Di Rachele Rosina & Margherita Maestripieri
Chinese New Year is almost here, it is one of the most important festivities of the Lunar Calendar.
If you do not know how to be prepared for the “Spring Festival” , you are reading the right Article.
Here you can find a nursery rhyme that explains what you should do before the New Year’s Eve.
小孩儿小孩儿你别馋，
Little Child, little child , don’t be greedy
过了腊八就是年；
After Laba festivity there is the New Years’ Eve:
腊八粥，喝几天，
After eating Laba porrige for some days
哩哩啦啦二十三；
Here we are on the 23rd!
二十三，糖瓜粘；
It’s the 23rd : let’s have sticky candies
二十四，扫房日；
It’s the 24th . Let’s clean the House
二十五，做豆腐；
It’s the 25 th Let’s prepare the Tofu
二十六，炖猪肉；
It’s the 26 th, let’s cook pork meat
二十七，宰公鸡；
It’s the 27 th, Let’s kill the rooster
二十八，把面发；
It’s the 28 th let’s make the bread leaven
二十九，蒸馒头；
It’s the 29 th, let’s cook the Mantou
三十晚上熬一宿；
It’s the 30th let’s stay up all night
大年初一走一走。
It’s New Years’ Eve, Let’s Celebrate all together
What is Laba Porridge?
It’s a traditional Chinese dish, usually cooked and eaten during the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar: the festivity name is Laba.
Laba is rise with porridge, full of nourishing ingredients, such as nuts and dried fruit. As tradition recalls, in Beijing it is usually prepared in big pots inside the Lama Temple and given to the devoted and to the common people that are willing to stand in line at dawn.
Sticky pumpkin Candies
SPC are really hard candies shaped as small pumpkins, that Make your mouth mossy, that is why they are called “sticky”. They are usually prepared for the twenty-third day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, in order to celebrate the spirit of the fire.
According to the legend, the Spirit lives in the Fireplace for all the year, keeping note of the the good deeds of the family ( if they kept the house clean, if they did not waste food..). During the night of the 23rd the Spirit usually flies up to the sky to reveal everything to the Emperor who will take action ( prizes or punishments) to the family for the following year.
Why are those sticky candies prepared for him? The Spirit is really glutton, so he usually eats those candies while going up to the sky, but once he is arrived at the court of the Emperor he is not able to speak because all the sticky candies are stuck in his mouth, so he can not reveal the bad deeds of the family.
Prepare tofu, pork meat, the rooster, the bread..?
Have you noticed that most of the time of the week preceding the New Year’ s Eve is spent on cooking?
Why?
First of all, those dishes require a lot of time to be prepared and also because Spring festival is usually spent with all the relatives so the amount of food required is very big.
Even though nowadays you can easily find these dishes already prepared at the supermarket, preparing those for the whole family obviously requires time.
That is why it takes the whole week.
Man tou is the traditional steamed bread
Comments