★ "reunion dinner" and "family happiness"
The meals and dishes of New Year's Eve all over the country have many meanings, such as reunion, wealth, surplus and sweetness. These all express people's wishes for the New Year ... This is an update to the traditional concept of eating New Year's Eve at home, but it still maintains the custom of "reunion and eating" for the whole family, and the meals and dishes ordered still contain traditional meanings and are even more exquisite.
Every year near the end of the year, students who go to rural schools, academies and imperial examination schools, businessmen who do business in other places, artists who have left their homes, beggars and beggars wandering around, and officials all take advantage of the "Hume" holiday stipulated by the court to go home for the New Year. They all calculate their itinerary and go home before the New Year's Eve at the latest. Everyone in the family leans against the door, hoping that those who stay outside will come back, have a happy family reunion and share this year's dinner.
The red candle shines high, the charcoal fire is burning, and the aroma of wine and food is overflowing. The whole family, men, women and children, sat around the table, toasting and passing dishes to each other, wishing each other good luck in the New Year and all the best. As recorded in "Ting Anne Lu": "On New Year's Eve, every family holds a banquet, and young people and old people get together to say auspicious words."
Cups and chopsticks are staggered, drinking and talking, reviewing the old year, planning the new year ... sometimes guessing boxing orders, laughing and laughing all over the house, a scene of family happiness. No wonder the ancients called New Year's Eve a "reunion dinner" and called Lu a "family reunion".
★ The staple food of New Year's Eve has many meanings.
Spring Festival is the most solemn traditional festival in China. As the saying goes, "a thousand miles of different winds, a hundred miles of different customs", because the New Year's Eve dinner has special significance, it is carefully designed and prepared, so that it has various auspicious meanings. The Chinese New Year food customs in various parts of China are also colorful and have their own characteristics.
On the New Year's Eve dinner, the northern folk proverb says, "On the first day, jiaozi, the next day, the children will be married, and on the third day, pancakes will roll eggs.". Jiaozi is one of the important foods in the Spring Festival. In addition to eating jiaozi on New Year's Eve (the last day of the twelfth lunar month), you should also eat jiaozi on the first and fifth days of the first month, but the way to eat jiaozi in these three days is different. Jiaozi eaten on New Year's Eve must be vegetarian, which means peace and purity in the coming year, and jiaozi can't cook it at once; Jiaozi, who ate on the first day, must have been left unfinished on the first day (that is, New Year's Eve 12-1 point). On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, jiaozi must be made into a lace shape, commonly known as "pinching little people's mouths", to prevent little people from gossiping for good luck in the coming year.
Northerners eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve. Because jiaozi is so like an ingot, jiaozi cooks it in the middle of the night and then fishes for it. This is called "fishing for an ingot". And I didn't make a fortune by fishing this year until next year. Therefore, even in a poor family, it is necessary to make preparations early and save a little on weekdays. We must buy some white flour, cut some meat for New Year's Eve dinner and have a meal in jiaozi. I envy eating jiaozi's gold ingots and making a fortune. There are many people who eat jiaozi in other places.
Eating wonton in Jiangnan New Year's Eve means that the meal is full; Wonton is shaped like a dustpan and can make money, so Shanghainese have a special liking for it. And eating jiaozi and gardens, which means a beautiful reunion. Eating rice cakes means "getting taller every year". Eating steamed bread makes you fat and prosperous. ...
Southerners prefer rice cakes. In addition to steaming and frying, rice cakes in the south are also fried in slices and boiled in soup, with sweet and salty tastes. Because the year is homophonic with stickiness and the height is homophonic with cakes, eating rice cakes means people's expectation for the New Year. Over time, sticky cakes have also become rice cakes.
In addition to rice cakes and jiaozi, there are many colorful dishes on the table of China people:
In some places in Guangdong, the first meal of the New Year is "Liang Wannian". On the morning of the new year, the whole family will prepare for the three days of the Spring Festival, which means "eating and drinking without worry"; In Chaozhou, the first meal of the New Year is "rotten round" fried with rice flour and radish powder and "five-fruit soup" cooked with glutinous rice and lotus seeds, which means "a long history".
In Guanzhong and parts of Henan, the first meal of the New Year is more interesting. They want to eat rice cooked by jiaozi and noodles, which are called "golden string ingots" and "silver hanging gourds"; In some areas of Anhui, when eating the first meal of the New Year, everyone should take a bite of raw radish, which is called "biting spring", which means "sterilization and disease prevention" and "auspicious New Year".
The Zhuang people in Guangxi eat sweets for the first meal during the Spring Festival, which shows that the life in the New Year is beautiful and sweet.
Minnan people in Fujian eat noodles for the first meal during the Spring Festival, which means "year after year", and eat sausages, preserved eggs and ginger around Zhangzhou, which means "the days are getting more and more prosperous".
There is a bowl of "chicken catches beans" on the dining table in Hefei, which means "catch money and get rich". The housekeeper wants to eat a chicken leg, which is called "grasping the money claw", which means making a fortune in the coming year.
Nanchang area must eat rice cakes, braised fish, fried rice noodles, eight-treasure rice and boiled soup, which in turn means rising year by year. Every year, there are fish, bumper crops, string rice, eight-treasure rice to make money and make a fortune every year.
In some places in Taiwan Province Province, the first meal during the Spring Festival likes to eat "Long Year's Vegetable", which is a kind of mustard with long stems and leaves and bitter taste. Some even add slender vermicelli to the dishes, which means "endless and immortal".
In some areas of Hainan, the first meal of the Spring Festival is vegetarian, which is called "fasting". Now, fasting on the first day has evolved into a food culture.
Suzhou people like to choose vegetables with auspicious names. Bean sprouts are called "ruyi cuisine", peanuts are called "longevity fruit" and shepherd's purse sounds like "gathering wealth".
Shanghainese must serve a plate of "egg horns" covered with egg liquid and stuffed with fresh meat. It looks good and delicious
Shaoxing people eat a bowl of "frozen meat" on New Year's Eve, and a white fish head is placed on the surface of the bowl, which means "want to eat". In most places, a "whole fish" is indispensable, but chopsticks can't be moved to show that there is more than one year. In some places, wooden fish is only used to match dishes.
The cuisines celebrating the Spring Festival have their own characteristics and are too numerous to mention. In fact, no matter what we eat or how we eat on this auspicious day, it expresses our beautiful yearning and deep wishes for the future. I wish each of us happiness, peace and happiness in the new year. ...
★ Wonderful New Year's Eve dinner around the world
There are many kinds of New Year's Eve dinners abroad.
In Japan, when the bell rings 108 on New Year's Eve, every household begins to eat long noodles. It is said that people in this island country believe that whoever has long noodles will have good luck next year. Moreover, the size of luck is directly proportional to the length of noodles.
Singapore's New Year's Eve is a family reunion, with big pots of rice cakes and special meals. The local people use the combination of "rice cake" and "rice cake" to pray for "rice cake".
The New Year's Eve dinner in the Philippines is that all families should "start with their families and cook chicken rice together". People in this country always like to eat chicken. The most interesting thing is that the person who can get the rooster's head is called the "leader" and announces others; The person who gets the hen's head means "many children and many chickens (auspicious)"; Even if it is caught in chicken ribs, it will be called "the taste of food"; People who catch eggs are "round and full".
Spain's New Year's Eve dinner is "New Year's Eve, eat grapes, 12, just right". They are handed down from generation to generation: one year is 12 months, and one grain represents one month. Grapes are beautiful food. People can eat them to keep peace every month and pray for good luck and good luck every year.
Italian New Year's Eve is the honey jiaozi that every family should eat. It is said that honey jiaozi means "rich, complete and sweet life". Whoever eats more during the New Year will be happier.
A very rare "golden birch" is a special product in Brazil's mountain forests and is regarded by Brazilians as a symbol of happiness and auspiciousness. Every Lunar New Year, when the bell rings on New Year's Eve, thousands of people pour out of their homes, holding torches high and humming songs, and flock to the nearby mountains. Everyone is scrambling to find and share "golden birch" to wish each other good luck in the coming year.
When the Greeks celebrate the New Year, the whole family sit around and bake a big bread to share. There is a coin hidden in this bread. Whoever eats it will live a rich life and be lucky in the coming year.
Irish New Year food is quite rich, and there are some small things in Tibet, which can be auspicious or ominous. If there is a ring in the cake, it symbolizes the knot; If it is a button, it means a degree.
American New Year's food is the most colorful. Although they are auspicious new year goods, they have different meanings. If you eat cabbage, you will get more money next year. If you eat herring, you will have as much property as herring. If you eat live fish, you want yourself and your family to be as flexible and successful as live fish.
★ The dishes have their own symbols.
Since ancient times, twelve dishes have been arranged for the New Year's Eve dinner in the two lakes, which means that food is homophonic with "wealth", and there is wealth every month for twelve months of the year. In Taiwan Province Province and other places, there is a big dish. Everyone eats it, which means that the rich will get more money if they eat it.
There must be fish on New Year's Eve in all places, and fish is homophonic with "fish", which means more food, clothing and wealth; Some have been eating silver carp for more than a year; The others didn't finish eating the fish, but left it for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the new year, isn't it more than every year?
Southerners, like Guangzhou people, should serve a vegetable soup on New Year's Eve, which means making a fortune. In short, New Year's Eve dinners and dishes all over the country have many meanings, such as reunion, wealth, surplus and sweetness, which all express people's wishes and yearning for the new year.
At the end of last century, some people in the city went to restaurants to eat. In recent years, this situation has increased dramatically until they made reservations every other year. The purpose is to avoid the hard work of buying a fever, and it is worthwhile to spend a few more money. This is an update to the traditional concept of eating New Year's Eve at home, but it still maintains the custom of "reunion eating", and the meals and dishes ordered still contain traditional meanings and are even more particular.