Chinese New Year food culture what are the food customs

What are the food customs of Chinese New Year

Date:2014-02-02 11:22:24 投稿：Yuki Source:中国新闻网

As the saying goes, "Food is the God of the people." As China's biggest traditional festival, the Spring Festival lasts nearly a month, during which there are many food customs, all of which hold the country's people's good expectations for the new year. Since the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, families have been preparing food for the New Year.

Staple food: dumplings auspicious rice cake sweet

Dumplings are an important staple of the New Year's Eve in the north, and on New Year's Eve, families will gather around to make dumplings. The word "he" means "together" in Chinese, and the word "dumpling" harmonizes with "交", which means "together" and "together" in Chinese. The words "合" and "交" have the meaning of getting together, so dumplings are used to symbolize reunion and happiness, as well as to take the meaning of a new year's greetings, which is very auspicious. In addition, the dumplings are shaped like Yuanbao, and eating them on New Year's Eve also carries the auspicious meaning of "inviting wealth into the treasure".

In order to increase the festive atmosphere and fun, there will be a lot of "tricks" in the dumplings on New Year's Eve: put sugar, meaning that eat the New Year days sweet; put peanuts (i.e., fruit of immortality), meaning that people can eat a long life; put coins, meaning that whoever eats it will be "lucky! The symbolism is that whoever eats it will have "good fortune". In addition, on the fifth day of the first month, every family should be wrapped dumplings, called "pinch the mouth of the villain", which means that the year does not commit "villain" smooth.

Nian Gao, which means "year high", is a must-have food for the Spring Festival. Northern rice cakes are mainly sweet, either steamed or fried. In the south, rice cakes are both sweet and salty, made of round-grained rice, with a light flavor. Eating sweet and sticky rice cakes on New Year's Day symbolizes a sweet life in the new year, a rising career, and good luck in getting promoted and getting rich.

Eating "dumplings" is an important custom of the Lantern Festival. Tangyuan, also known as soup dumplings, Lantern Festival. The custom of eating soup dumplings began in the Song Dynasty, and in the early Yuan Dynasty it had already become a festival food for the Lantern Festival. Nowadays, it is called Yuanxiao in the north and Tangyuan in the south. Northern Lantern production is peculiarly simple, the filling is dipped into the powder, the advantage is no cracks, big head, the disadvantage is that the filling is coarse powder brown, stagnant hard texture. The south of the sweet and salty dumplings, vegetables and meat all, the filling is exquisite and smooth incense, glutinous rice flour smooth and moist. In addition, Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year have the custom of eating dumplings.

Meat and vegetables: the annual fish

Fish is a dish that is essential for the New Year's Eve dinner. "Fish" and "Yu" resonance, symbolizing "auspicious celebration of surplus", but also a metaphor for a happy life, year after year. However, it is important not to eat all the fish at once, as this means that "there is plenty of fish to go around".

While preparing the meat dishes, the old Beijingers also had to play "bean sauce" - a kind of cold dish made of meat skin, dried tofu, soybeans, green beans, water mustard, etc., which is amber in color and similar to "meat jelly". The color is amber, similar to "meat jelly". In addition, there is also "mustard duner", which is a cold dish used to accompany wine and appetizers. Because people eat greasy food during the holidays, easy to fire, phlegm, these cold dishes can make up for this defect.

Local New Year's Eve dinner also has a lot of local specialties, the table often has one or several must be on the delicious food, contains auspicious and festive. Harbin area of the general family, the New Year's Eve dinner to fry 8, 10, 12 or 16 dishes ranging from the Nanchang area in Jiangxi Province, generally speaking, four cold and four hot eight dishes and two soups, some places in Zhejiang, the New Year's Eve dinner to make the "Ten Bowls", to discuss the "Ten Ten Blessings" The color. The eastern region of Hubei has three steam, three cakes, three pills of the custom, "three steam" for the steamed whole fish, steamed whole duck, steamed whole chicken, "three cakes" for the fish cake, meat cake, sheep cake, "three pills" for the fish ball, The three cakes are fish cake, meat cake and sheep cake, and the three balls are fish ball, meat ball and lotus root ball.

Snacks: Sugar Melon Crisp Sugar Gourd Appetizer

"On the twenty-third day of the Lunar New Year, sugar melons are sticky, and the old man Zaojun is going to the sky". In the old days, people had to worship the stove on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year and offer the sticky and sweet sugar gourd to the king of the stove, sticking to the mouth of the king of the stove, so that it would "say good things to the sky, down to the ground to keep safe". What the children look forward to is the sugar melons after the Zaobao festival. "Sugar Melon" is a kind of sticky sugar made of yellow rice and malt, which is drawn into a long sugar stick called "Guandong Sugar" and pulled into a flat round shape called "Sugar Melon". In winter, put it outside the house, because the weather is cold, the sugar melon solidified solid and inside and some tiny bubbles, eat up the crunchy, sweet and crispy, a unique flavor.

"Mixed" is a small food that must be eaten during the New Year's celebration in old Beijing. The old Beijing "mixed", by a variety of fresh and dried fruits mixed together and become, the Song Dynasty has been filled with fine fruit "fruit box". Ming Liu Ruoyu's "discretion in the Zhi" book said: Beijing New Year's Day in the first month of the new year, there are inside the "persimmon, lychee, cinnamon, chestnuts, ripe jujube," "Pepsi Daji box". Legend has it that Empress Dowager Cixi was very happy to eat, casually gave a "mixed" name, from the palace to the people, became a unique flavor of food in Beijing. Ancient confectionery used to offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors --- honey supply, sachima, etc., is also a must-have food for Beijingers on New Year's Eve.

Ice-sugar gourd is the most popular festival food in old Beijing temple fairs. It is made by stringing wild fruits on bamboo skewers and dipping them in malt sugar, which quickly hardens in the wind. Ice-sugar gourds were first seen in the Song Dynasty, and flourished during the Qing Dynasty, and can be found in teahouses, theaters, streets and alleys, and are enjoyed by young and old alike, as they are good for appetizers, nourishing the face, increasing intelligence, eliminating fatigue, and clearing away heat. In addition, creamy fried cake, pea yellow, donkey roll, Aiwowo, enema, etc., are popular snacks at the temple fairs in old Beijing.

Drinks: Tea and Peach Soup for the New Year

The folk have the custom of drinking Laha congee on Laha Festival. Drinking Lapa congee in China has a thousand years of history, is a remnant of the ancient Lapa Festival, to celebrate the harvest, not forgetting the virtue of thrift and frugality. To the Qing Dynasty, this custom prevailed, the court, the emperor, the empress, the emperor's son, etc. to the civil and military ministers, attendants courtesans to give Lahai congee, and to the various monasteries to distribute rice, fruit, etc. for the monks to eat. Northern Laha congee, rice, red beans, jujube three indispensable, others, such as black rice, raisins, millet, etc., can be self-selected.

As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people started the precedent of drinking wine on New Year's Eve. It was written in the "State Winds" of the Book of Songs that the ancient Chinese custom of praying for longevity was popular. In ancient times, it was a popular custom to pray for longevity at Chinese New Year, "But I will always offer a cup of ten thousand years to the elderly." This is a blessing for the elderly. In the Han Dynasty, families gathered to drink pepper and cypress wine after setting off firecrackers, and the youngest person was allowed to drink it first, and toasted the parents. Southern Liang Zong懔 "荆楚岁时记 "云："First day of the first month ...... young and old are all dressed, in order to congratulate, into the pepper cypress wine, drink peach soup." Folk Spring Festival also drink "peach soup" custom, to ward off evil blessings.

In addition, tea soup, noodle tea, bean juice, etc., is also the old Beijing people's favorite Spring Festival food. Tea soup because the bowl will be turned over and tea soup does not spill, so there is this "buckle bowl of tea soup" called. Noodle tea is eaten without chopsticks, spoons and other utensils, but with one hand holding the bowl and drinking it in a circle along the edge of the bowl. The old Beijingers loved the slightly sour flavor of bean juice, drink bean juice like with a very thinly sliced pickles, eat fried to a crisp through the burnt ring, the flavor is unique.