Cantonese New Year Food Symbols
Want to know what food they eat in China during New Year’s celebrations? Find out what is on the menu during the Chinese New Year season.
The Chinese people are very serious about their food. This seriousness grows manifolds when it comes to New Year’s celebrations because food is an integral part of the entire festive season. Given that the Chinese attach so much importance to food the fact that food occupies a central place in New Year celebrations comes as no big surprise.
Generally, during this time of the New Year celebrations, ordinary food is not served. The food served is believed to be food of good fortune and this food service goes on for two weeks after the New Year begins. It is known as the Spring Festival because New Year occurs during the season of spring with reference to the lunar calendar.
The cuisine set for the New Year celebrations consists no ordinary food and has some sort of symbolical meaning attachedto it as Chinese people believe in symbolism. A full chicken that is eaten as a must during New Years feasts, represents togetherness of family. All items eaten during this time have some symbolism or the other and are considered to be lucky food.
One of the standard practice of the Chinese people is serving noodles as a part of the festive food during the New Year celebrations. Noodles symbolize longevity. They also believe that if the noodles are cut, it fetches bad fortune and hence they use uncut noodles.
Clams and spring rolls are other food items that are offered during this New Year celebration. They are quite delicious with a moith watering taste and also they symbolize prosperity. The clams derive their symbolism from their bouillon shape and spring rolls derive it from their gold bar shape.
Another approach to select the right type of food is to concentrate on the phonetics the word. Take the word ‘lettuce’, when said in the Chinese language it sounds like the fortune is growing. The Chinese people use lettuce to wrap fortune food items to be served on the occasion of the New Year.
Some fruits are also designated as fortunate food served during the New Year spring season and its found in abundance at this time of the year. The most important ones are oranges and tangerines. When they are pronounced in Chinese they have the sound of wealth and luck and hence that proves why they are selected. Another fruit type that is selected is the grapefruit as it signifies abundance and is the classic fruit symbol of the New Year.
Fish phonetically sounds like as if someone said wish and thus according to the Chinese people, it signifies abundance. As the tradition goes, the meal in New Years Eve always finishes with the eating of fish. The fish is served whole to signify togetherness.
Sweets and steamed cakes like sticky rice cakes are also served during the New Year time and message that it shares is that people can seek for good things to come with the advancement of a New Year.
The Chinese new year zodiac is an integral component of the celebrations. If you would like to read further on Chinese new year dishes click on the hyperlinks.
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