Lunar New Year's Eve
Lunar New Year's Eve, the last day of the old year, is one of China's most
important traditional holidays. Homes are spotless in and out, doors and windows are decorated with brand new Spring Festival couplets, New Year's pictures, hangings, and
images of the Door God, and everyone dresses up in new holiday clothes that
are decorated with lucky patterns and auspicious colors.
To the Chinese, New Year's Eve dinner is more than just enjoying a grand
feast. On this day, all Chinese all over the world, no matter how far away from
home they are or how busy at work, will be home for dinner.
The elaborate dinner is laden with auspicious food. The names of the dishes
express the wish for good luck in the coming year. Most dishes are prepared with
uncut or whole ingredients to ensure integrity and perfection. The use of knives
is considered unlucky as this could sever the family's good fortune.
The sumptuous New Year dinners are prepared with the most delicate culinary
artistic skill and good wishes to welcome relatives and friends with a choice of
festive treats. Today, a growing number of Chinese choose to have reunion
dinners at restaurants or invite cooks home to make dinners for them.
Legend has it that long ago during the age of great
floods, there was a vicious monster named Nian, which means year. Whenever the
thirtieth day of the last lunar month arrived, this monster would rise up out of
the sea, killing people and wrecking havoc in their fields and gardens. The
people would bar their doors before dark and sit up all night, coming out the
next day to greet their neighbors and congratulate them on surviving. Once on
the last night of the last month, Nian suddenly burst into a small village,
devouring almost all the people who lived there. Only two families emerged
unscathed. The first, a newlywed couple, avoided harm because their
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