Chinese New Year: Foods!

Chinese New Year season extends officially about two weeks, with many days preparing in advance. It is the most elaborate and important holiday in the Chinese calendar. Food plays a vital part in most of the festivities. The Chinese congratulate each other on having passed through another year and feast together. Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner is the most important family occasion of the year.

New Year’s Eve dinner is usually a feast of sybolic seafood and dumplings. These include prawns for liveliness, dried oysters (ho xi) for all things good; raw fish salad (yu sheng) for good luck; “fai-hai” an edible angel hair-like seaweed for prosperity and dumplings boiled in water to recover a long-lost good wish for the family. Everyone wears red to ward off evil spirits and avoids the black and white which represent death and mourning.

Pomelos symbolize abundance and prosperity. Gourds are Chinese symbols of health and longevity. Tangerines and oranges, symbols of abundance happiness, are a must gift item when visiting family or friends during the two-week long New Year celebration. Tangerines with leaves intact assure that one’s relationship with the other remains secure. For newlyweds, this represents the branching of the couple into a family with many children.

When visiting relatives, it’s customary for the Chinese to offer guests tea, along with a round or octagonal tray filled with a variety of treats, from nuts to sweets. This is known as chyuhn haap, or the Tray of Togetherness.

Traditionally, the tray was made of wood, with eight interior dishes of porcelain, but nowadays many people opt for plastic. I prefer the look of rosewood — it shows more class.

The tray usually contains an inner set of eight compartments to help keep the goodies separated. Each compartment is filled with a special symbolic food:

• Candy Melon (growth and good health)

• Coconut (unity)

• Kumquat (gold; for prosperity)

• Longan (many good sons)

• Lotus Seeds (fertility)

• Lychee Nut (close family relationships)

• Peanuts (longevity)

• Red Melon Seeds (red; for happiness, joy, honesty and sincerity)

Source:
http://www.foodmuseum.com/chinesenew.html#pomelos