New Year fare

The following is another in a series of articles prepared by the Jamaica China Friendship Association.

Starting on January 23, 2012, we celebrate the coming of the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Dragon. These celebrations are sometimes referred to as the Spring Festival, but regardless of the name used, it is traditionally the most important of the many festivals of the Chinese people. There are many aspects of this festival, so it is no wonder that the celebrations go on for two weeks or more.

The most popular activity of the Chinese New Year celebrations is, undoubtedly, the feasting and the variety of foods eaten at this time. Each dish served has a particular meaning and significance, for example, the dumplings. This delicacy consists of a small amount of a tasty filling of meat or vegetables or a mixture of both wrapped in a light dough wrapper and boiled, fried or steamed. This symbolises prosperity. They are traditionally made on New Year's Eve by the family as they get together sitting down at a table. It also signifies wealth if they are crescent shaped.

ensuring prosperity

A whole steamed fish is a must to ensure prosperity and good luck for a bountiful year. The word for fish is a homophone for surplus and abundance. Other dishes have the same trait in that their names are similar in sound to the food that they are associated with. The fish is brought to the table whole to symbolise the completeness of the wishes. This means that everything will be great in the year ahead. Noodles must also be served, as this represents long life, and is one of the wishes you should make to friends and family.

The ever present chicken is also a must at New Year, but with a difference.

It must be served whole, to symbolise family unity and togetherness and a whole roasted animal - pig, duck or chicken is a sign of fidelity.

Steamed sweet cakes are eaten too to symbolise a rich, sweet life, and the round shape ensures that this rich. sweet life is continuous without end as the shape of a circle suggests, and is one of the very few times when Chinese people eat sweet things. Oranges, apples and tangerines are eaten for the same reasons - richness and prosperity - and their rounded shape also symbolises enduring peace.

not strange

This is not entirely strange for Jamaica as we are one of the many countries that have special foods to mark special celebrations. What would our Christmas be without sorrel and black cake laced with rum?

And each slice you eat of a different Christmas cake is supposed to bring you one month of good fortune and happiness, so some persons try to eat 12 different slices each Christmas. Easter would not be the same without bun and cheese.

Maybe because these are available then, but it must be remembered that the Chinese are very superstitious and the ancient 'lucky' food traditions come from the belief that the spirits of the ancestors are partial to certain foods and that these spirits must be fed.

There is still the custom at some New Year dinners, before the diners sit down to eat, that a plate of choice foods is prepared and placed at the family shrine. If there is no shrine, it may be placed in a quiet spot, for instance, in the room that was occupied by the departed. It is said that 'belief kill and belief cure', traditions vary and most people eat the food anyway without thought or regard for what it means, because it is always delicious.