Most people in China will put up Spring Festival couplets, clean up and hang New Year pictures on New Year's Eve, and then set off firecrackers to welcome the most grand reunion dinner. The same is true of the Manchu people, who will make preparations for New Year's Eve according to traditional customs, and then deliberately set the reunion dinner between 1 pm and 5 pm, because in the minds of the Manchu people, only this time period is the most in line with the custom of "reunion dinner". Every wanderer goes home on the same day. When having a meal, if someone doesn't arrive because of something, they will also prepare an empty bowl and chopsticks to leave a blessing for those who don't arrive.
The main staple food in Manchu reunion dinner is rice. Most families will spend some time putting "red dates" and "almonds" in their rice, which not only enriches the flavor of the staple food, but also has the meanings of "spring comes early" and "happiness comes". In Manchu culture, if there are long-lived elderly people in the family, the family often prepares "peanuts" as the staple food. Because peanuts mean immortality.
And the delicious food that can be included in the "reunion dinner" menu is bound to be extremely rich and meaningful. Most people will prepare all kinds of cooking, cooking and stewing, but no matter how rich the Manchu people's reunion dinner is, they must prepare the two recipes of "chicken" and "fish". Because in local culture, they think that "chicken" stands for "good luck" and "fish" stands for "more than one year after another". However, there is an unwritten rule in the local culture: no matter how delicious the fish is, you can't finish it. You have to leave some, no matter how bad the chicken is, you must eat it clean. This is because in their minds, if the chicken is eaten clean, it means that the famine and poverty in one year will dissipate, and the fish left means that there will be more than enough in the coming year.
according to the custom, after eating the annual reunion dinner, we will prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. This traditional culture is not only passed down by the local people, but also observed by almost all parts of the Chinese nation: "The reunion dinner represents reunion, and then the whole family will eat the New Year's Eve together." However, in Manchu culture, there are some special customs that make people feel different.
For example, it's best to use leftovers from the reunion dinner, and there must be fish on the table. The indispensable staple food on the dinner table of Manchu people's New Year's Eve is "jiaozi", and Manchu people pay attention to pleating jiaozi, that is, jiaozi can't pinch the "monk's head" jiaozi, which means that the future will be "bald", and Manchu jiaozi must be packed in rows, so as to symbolize the new year's wealth extending in all directions. During the New Year's Eve dinner, Manchu people have to close their doors, and they can't open the doors until the next day. This behavior also represents the luck of saying goodbye to the old year and opening the door to welcome the new year.
In fact, after learning about the Spring Festival customs in Manchu culture, you will find that our country is really vast in territory and abundant in resources, with different customs. However, whether Manchu, Han or other nationalities are inheriting and observing the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, on New Year's Eve, brothers and sisters scattered in all corners of the country are gathered together with a reunion dinner, so that family ties can be condensed and feelings can be exchanged. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, everyone welcomes another New Year with joy and laughter.