What cultural foods are eaten on Chinese new year?
Foods
Probably more food is consumed during the New Year celebrations than any other time of the year. Vast amounts of traditional food is prepared for family and friends, as well as those close to us who have died.
Since the Sping Festival marks the first day of a brand new year, the first meal is rather important. People from north and south have different sayings about the food they eat on this special day.
In Northern China, people usually eat Jiaozi or dumplings shaped like a crescent moon. It is said that dumplings were first known in China some 1,600 years ago. Its Chinese pronunciation Jiaozi means midnight or the end and the beginning of time.According to historical records, people from both north and south ate dumplings on Chinese New Year's Day. Perhaps because Southern China produced more rice than any other area, gradually, southern people had many more other choices on New Year's Day.
In additon to Jiaozi, the most common foods for the first meal of the Spring Festival are noodles, New Year Cakes and Tangtuan, a kind of round sweet dumplings. Both the cakes and dumplings are made of glutinors rice flour.
In China, the noodle symbolizes longevity. The New Year Cake is called Nian Gao in Chinese. It conveys the hope of improvement in life year after year, the round sweet dumpling is a symbol of reunion.
On New Year's Day, the Chinese family will eat a vegetarian dish called jai. Although the various ingredients in jai are root vegetables or fibrous vegetables, many people attribute various superstitious aspects to them:
* Lotus seed - signify having many male offspring
* Ginkgo nut - represents silver ingots
* Black moss seaweed - is a homonym for exceeding in wealth
* Dried bean curd is another homonym for fulfillment of wealth and happiness
* Bamboo shoots - is a term which sounds like "wishing that everything would be well"
* Fresh bean curd or tofu is not included as it is white and unlucky for New Year as the color signifies death and misfortune.
Other foods include a whole fish, to represent togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperity. The chicken must be presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize completeness. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life.
In south China, the favorite and most typical dishes were nian gao, sweet steamed glutinous rice pudding and zong zi (glutinous rice wrapped up in reed leaves), another popular delicacy.
In the north, steamed-wheat bread (man tou) and small meat dumplings were the preferred food. The tremendous amount of food prepared at this time was meant to symbolize abundance and wealth for the household.
Firecrackers
Firecrackers are traditionally set off to frighten away ghosts so that the new year would be free of them. Legend says that long ago there was a monster who terrorized people and animals at the end of the year. It was discovered that this animal was frightened of loud noise, bright lights, and the color red. At midnight, on the last day of the old year, these things are used to chase away the monster of the whole year.
Firecrackers are set off as soon as the new year arrives. You can hear or see firecrackers everywhere, and this usually lasts for a few hours. Some people will continue to play firecrackers occasionally through out the first half of the first month. Traditionally fireworks are the sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new.
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