes early), persimmons (all the best), almonds (happiness comes), tofu (family photos), three fresh vegetables (three Yang Kaitai's), longevity fruit (immortality), rice cakes (rice cakes and rice cakes are getting higher every year) ... Of course, the variety of New Year's Eve dinner is more abundant now. What is chicken, duck and fish?
[Edit this paragraph] Propagation and evolution
According to traditional folk customs, there are different ways to eat New Year's Eve in China: northerners eat jiaozi, southerners eat zongzi and rice cakes, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong eat Yuanxiao on the first day, or fry or cook; People in Zhangzhou, Fujian, eat raw garlic preserved eggs in the morning of the first day; Chaozhou people, Guangdong, ate the local "rotten circle" on the first day; Hui people eat noodles and stew on the first day of the first month, and only eat jiaozi on the second day. Wonton takes its original meaning when it is eaten in the New Year.
According to legend, Pangu split the heavens and the earth, making "the light and clear air floating up into the sky and the heavy and turbid air into the earth", ending the chaotic state and making everything in the universe exist.
Then take the homonym of "wonton" and "mud hoard" to indicate that the food is full. In ancient times, jiaozi only had wonton without jiaozi, and later it was made into a crescent-shaped jiaozi.