Face that face, "face long that face long", so people borrowed long noodles to bless longevity. Gradually, this practice evolved into the custom of eating noodles on birthdays, which is called eating "longevity noodles".
Eating longevity noodles with eggs, eggs can hatch chicks, is a symbol of life, and long noodles with the long, implies people's expectations and wishes for longevity. In some places, when eating eggs, the eggs are boiled and peeled, and rolled on the face before eating, which is called "rolling luck", symbolizing the good luck in the new year.
Because the birthday host to eat longevity noodles, so friends and relatives also longevity noodles as a birthday gift of choice. Some rich people in the big birthday of a friend or relative, they send a large basket of birthday noodles. The length of the birthday noodles more than three feet, generally to make up an even number. Placement of birthday noodles to be installed first into a circle of the face of the beam, disk into a high tower, giving a person a towering feeling, and then inserted on the top of the word birthday, outside and then covered with red and green wisps of paper flowers, a metaphor for the birthday of the star of the high light, the life long luck.
The custom of eating noodles on one's birthday originated in the Tang Dynasty and has continued since then. In the Tang Dynasty, after the birth of a son in the family should be a feast of friends and relatives, known as the "Jangzhang's joy", and Jangzhang's feast is mainly to eat "soup cake". Liu Yuxi wrote a poem: "Remembering the day when you were hanging on to the throne, I was the guest of honor. I was the guest of honor at the banquet. I raised my hand to eat the soup cake and wished to add the unicorn to my family.
There are many customs when eating longevity noodles, which vary from region to region and from family to family. For example, one custom is for the guests to pull the noodles from their own bowls into the bowl of the birthday boy or girl to wish him or her good luck, happiness and longevity. Another custom is to use chopsticks to hold up the noodles, and the longer the noodles are pulled up, the more auspicious it is. It is also a common custom not to cut the noodles unless one wants to try the bad luck of having one's life span cut short. In some regions, it is taboo not to fill the entire bowl with noodles because it means that life expectancy has come to an end.