Cao Baoming, a well-known folklore expert in China, said that the New Year's Eve dinner is also called "Year of the Group" or "Family Fun", because after this meal, it is necessary to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new year, so it is also called "Year of the Year". In ancient times, people thought that the New Year's Eve dinner also had the functions of expelling epidemics, exorcising evil spirits and keeping fit. Therefore, the New Year's Eve is characterized by a family reunion dinner, which all men, women and children should attend. For this reunion, the family members or children who go out must come home before New Year's Eve. If they fail to get back in time, a space should be left on the dining table for those who have not returned, and a pair of chopsticks should be placed to show family reunion.
The New Year's Eve dinner was usually the most abundant meal in a year in the old Kanto farmers, and it had to be cooked on the 30th. There must be fish in the table full of tables, which means that there is more money and food in the new year, and everything is well-off. There must also be a bowl of braised meatballs to show family reunion. According to Zonggu's Record of Jingchu's Years Old, it was customary to have New Year's Eve dinner at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
The Kanto people always have the saying that "the poor celebrate the New Year, the rich celebrate the New Year, and they don't eat jiaozi for the New Year". Jiaozi appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Around the origin of jiaozi, there were different legends and stories among the people. However, Kanto people have always advocated that jiaozi, the first meal of the Spring Festival, should be eaten at midnight on New Year's Eve. This custom has spread all over Kanto urban and rural areas and has been handed down from generation to generation.
Nowadays, many farmers in Northeast China still maintain many ancient customs, such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, setting off firecrackers and eating jiaozi before eating. However, in recent years, eating and drinking on the New Year's Eve is no longer important, and the New Year's Eve has long gone beyond the scope of' eating', but lies in the warmth between people, which is warm in the greetings and warmth of the family. There is both nostalgia for the dying old year and hope for the coming new year.
Chongqing Tujia New Year's Eve: "Pork deduction" and "sea pepper filling" are indispensable.
Just entering the twelfth lunar month, Xu Wenxu, a farmer in Hongxing Village, Banxi Township, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing, was busy. In order to prepare for this New Year's Eve dinner, it is impossible for some essential traditional main courses not to be prepared ten and a half days before. Among them, the most important ones are "deducting meat" and "filling sea pepper". Xu Wenxu said that "deducting meat" seems simple, but it takes some effort to be really fat but not greasy, tender and refreshing. "Filling sea pepper" is to mix glutinous rice flour with seasoning, then fill it into hollowed sea pepper, and then put it in a pickle jar for half a month. On New Year's Eve, take it out and fry it in oil before serving.
The reason why Tujia people attach importance to these two dishes is that it is rare to eat meat several times all the year round, and glutinous rice is also a rare thing. Therefore, every family regards these two dishes as an opportunity to show their skills at the New Year's Eve dinner, and at the same time, they treat their families who have worked hard for a year.
Surprisingly, kelp once became the main course of Tujia New Year's Eve. Because it used to be difficult to eat salt in Tujia nationality gathering areas and the medical conditions were poor, people often suffered from big neck disease due to iodine deficiency. In order to supplement iodine for their families, Tujia people put a kelp on the New Year's Eve dinner to supplement the iodine needed by the human body. Under the conditions at that time, kelp was really a delicacy for Tujia people, and it was impossible to eat it often, so it became a good dish on the New Year's Eve. Nowadays, kelp has already withdrawn from the "stage" of New Year's Eve.
After the Tujia people have eaten the New Year's Eve dinner, each family will light a firewood. Everyone will sit around and listen to the old people telling stories, and they will stay up until dawn, named "Shoutian Ridge" to express their love for the fields.
Korean: "Suijiu" and "Degu" occupy a special position.
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province is the main inhabited area of Korean nationality in China, and the Spring Festival is also the traditional and most important festival of Korean nationality. Korean New Year's Eve has its own traditional food and characteristics.
Korean New Year's Eve is often rich, with 70 or 80 plates, large and small, and some families even reach hundreds. Among them, "old wine" and "degu" occupy a special position.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, the reporter saw in the villages of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture that many Korean villagers were brewing "old wine". Korean people have the custom of drinking "New Year's wine" on New Year's Eve. This kind of wine is mostly brewed before the "New Year's Day". The Lunar New Year Festival is equivalent to the Spring Festival of the Han nationality. The "Lunar New Year Wine" is a kind of medicinal liquor with rice as the main material and a variety of Chinese herbal medicines. Used for drinking and entertaining guests during the Spring Festival, they think that drinking this wine can ward off evil spirits and prolong life.
"Degu" is a kind of soup cake, that is, after rice noodles are steamed, they are mashed into large sticky balls, then rubbed into oval round strips, cut into thin slices, poured into chicken, pheasant and beef soup pots, and then some sesame oil or sesame oil and laver are added when eating, which is delicious.
On New Year's Eve, Korean women should wear beautiful national costumes. Most families start making cakes early in the morning. Although there are machines selling cakes now, they still like to make them by themselves with a cake hammer, because the taste is still different.
On New Year's Eve, it is a very happy time for the whole family to get together for dinner. The whole family will stay up all night. Different from the Han nationality, the Korean New Year's Eve dinner will be filled with songs and dances, accompanied by the ancient music of Gaya piano and flute of the Korean nationality to welcome the New Year.
There are many tricks of the New Year's Eve dinner, including jiaozi, Wonton, Long Noodles, Yuanxiao, etc., and each has its own emphasis. Northerners are used to eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival, which means "making friends at a younger age". And because the white-flour jiaozi is shaped like a silver ingot, a pot of pots on the table symbolizes the meaning of "making a fortune in the New Year, and the ingot rolls in". Some wrapped jiaozi, but also wrapped a few coins sterilized by boiling water, saying that whoever ate first would make more money. The custom of eating jiaozi was handed down from the Han Dynasty. According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, a medical saint, saw that the poor people's ears were frozen rotten in the cold winter, so he made a kind of "Quhan Jiaoer soup" to treat frostbite for the poor people. He used mutton, pepper and some herbs to dispel cold and warm, and made ear-like "jiao-er" with a flour bag, cooked it in a pot and distributed it to the poor. After eating it, people felt warm all over and their ears were hot. Since then, people have followed suit, which has been passed down to today. Eating wonton in the new year is based on its original meaning. Legend has it that the world was in a chaotic state before it was created, and Pangu created the universe with four sides and long faces, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the new year is to wish you a long life. Help me