What’s the story of Nian?
An historical legend tells of the Nian (which can be the Chinese language phrase for ‘yr’) – a beast as massive as an ox that would eat people. The Nian would open its enormous mouth every year after the winter crops had been saved and are available out to hunt, inflicting nice concern. However people progressively found that the Nian was afraid of three issues: fireplace, loud noises and the color purple. So every year, simply earlier than the Nian was on account of seem, each family would hold a purple peach wooden board in entrance of the doorway to their house and lightweight a hearth. New 12 months’s Eve, they’d keep up all evening making noises by hanging and hitting issues, to maintain the Nian at bay. After dawn, folks emerged from their properties, congratulated each other for having entered the New 12 months safely, then share a celebratory feast.
These 3 ways to keep at bay the Nian progressively advanced into the New 12 months customs adopted as we speak: the purple peach wooden has been changed by spring couplets, lighting a hearth has been changed by hanging massive purple lanterns and the loud noises at the moment are made by lighting firecrackers reasonably than hanging objects.
1. Purple packets
Purple packets containing cash (representing luck) or gold-wrapped chocolate cash are given to kids as items. One yr I ready 42 purple envelopes, every with a gold-wrapped coin inside. I wrote the primary half of varied couplets on 21 envelopes and positioned them on a tray. I wrote the matching halves of the couplets on the remaining 21 envelopes and positioned these on every of the place settings on the desk. As soon as folks had chosen an envelope from the tray and skim the primary half of their couplet, they needed to find the envelope with the corresponding second half to find their place on the desk, which created nice conviviality.
2. Kitchen gods
Each house has a kitchen god, an official from the Heavenly Courtroom who displays the great and dangerous that happens in each household. On the twenty fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, he returns to the Heavenly Courtroom to report on the household. Folks make choices to him within the morning, burning paper ‘cloud horses’ symbolising his chariot and offering candy treats to take pleasure in on his manner, hoping this can encourage him to say candy issues about them to the Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven. Within the kitchen god’s absence, the Jade Emperor sends different heavenly officers to watch the human world so, on the next day, folks fastidiously watch what they are saying and do. Taboos on this present day embrace hitting or scolding others and hanging underwear out to dry.
3. Niangao
Probably the most fashionable truffles at Chinese language New 12 months is yr cake (niangao). It’s each candy and savoury, symbolising auspiciousness and luck. 12 months truffles are made with water-milled glutinous-rice flour, floor from various portions of japonica rice and indica rice, and are smooth and sticky after they’re steamed. Niangao are loved in some ways. In my area, they’re sliced and eaten chilly, wrapped round pickled greens, pan-fried with minimal oil or dipped in egg or batter and deep-fried.
4. Kaizheng
A ceremony referred to as kaizheng is held on the primary day of the New 12 months. To rejoice, households hold up lanterns and Chinese language knot decorations, and festive meals are set out as choices for Heaven and their ancestors. On this present day, it is not uncommon to see particular sweets positioned on the providing desk or on the espresso desk of a good friend or relative. A few of the extra uncommon sweets are winter melon candies, purple beans and peanut candies. Winter melon candies are time-consuming to make and are solely accessible in the course of the New 12 months, making them very uncommon. Nanzao walnut cake can be fashionable, made from black and purple dates. Lately, nougat candies of varied colors have develop into fashionable.
Many different customs are additionally adopted on that first New 12 months day. One is xingchun, by which folks attend a temple to burn incense and pray for blessings. One other customized is to make an outing in an auspicious course to draw good luck, and this course and time are completely different yearly, based on the Chinese language almanac calendar. After doing so, folks go to family and pals and want one another prosperity. It’s completely taboo to say something inauspicious or to do something that may put somebody in an unfavourable state of affairs on this present day. When you do, you’ll be plagued with misfortune for the entire yr.
5. Entertaining
Right now, the primary supply of leisure is folks coming collectively to play video games and to share vibrant festive snack platters. The preferred New 12 months video games are mahjong and pai gow. Fireworks are launched at midnight, and households keep awake all evening to see within the New 12 months, in any other case referred to as ‘guarding’ the yr. That is stated to protect the household towards poverty within the coming yr. One other perception is that the longer kids can keep awake, the longer their dad and mom will reside.
6. New 12 months’s Eve
New 12 months’s Eve – on the final day of the twelfth month – is the excessive level of New 12 months. There are lots of completely different sorts of New 12 months’s Eve dinners, and quite a lot of dishes are eaten on the day, relying on the place you reside. Relations normally carry meals to share what they’ve created at house. This tends to be a household evening, reasonably than one spent with pals. It’s our custom that my household spends the night with my husband’s household. My household introduced a Yixing-style casserole, Shanghai-style steamed pork with preserved greens, a fish-head stew, pork meatballs, mullet roe, red-braised pig’s trotters and red-bean sponge cake. My husband’s household introduced Hakka-style steamed pork with preserved greens, sushijin (assorted vegetarian delicacies), lumpia (raw spring rolls), lu rou fan (an area dish of braised pork and rice) and Taiwan-style savoury niangao and red-bean mochi,
7. Hotpots
A hotpot is a well-liked informal model of delicacies that includes cooking uncooked items of meat, seafood and greens in a pot of simmering inventory, earlier than flavouring with quite a lot of dipping sauces and condiments. The bottom soup could be so simple as a broth made with pork or rooster bones and served with coriander and thousand yr eggs, or it may be as advanced as a Mala soup base, made with spices and chilli. The Chinese language time period ‘wei xu’ originates from the traditional that means of putting a hearth beneath the desk to maintain everybody heat in winter. The hearth should stay lit to signify the prosperity of the household. In fashionable instances, most individuals place a sizzling pot on the desk as a substitute, so it’s now very talked-about to have a sizzling pot for New 12 months’s Eve dinner. It’s a pretty image of prosperity and heat.
8. Lion dances
Dragon and lion dances are carried out for each vital pageant within the Chinese language calendar. They signify a prayer for peace and prosperity for the nation, stability and well timed climate, they usually’re believed to carry good luck and drive away misfortune. Dragon and lion dances are all the time accompanied by the dramatic backdrop of gongs and drums, making them a excessive level of any pageant programme.
Lion dances are nearly all the time carried out by two folks: one manipulates the pinnacle, and the opposite the remainder of the physique. Probably the most well-known lion dance exercise is ‘choosing the inexperienced’, held on the fifth day of the New 12 months, when outlets reopen for enterprise. Inexperienced greens are hung up excessive, and the lion dancers should go a sequence of obstacles – typically picket pillars – to achieve them. The lion lastly eats the inexperienced, then spits it out, signifying thriving enterprise. Afterwards, the grasp of ceremony or the enterprise proprietor provides the lion dancers a purple packet containing cash to precise their gratitude.
9. Wok hei
That means “breath of the wok” or “wok aroma”, wok hei refers back to the distinctive, smoky aroma and sophisticated flavour imparted to dishes when stir-fried over a really excessive warmth. Much like that particular, smoky, caramelised style you get from charring meat on a grill or barbecue, in wok cooking this comes from the extreme warmth of the wok and the speedy motion of meals throughout its floor. When the flames beneath are excessive sufficient, they arrive over the facet of the wok and make contact with the oil to create little bursts of flames that char the meals because it’s tossed round.
To attain wok hei, the cooking have to be quick and fierce. The excessive warmth sears the meals immediately, caramelising the sugars and proteins to create a deep, savoury flavour. This course of elevates a easy dish to one thing with depth and soul. Wok hei is all about stability – too little warmth and the meals steams as a substitute of sears. To grasp it, use a well-seasoned, carbon metal wok, warmth till it’s almost smoking and cook dinner your components in small batches to make sure every little thing touches the recent steel floor. As soon as charred, tip right into a bowl after which carry every little thing along with some aromatics. Tossing the meals regularly ensures it cooks evenly and helps infuse it with breath of the wok. In Chinese language tradition, wok hei symbolises the life pressure and vitality of the cook dinner, bringing luck and vitality to each meal.
10. Chopsticks Etiquette
When bigger dishes are being shared amongst visitors, it’s good manners to supply a serving set of chopsticks for every dish in addition to particular person units for folks to eat with. That manner you additionally remove double-dipping. Probably the most revered strategy to maintain chopsticks is from the very prime – there’s an outdated joke that claims the decrease down your grip on the chopsticks, the decrease your class. It’s additionally stated that the movement of the chopsticks as you employ them ought to appear like a pecking swan.
