Spring Festival Collectivization
Updated: 2005-01-19

Despite the uptight economy, people in the 1960s were still happy enough to celebrate the Spring Festival, thus spending some special and unforgettable new years. At a time when people could hardly afford to eat meat during the rest of the year, "jiaozi " with ground meat on New Year's Eve was extraordinarily delicious. Also, when children did not have much pocket money throughout the year, they would be very happy when and if they could buy a paper lantern during the New Year.

Collectivization was a common feature of the Spring Festival in the 1960s. Companies would give their workers tickets for films and other events. The dishes on every table were generally the same; the furniture in all the rooms was similar and people wore similar clothes.

  Food

The best thing of the Spring Festival in the 1960s was for the delicious food, though even the New Year's Eve feast at the time was mostly composed of various forms of Chinese cabbages just as usual -- the only difference was that people would buy an extra kilogram of meat or oil.

The family reunion dinner was the most important and sumptuous banquet throughout the year. The family members away from home would try their best to come back for the dinner. However, no matter what the menu, there was always supposed to be a dish made of fish, because the Chinese pronunciation for fish, "yu ", is homophonous to that for "surplus."

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