When southerners celebrate the New Year, in addition to the New Year’s Eve dinner, the breakfast on the New Year’s Day is also very particular. In order to have a good omen for the new year, adults and children are not allowed to sleep in on the first day of the new year. No matter how late we play on New Year's Eve, we have to get up at around six o'clock in the morning on New Year's Day, and the whole family will sit together for New Year's breakfast at around seven o'clock.

This breakfast contains a special custom of southerners celebrating the New Year. (It is said that the winds are different in ten miles, and the customs are different in hundreds of miles. Friends who do not know this custom should not be surprised. If there is a difference, everyone is welcome to share it together as a New Year greeting to each other.)

What custom is it? It's easy to say. It is this breakfast that must be cooked by the male head of the family. When I was a child, I heard my mother say that the reason why the men in the family were asked to cook breakfast on New Year's Day was mainly because the housewives had been cooking for the family for a year without a break. Beggars still have three days off during the Chinese New Year. Why can’t housewives enjoy the right to take one New Year’s leave? But men generally can't keep an eye on the main stove, so they can only serve as helpers when cooking New Year's Eve dinner. Then I had to choose a simple project - making breakfast for the first day of the Lunar New Year, just to have a brief idea. It is also fully considered that most men cannot cook, so the breakfast on the first day of the new year is all finished products. The woman has prepared a steamer of steamed buns, hair cakes, rice cakes, etc. in advance. When the man gets up in the morning, he only needs to put them in a pot and light the fire and steam them for ten minutes. No technical content is required. But this matter may not seem simple, but its significance is very significant. It reflects the cultural tradition of husband and wife caring and respecting each other. The situation may have changed now. There are more men who can cook and manage cooking, and women have become a vulnerable group in the kitchen. It used to be said that women should be able to go to the hall and go to the kitchen. Today's women generally only go to shopping malls and not to the kitchen. But no matter how women change, the custom of men getting up early to make New Year's Day breakfast remains the same (and probably won't change either).

Although making breakfast is relatively simple, some other preparations are still more complicated. The man of the house who is responsible for making breakfast usually gets up around five o'clock. First, clean the inside and outside of the house and yard, and then use several fruit plates to fill peanuts, melon seeds, fruits and other snacks on the table. Then go to the kitchen to boil a pot of boiling water for later use. It's best to light a fire to make breakfast. After breakfast is done, tea cups with lids (the kind usually only used when guests come) are used to make a cup of tea with sugar for each member of the family. After the family members wash up, they sit together to drink tea and eat some dried fruits, say some auspicious words for the New Year, and seek some good fortune for the new year. About ten minutes later, the snacks on the table were put away, and the steamed breakfast was served, and the family had a delicious meal. The new year begins like this.

For housewives, in addition to not making breakfast on the first day of the Lunar New Year, there is also a custom of not doing laundry on the first day of the Lunar New Year. A woman who does laundry on this day will not only not be regarded as diligent, but will be regarded as lazy. All the clothes that need to be washed must be done on New Year's Eve and must not be left to be washed the next year.

One more thing. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, northerners are busy paying New Year greetings to their elders early in the morning, but southerners (some) only go up the mountain to pay New Year greetings to the deceased elderly (visiting New Year's graves) on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and only start visiting relatives on the second day of the Lunar New Year.

If we don’t say that China’s culture is extensive and profound, every bit of it is so meaningful