Long Long Longevity

Food plays a major role in the Chinese New Year celebration. When serving for Chinese New Year, hosts often think of serving "lucky" foods. These "lucky" foods each have it's own symbolic meaning, some might be because the food pronunciation in Chinese sounds like a "lucky" word, or it could be because the food itself symbolizes good luck.

What are these "lucky" foods?
1) Noodles(long noodles) - Noodles are almost always served during CNY. When served, hosts try to keep them as long as possible. The long noodles symbolize long life.

2) Fish - In Chinese, the word for fish is "Yu" which sounds like the word abundance in Chinese. Fish is served whole(yes, with the head and tail) to ensure a good start and finish for the year. Of course you don't have to serve a whole fish if you are squeamish about the head and tail being on the table, you can just serve something that contain fish in it.

3) Tangerines - Displaying, eating or giving tangerines are said to bring wealth and good luck. However, one must not display or give four because the word four in Chinese sounds like the word death. Eight, on the other hand, is a good number because it sounds like the word prosperity in Chinese.

4) Jiaozi - Also known as Chinese dumplings or pot-stickers, signify family reunion. This however is not familiar to me. From Wikipedia: "Dumplings Jiaozi are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during the Ming Dynasty for money and the name sound like the word for the earliest paper money, so serving them brings the promise of wealth, good luck and prosperity! Many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Year's Eve so they have money at the changing of the years. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find."

Please check out Chinese New Year Food for recipes. I should also mention that if you have an Asian market near you, you might be able to buy some of the sweets I mentioned in the previous post.

Now on to a little Chinese New Year traditions:

1) On Chinese New Years eve, every family will clean the house thoroughly to "sweep" away all the old and ill-fortune of the year past, that way you can start new and fresh for the new year.

2) Paper cut-outs of the word "Fu"(pictured below) are displayed on windows and doors. The Chinese word "Fu" means Good Fortune.

3) Family "Reunion" dinner is often had on the eve of Chinese New Year. This is when those "lucky" foods are served.

4) Just like on Christmas day when kids open their presents, on Chinese New Year morning/day, children will greet and wish their parents "Gong Xi Fa Chai"(which loosely translates to "Congratulations and be prosperous") and receive money in red envelopes called Hong Bao. Hong Baos will also be given by married relatives or friends to children and unmarried adults. Picture below shows assorted Hong Bao at a market. I have found out that our local Walgreens store sells some Chinese New Year cards and Hong Bao!

5) Wearing red clothing is common because red is believed to scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. Black is never a good choice as black symbolizes death.

There you have it. Now you know about Chinese New Year more than you have ever before.