Chinese New Year's food culture:

1, delicious but dumplings

Dumplings is the most representative of China's traditional food, has nearly two thousand years of history, widely loved by the people. As the old Chinese saying goes, "It's all about the dumplings".

Dumplings are an indispensable part of the New Year's Eve meal, especially in the north. Dumplings are usually wrapped up before 12:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve and eaten at midnight because it is the beginning of the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, when the word "zi" means "son" and "dumpling" harmonizes with the word "jiao". The "cross" harmonized, eating dumplings to take the "change of year cross" meaning, that is, the new year and the old year intersection of the moment of "joyful reunion" meaning.

2, Lantern Festival and dumplings

The custom of eating dumplings on the Lantern Festival was first recorded in the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Mingzhou (that is, today's Ningbo, Zhejiang Province) rose a novelty food, with a variety of fruit bait as a filling, the outside of the glutinous rice flour rolled into a ball, this glutinous rice ball boiled in a pot and floating and sinking, so the earliest known as "floating rounds", and later some areas of "floating rounds" renamed the "Lantern Festival".

North on the 15th day of the first month to eat the Lantern Festival, the South to eat dumplings, so what is the difference between dumplings and Lantern Festival? Jiangzhe as the center of the southern region, with the package system method of production of dumplings, that is, with glutinous rice after scalding soft, hand kneaded wet powder package filling and become, usually larger filling, skin is slightly thin; Beijing as the center of the northern region, with the shaking of the system method of production of the Lantern Festival, that is, rolled and made of dry powder, filling is smaller, more powder.

3, the righteousness of the year wins the year, to pray for the year long

Many regions during the New Year pay attention to eat rice cakes, because rice cakes, also known as "year cake", and "year high" harmonized with "high", implying that people's work and life better than one year, so The rice cake is not only a festive delicacy, but also represents a good meaning and hope. As the poem says: "the hearts of many good high, harmonic production of food, the righteousness of the year than the year, to pray for the year longing."

It is said that the rice cake was first used as a ritual for ancestors and gods, and then gradually became a traditional Chinese New Year delicacy. Most of the rice cakes eaten at the Spring Festival are found in the south, and are often colored red, yellow and white, signifying the good wishes of a good harvest and a rich life.

4, Spring Festival eat spring cake New Year everything flat

Spring rolls, also known as spring cake, spring plate, pancakes, is a traditional Chinese folk food eaten at the beginning of spring, popular in all parts of China. Spring rolls contain good wishes for the New Year and have the auspicious omen of welcoming the spring festivities.

In some areas of the South, the Spring Festival does not eat dumplings, eat spring rolls. In the ancient times, the cakes eaten on the day of the Spring Festival were cooked very thin, also known as pancakes. Eat with several kinds of lettuce, called "spring plate". Every year on the day of spring, we have to eat spring cake, called "bite spring".

5, eight treasures rice is a traditional Shanghai New Year's Eve dinner essential food, symbolizing reunion, good luck and peace.

Fuzhou people on New Year's Eve, weddings, funerals and celebrations, friends and family get-togethers must eat Taiping Yan, also known as flat meat Yan, the so-called "no Yan is not a feast, no Yan is not the year".