The Spring Festival is coming. As a family reunion dinner with a long history and tradition, it is not only the highlight of every family holiday, but also the object of business development and operation, increasing profits and even expanding popularity and hype. Recently, a hotel in Hangzhou launched a high-priced New Year's Eve dinner, which triggered controversy from all walks of life, and made people generally pay attention to how to correctly understand and treat the New Year's Eve dinner, how to make rational consumption and folk culture complement each other and other related topics. Xinhua News Agency recently conducted a field survey on the traditional customs of New Year's Eve in different regions and ethnic groups.
Kanto New Year's Eve: Preserving ancient customs and interaction between Manchu and Han.
Cao Baoming, a famous folklorist in China, said that the New Year's Eve dinner is also called "reunion dinner" or "family happiness", because after eating this meal, it is necessary to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, so it is also called "New Year's Eve dinner". In ancient times, people thought that the New Year's Eve dinner also had the functions of expelling epidemic diseases, exorcising evil spirits and strengthening the body. Therefore, the New Year's Eve is characterized by a family reunion dinner, which is attended by men, women and children. For this reunion, family members or children who go out must go home before New Year's Eve. If they don't come back in time, leave a space on the dining table for those who don't come back and put a pair of chopsticks to show family reunion.
The New Year's Eve dinner is usually the most abundant meal in a year among the farmers in Jiuguandong, and it will be ready on the 30th. There must be fish all over the table, which means more money, more vegetables and all the best in the new year. There must also be a bowl of braised meatballs to show family reunion. Cao Baoming said: "According to Zonggu's records of Jingchu times, there was a custom of eating New Year's Eve dinner at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties."
Kanto people have always said that "the poor celebrate the New Year, the rich celebrate the New Year, and they don't eat jiaozi during the New Year". Changshi of Jilin Folklore Society said that jiaozi appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Around the origin of jiaozi, people have produced different legends and stories. However, Kanto people have always advocated that jiaozi, the first meal of the Spring Festival, should be eaten at midnight on New Year's Eve. This custom is spread all over the urban and rural areas of Guandong and passed down from generation to generation.
Nowadays, many farmers in Northeast China still maintain many ancient customs, such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, setting off firecrackers and eating jiaozi. However, in recent years, eating and drinking on New Year's Eve is no longer important. Shi believes: "The New Year's Eve dinner has already gone beyond the scope of eating, but lies in the warmth between people, the greetings from family members and the warmth in the warmth. I have nostalgia for the old year that is about to pass away and hope for the upcoming new year. " (Reporter Zhang Ying Changchun reports)
Chongqing Tujia new year's eve dinner: "braised meat" and "sea pepper stuffing" are indispensable.
Just entering the twelfth lunar month, Xu, a farmer in Hongxing Village, Banxi Township, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing, is busy. In order to prepare this New Year's Eve dinner, it is impossible to prepare some essential traditional main courses ten and a half days before. Among them, the most important ones are "deduction of meat" and "reclamation of pepper". Xu said that "pork-cutting" seems simple, but it really takes some effort to be really fat but not greasy, tender and refreshing. "Sea pepper" is to mix glutinous rice flour with seasoning, then fill it into the hollowed-out sea pepper, and then marinate it in a pickle jar for half a month. On New Year's Eve, take it out and fry it in oil before serving.
Xu told reporters that Tujia people attach importance to these two dishes because it is rare to eat meat several times a year, and glutinous rice is also a rare thing. Therefore, every household regards these two dishes as an opportunity to show their skills on the New Year's Eve, and it is also a reward for their families who have worked hard for a year.
Surprisingly, kelp once became the main course of Tujia New Year's Eve. Because of the difficulty in eating salt and poor medical conditions in Tujia areas in the past, people often suffer from big neck disease due to iodine deficiency. In order to supplement iodine for their families, Tujia people put a kelp on the New Year's Eve dinner to supplement the iodine needed by the human body. Under the conditions at that time, kelp was really delicious for Tujia people, and it was impossible to eat it often, so it became a good dish for New Year's Eve. Nowadays, kelp has already withdrawn from the "stage" of the New Year's Eve.
After Tujia people have eaten the New Year's Eve dinner, each family will light a handful of firewood. Everyone will sit around and listen to the old people telling stories, and they will stay up until dawn, named "Shoutian Ridge" to express their love for the fields. (Reporter Li Yongwen reports from Chongqing)
Korean: "Suijiu" and "Degu" occupy a special position.
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province is the main inhabited area of Korean people in China, and the Spring Festival is also the traditional and most important festival for Korean people. Korean New Year's Eve dinner has its own traditional food and characteristics.
Cao Baoming, a folklore expert, said: "Korean New Year's Eve dinners are often very rich, with 70 or 80 plates, large and small, and some families even reach hundreds of plates. Among them,' old wine' and' Degu' occupy a special position. "
On the eve of the Spring Festival, the reporter saw in the villages of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture that many Korean villagers were brewing "old wine". Jin Zhen, a 52-year-old villager in Mijiang Township, Hunchun City, told reporters that Koreans have the custom of drinking "old wine" on New Year's Eve. This kind of wine is mostly brewed before the "New Year's Day". The Lunar New Year is equivalent to the Spring Festival of the Han nationality. "New Year's Wine" is a kind of medicinal liquor with rice as the main raw material and a variety of Chinese herbal medicines. Used for drinking and entertaining guests during the Spring Festival, they think that drinking this wine can ward off evil spirits and prolong life.
Jin said that "Degu" is a kind of soup cake, that is, after the rice flour is steamed, it is mashed into a big sticky ball, then rubbed into oval round strips, cut into thin slices, poured into chicken, pheasant and beef soup pots, and then put some sesame oil or sesame oil and seaweed when eating, which is delicious.
The reporter learned that North Korean women should wear beautiful national costumes on the 30th. Most families start making cakes early in the morning. "Although there are machines selling cakes now, we still like to make them ourselves with a cake hammer because the taste is still different." South Korean villager Park Ying-ko said.
Jin Zhen said that on New Year's Eve, it was a very happy moment for more than a dozen families to get together for dinner. The whole family will stay up all night. Different from the Han nationality, the Korean New Year's Eve party is mainly about singing and dancing, accompanied by the ancient music of the Korean Gayaqin and flute to welcome the New Year.