Twelve dishes of the New Year's allegory
Twelve dishes of the New Year's allegory, New Year's Eve dinner, every dish on the table has a different meaning, but also we Chinese people attach great importance to all the delicacies of the sea and the sea can not be replaced, the following I have introduced to you the Chinese New Year traditional festive food allegory.
1, dumplings: treasure
In Chinese folklore, New Year's Eve Eve to eat "dumplings", is any mountain and sea food can not be replaced by the main feast. "Dumplings, also known as "jiaozi" or "jiao'er", are a must-have food for the New Year's Eve celebrations, as they are the symbol of the transition between the old and the new, and also the symbol of the heavens. Dumplings are eaten with the meaning of "changing the year of the year", "Zi" for "Zi Shi", and "Dumpling", which is a homonym of "Dumpling". It means "joyful reunion" and "good luck". In addition, the dumplings because the shape of the Yuanbao, eat dumplings on New Year's Eve, but also with the "fortune into the treasure" meaning of good luck.
2, chicken: there is a plan
New Year's Eve, a table of rich New Year's Eve dinner table, naturally less chicken. New Year's Eve night to eat New Year's Eve dinner, in many places when the first dish to eat is chicken, because of the meaning of good luck. New Year's dishes must have a chicken on the table, because "eat chicken to start". Local Hakka people in Guangzhou to worship the gods also use chicken and goose to do "first born", will choose "walk on the ground chicken", a metaphor for life fierce.
In order to reduce fat and calorie intake, before cooking or after cooking skin. In fact, there is a film between the skin and the meat, which keeps the meat moist while preventing the fat from spilling out. Therefore, if necessary, the chicken should be skinned only after cooking, which not only reduces the fat intake, but also ensures the flavor of the chicken.
3, pig's tongue: great luck
Pig's tongue represents a year of great luck, so pig's tongue every New Year's Eve, will be the old neighborhood rush to buy!
4. Fish: Year after year
Because the Chinese tradition has a year after year (fish), fish is a must-have dish for New Year's Eve dinner. New Year's Eve to eat carp, carp with "gift" resonance, New Year's Day eat carp big luck. New Year's Eve to eat carp, crucian carp with "Ji" harmonized, New Year's carp and crucian carp to eat together is great luck. New Year's Eve to eat chub, chub with "even" homophonic, eat chub in the New Year even years.
In order to eat out of the good intentions, you can New Year's Eve two fish, New Year's Eve dinner to eat a, the first day of the year to eat a, is a year. If you make one, you can eat the terminal for the New Year's Eve dinner and the head and tail for the first day of the New Year, so that you can have a good year with a head and a tail.
5, oyster sauce: good city
South China's New Year's Eve dinner is more chicken, roasted meat, hairy vegetables, oyster sauce, etc., because the "hairy vegetables, oyster sauce," with the "hairy good city." Harmonized with "Fat Choy and Dried Oysters". Dried oysters, also known as "dried oysters", are dried oyster meat products, and are a must-have dish for the Cantonese people at Chinese New Year. Dried oyster is the best food for calcium, it is rich in phosphorus, because calcium is absorbed by the body needs the help of phosphorus, so it is conducive to the absorption of calcium.
6, shrimp: haha laugh
Guangzhou people like to eat seafood, shrimp in the New Year will be an auspicious dish, white scorched shrimp, fried shrimp, etc., because shrimp means every day, haha laugh, laugh. A shrimp on New Year's Day, every year, laugh and be happy.
7, celery: diligent
The New Year's Eve dinner is not only a family reunion and a good look forward to the coming year, but also an opportunity to educate the children, the celery in the long year dishes, "celery" and "hard" resonance, education of small children. "Harmony, educate children to be hardworking, only hard work can get a good life.
8, pig's hand: hair on the hand
Pig's hand, can be stewed pig's hand, you can also hair vegetables pig's hand, you can also pig's hand with peanuts, etc., eat a lot of, because pig's hand means hair on the hand, do what will be smooth, on the hand on the hand of the wealth, do what will be hair on the hand. So this dish is also a favorite dish of Guangzhou residents!
Traditional Chinese New Year Foods and Their Significance
Fish: The significance of having more and more money every year
In Chinese, "fish" and "yu" harmonize with "yu". Chinese people like to have a balance at the end of the year because they believe that if they can save some wealth at the end of the year, they will be able to earn more next year.
The fish to be used for the New Year's Eve dinner depends on whether the pronunciation is auspicious or not.
Carp: Because the word "carp" and the word "lucky" sound alike, eating carp is thought to bring good luck in the coming year.
Carp: Carp "carp" and "gift" resonance. Therefore, the Chinese believe that eating carp on New Year's Day symbolizes a wish for good luck.
Catfish: "catfish" and "year-end" pronunciation is the same. So eating catfish is to hope for a good year.
Eating two fish, one on New Year's Eve and one on the first day of the New Year, is to hope that there will be plenty of money (fish) every year.
If you make only one catfish, eating the top half on New Year's Eve and the bottom half on the first day of the year has the same meaning.
The way the fish is eaten is also very important, to see what there is to eat fish on New Year's Eve:
The fish should be leftovers. The last dish, and can not be eaten in full, because it symbolizes the annual "surplus". This is the custom in the north of the Yangtze River, in some other areas the head and tail of the fish should not be eaten until the first day of the New Year, which represents the hope of having a surplus from the beginning to the end of the year.
The head of the fish should be towards the honored guests or elders, representing respect.
Only the person to whom the fish head is facing eats first, and others can eat.
The fish should not be moved. The person to whom the head and tail of the fish belong should drink a cup together, which is considered auspicious.
Dumplings: a sign of wealth
Dumplings, which have a history of more than 1,800 years, are a classic Chinese dish, a traditional part of the New Year's Eve dinner, and are very common in China, especially in northern China.
Some people wrap dumplings like Yuanbao (meaning: to attract wealth and prosperity). Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat in celebration of the New Year, the more money you will earn in the coming year.
Dumplings are usually filled with meat and chopped vegetables, and the skin is thin and flexible. Favorite dumpling fillings include stringy meat, shrimp, fish, minced chicken, beef, and vegetables. Dumplings can be boiled, steamed, fried or baked.
The Chinese do not eat dumplings stuffed with sauerkraut on Chinese New Year's Eve because it suggests a poor and hard future. The New Year's Eve tradition is to eat dumplings stuffed with cabbage and radish, which are said to lighten the skin and milden the character.
To make dumplings, you need to pinch a few extra pleats. If you pinch the sides of the dumpling too flat, it means poverty.
Some Chinese will put a white thread in the dumplings, and the person who eats the dumpling with this white thread will live a long life. Sometimes a copper coin is put in the dumpling and the person who eats it will be rich.
The dumplings should be arranged in a straight line, not in a circle, because a dumpling arranged in a circle means that life will keep going around in the same place.
Spring rolls: a symbol of wealth
Spring rolls are traditionally eaten during the Spring Festival, hence the name. Spring rolls are very popular in eastern China: Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, etc.
Spring rolls are a Cantonese-style confectionary, in which vegetables, meat, or sweet fillings are wrapped in a thin pastry to form a cylindrical roll, which is then deep-fried until golden brown. (Moral: ten thousand taels of gold)
Nian Gao: meaning "year after year"
In Chinese, "nian gao" is pronounced as "年高", meaning "year after year". The main ingredients of rice cakes are glutinous rice, sugar, chestnuts, dates and lotus leaves.
Soup dumplings: a symbol of family reunion
Soup dumplings are a staple of the Chinese Lantern Festival, but in southern China, they are also eaten during the Spring Festival. The pronunciation and shape of soup dumplings are associated with reunion. This is why Chinese people like to eat soup dumplings when celebrating the New Year.
Symbols of 12 dishes for Chinese New Year31, preserved meat
Eating preserved meat on New Year's Day is a traditional custom in China's Guangdong, Sichuan and Hunan provinces. Because of the long time required for the curing of preserved meat, it is usually prepared after the annual snow festival. Preserved meat, preserved sausage, preserved fish, preserved pig's head, etc., colorful and delicious, mouth-watering. In the old days, life was hard, material shortages, people will be a good wish to harmonize the New Year's food, so the Spring Festival to eat preserved sausage means "always eat always have".
2, fish
Year after year (fish) is a more traditional Chinese saying, so in the Spring Festival this auspicious day, the fish is very important, many families in order to eat out of the good omen of the year after year, will be eating a new year's eve, eat one on the first day of the New Year, so that it is a year after year. However, we also have another saying, is to eat the tail of the fish on New Year's Eve, the first day of the year to eat the head of the fish, so that it is also a good year, head and tail.
3, dumplings
Dumplings is the traditional food of the Spring Festival, for the northern people, the Spring Festival food how can be less dumplings, dumplings are not only delicious to eat, the meaning is also very deep, it has a "fortune into the treasure," the meaning of good luck, so in the New Year's Eve, eat dumplings means that you have to eat a lot of food. Eating dumplings is a sign of good luck in the new year. And the choice of dumpling fillings and symbols have a direct link, for example, leek dumplings with the meaning of the long wealth, cabbage dumplings with the meaning of the hundred wealth, mushrooms dumplings with the meaning of the drum wealth, sauerkraut dumplings with the meaning of counting the wealth and so on, so that dumplings is the Spring Festival is indispensable to the food.
Customs related to the Spring Festival
1, sweeping
The year before the busy New Year is mainly to get rid of the old and new as the theme of the activities, sweeping the dust is one of the customs of the year before the old and new. Folk proverb says "the 24th day of the Lunar New Year, dusting and sweeping the house". At the end of the year, on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, preparations for the New Year officially begin. Dusting is the year-end cleaning, known as "house sweeping" in the north and "house sweeping" in the south. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean up the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, dismantle and wash the bedding and curtains, sweep the six courtyards, dust and brush the cobwebs, dredge the nullahs and ditches. The whole world is filled with the joy of hygiene, cleanliness, and the joy of the new year.
2, paste the red
Paste the red, that is, paste the Spring Festival couplets, door god, New Year's paintings, FuZi, cross, window, etc. collectively, because these are the New Year's Eve paste the red festive elements, so collectively referred to as "paste the red". The red is a traditional Chinese New Year's custom, which reflects the customs and beliefs of the people, adds a festive atmosphere, and sends people to the new year of the new life of the good hope.
3, the new year's money
Pressing the new year's money (in Guangdong called "Baili is"), one of the customs of the Spring Festival. New Year's Eve money is distributed by the elders to the younger generation, New Year's Eve dinner after the elders to be prepared in advance of the New Year's Eve money distributed to the younger generation, it is said that the New Year's Eve money can suppress the evil spirits, the younger generation to get the New Year's Eve money can be peaceful and safe through the year; some people are parents in the night to be their children asleep, placed under their pillows. New Year's money to the New Year, reflecting the concern of elders to the younger generation of feelings and sincere blessings. In folk culture, New Year's money is meant to ward off evil spirits and blessings. The original purpose of the New Year's money is to suppress evil and drive away evil spirits, because people believe that children are vulnerable to ghosts and spirits, so the New Year's money is used to suppress evil spirits and drive away evil spirits.