What do southerners eat for their New Year’s Eve dinner?
Introduction: For a foodie, the happiest thing about Chinese New Year is that you can eat a lot of delicious meals. Eating New Year’s Eve dinner is one of the most distinctive customs of Chinese New Year. New Year’s Eve is the day when the whole family gathers around the dining table to eat New Year’s Eve dinner. Our country is vast and rich in resources, so there must be differences in the New Year's food customs between the north and the south. So, what do southerners eat on New Year's Eve? Let’s find out with the editor below! Mr. Shui Mo has carefully sorted out many customs and some precautions about New Year’s Eve. If you want to know more exciting content, please go to Mr. Shui Mo’s New Year’s Eve special topic to see more!Southern New Year's Eve food customs: eating rice cakesIn some places in the south, people pay attention to eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival. The cakes are taller every year, symbolizing that the harvest will get better and better every year, and the realm will get higher and higher every year. When Chinese people celebrate the Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, people in the north eat dumplings, while people in the south mainly eat rice cakes, especially the people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. Rice cake is also called "nianniangao", which is homophonic with "nianniangao", meaning "higher every year", meaning that people's work and life will improve year by year. If it is fried rice cake, Shanghai people like to add a little sugar to the seasoning. Feels tastier! As a food, rice cake has a long history in my country. The ancients' production of rice cakes also went through a development process from rice grain cakes to flour cakes. The recipe "Shi Ci" from the 6th century AD contains a method for making rice cake "white cocoon sugar": "Cook sorghum and rice rice, and when it is hot in a clean pestle and mortar, pound it into rice cake. It must be cooked thoroughly without any rice grains." That is, after steaming the glutinous rice, pound it into rice cakes while hot, then cut them into peach kernel-sized pieces, dry them, fry them, and roll them in sugar before eating.Southern New Year's Eve food customs: eating hot pot during the Spring FestivalNew Year's Eve dinner in the south usually includes hot pot and fish. The hot pot is boiling, steaming, warm and prosperous. Many people like to eat hotpot during the Chinese New Year. Firstly, you can eat all kinds of delicious food, whether meat or vegetables, in the hotpot; secondly, eating hotpot during the Chinese New Year symbolizes prosperity and brings good luck. Many hotpot restaurants specially launch Spring Festival set meals during the Spring Festival. The whole family can gather together to eat a special hotpot, which is warm and the atmosphere is great.Southern New Year's Eve food customs: eating fishThere seems to be an unspoken rule about eating fish during the Chinese New Year in many areas south of the Yangtze River. Fish is the last dish at the banquet. When it is served on the table, people usually do not eat it but leave it aside as a lucky charm, which means "abundance every year". In some places, when eating fish for the New Year’s Eve dinner, people would save the head and tail of the fish for the next year (i.e. the beginning of the next year), to express their wish for a “complete beginning and end” in the New Year. There are also some rules for arranging fish: the fish head should face the distinguished guest or elder to show respect; if the guest is a scholar, the fish belly should be placed towards him to praise him for his knowledge and literature; if the guest is a military general, the fish spine should be placed towards him to praise him for his bravery and boldness, and for being the backbone. Also, when the fish is served on the table, the fish's head should be facing whom and its tail should be facing whom, and once it is placed, it cannot be moved. The person facing the fish head "cuts the ribbon", and the person facing the fish tail "sponsors"; first the two people drink a glass of wine together, and then the person with the fish head starts to pick up the fish with chopsticks (the so-called "cutting the ribbon"), and then everyone can start to eat the fish, creating a lively atmosphere and full of joy.Southern New Year's Eve food customs: eating glutinous rice ballsYuanxiao is called "Tangyuan" in the south. In Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, there is a custom of eating Tangyuan on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. The Lantern Festival, which Taoism calls the "Shangyuan Festival". According to the "Sanyu Tie" quoted in "(Girl) Huanhuan Ji" by Yi Tuzhen of the Yuan Dynasty, after Chang'e flew to the moon, Yi became sick with longing for her. On the night of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, a boy suddenly asked to see Chang'e, claiming to be a messenger of Chang'e, and said, "My lady knows that you are missing her, but cannot make her come to you. Tomorrow is the full moon, and you should make balls with rice flour, round like the moon, and place them in the northwest corner of the room. Then call my name, and she will come to you in three nights." Yi did as he said, and Chang'e indeed came to you. It can be seen that eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival is to take the auspicious meaning of "round like the moon".Summary: The above-mentioned foods are what I want to introduce to readers as the food customs of southerners during New Year’s Eve. From them, we can see the different cultures and characteristics of different regions. You can learn about them! |
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