Spring Festival Cuisines 春节美食
Spring Festival (春节Chun Jie) is the most important festival in China. Chinese people celebrate the earth coming back to life during the festival duration, which begins on the 1st day of the lunar new year. It is the common for Chinese people to visit relatives, enjoy family reunions, and have “Lucky Food” with specific meanings. The symbolism of these foods is based on their pronunciation or appearance.
Fish“鱼” /Yú/
In Chinese, "fish" sounds like 'surplus'. Chinese people always like to have a surplus at the end of the year, because they think if they have managed to save something at the end of the year, then they can make more in the next year.
Fish can be cooked in various ways such as boiling “煮”, steaming “蒸”, and braising “红烧”. The most famous Chinese fish dishes include steamed weever, West Lake fish with pickled cabbage and chili, steamed fish in vinegar sauce, and boiled fish with spicy broth.
One Chinese idiom about “Fish”: 年年有余 (Niánnián yǒu yú ) means: (may you) have abundance year after year / (an auspicious saying for the Lunar New Year).
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NIÁNNIÁN 年年 year after year;
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YǑU 有 to have;
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YÚ 余 yú, remainder
Dumplings“饺子” /Jiao Zi/
Dumplings are a classic Chinese food, which have a history of more than 1,800 years, and an indispensable dish in Chinese New Year’s Eve, widely throughout the whole country, especially in North China.
Chinese dumplings are made to look like ancient Chinese Gold ingots “金元宝”. It stands exactly the similar meaning: the more dumplings you eat during the New Year celebrations, the more money you can make in the coming New Year.
Dumplings generally consist of minced meat and finely chopped vegetables wrapped into a piece of dough skin. Popular meat fillings include ground meat (usually pork, but can be beef, chicken, shrimp and even fish).They can be cooked by boiling “煮”, steaming “蒸” and frying “煎”.
One Chinese idiom about eating dumplings at Spring Festival: 招财进宝(Zhāo cái jìn bǎo) means: 'Bringing in wealth and treasure' — a traditional greeting at New Year (We wish you wealth and success!)
ZHĀO 招 to recruit
CÁI 财 money
JÌN 进 to enter
BǍO 宝 jewel
How to make dumplings at home?
Lesson 1: Prepare the dough, fold the dumpling, and cook boiled dumplings.
(Please enter your name in the field to watch this tutorial.)
Rice Cake“年糕” /Niángāo/
In Chinese, “年糕” sounds like it means "'getting higher year-on- by year"'. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time, because "nian gao" is a homonym for "higher year." The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning "sticky", is identical in sound to 年, meaning "year", and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning "cake" is identical in sound to 高, meaning "high or tall". . The main ingredients of nian gao are sticky rice, sugar, chestnuts, Chinese dates, and lotus leaves.
One Chinese idiom about Nian gao：年年高升 (niánnián gāo shēng) means: Getting higher year-after-year can imply rise in business success, better grades in study, promotions at work, etc.
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NiánNián 年年 year after year
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Gāo 高 high
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Shēng 升 to ascend