What is the tradition of eating longevity noodles on your birthday?

Eating longevity noodles on your birthday is primarily a way of celebrating your birthday that belongs to the Chinese tradition. In fact, longevity noodles are noodles, and the symbolism of noodles is longevity. Eating longevity noodles on the day of birthday has good wishes for the person who is celebrating his/her birthday. The shape of the noodle is long and thin, and the harmonic meaning is longevity, which implies a long life.

Face is face, "long face is long face", so people borrowed long noodles to bless longevity. Gradually, this practice evolved into the custom of eating noodles on birthdays (festivals), which is called eating "longevity noodles.

Historical Origins

Legend has it that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a believer in ghosts and gods and also believed in physiognomy. One day, chatting with the ministers, talking about the length of human life, Han Wu Di said: "the book of" said, "long life, long life, if the middle of the human 1 inch long, you can live to 100 years old." Dongfang Shuo, a minister sitting next to Emperor Wu of Han, laughed when he heard this, and the ministers, puzzled, blamed him for being rude to the emperor.

When Emperor Wu of Han asked him what he was laughing at, Dongfang Shuo explained, "I am not laughing at Your Majesty, but at Pengzu. When a man lives 100 years, his middle man is 1 inch long, Pengzu lived 800 years, his middle man was 8 inches long, so how long was his face." The crowd also laughed out loud when they heard this, it seems that if you want to live a long life, it is impossible to rely on your face to be longer, but you can think of a workaround to express your desire to live a long life.

Face is face, that "face long that face long", so people borrowed long noodles to bless long life. Gradually, this practice evolved into the custom of eating noodles on birthdays (festivals), which is called eating "longevity noodles". Generally speaking, there is only one noodle in the whole bowl of longevity noodles. It is best not to break it when eating, and this custom has been inherited to this day.