A child asked her grandmother: why do we cook porridge on this day in winter?
The grandmother said: when I was small it was done this way, and my grandmother did it too.
The child asked again: who decided it at the start?
The grandmother smiled: no one remembers; we only remember that on this day we cook porridge. The child watched the steam rise slowly from the pot, asked no more, and waited for the first bowl. When the porridge was ready the grandmother first set a small bowl on the stove, saying it was for the old ones, and only then ladled bowl after bowl for everyone.
The next year, on this day, the child rose early, went to the kitchen alone and washed the rice and beans one kind at a time, and when her grandmother came said: today I will do it. The grandmother stood in the doorway and watched a while, said nothing, and turned to fetch the bowls.
The grandmother never wrote down what went into the porridge, and the beans and rice, a little more or a little less each year, were measured by hand. The child copied her: took a handful, looked, and put a little back.
Later still the child had a child of her own. On this day she cooked porridge, and when the child asked why, she said: when I was small it was done this way, and my grandmother did it too.
Festival food customs continue because generation after generation does the same thing on the same day, and few remember where it began. This class records the link between food and occasion, not a particular bowl of porridge, and it does not fix which food belongs to which festival. (This is an illustrative story, not a historical account.)
Birthday FeastsThe foods and feasts of birthdays, of a baby's first month and first year, and of longevity celebrations.
Wedding FeastsThe feasts and foods of engagements and weddings.
Ritual OfferingsThe foods offered at ancestor rites, to deities and in temples.
Daily MealsHow meals are arranged through the day, and everyday eating habits in the regions.
Lantern FestivalThe full moon of the first month: a night of lanterns that closes the New Year season
Dragon Raises Its Head FestivalOn the second of the second month the dragon raises its head: spring rain is coming, and farmers pray for a good year
She Day (Earth God Festival)In spring the village prays to the earth god for grain, and in autumn gives thanks for the harvest
Cold Food FestivalNo fires and only cold food, 105 days after the winter solstice, in memory of Jie Zitui
Dragon Boat FestivalBoat races and zongzi on the fifth of the fifth month, the summer festival that remembers Qu Yuan
Mid-Autumn FestivalThe full moon of the eighth month: an autumn festival of moon viewing and reunion
Double Ninth FestivalClimbing heights and admiring chrysanthemums on the ninth of the ninth month, now also the Day for the Elderly
Laba FestivalCongee cooked and shared on the eighth of the twelfth month, the first taste of the New Year
Little New YearThe kitchen god is sent off on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth month, opening the New Year season
New Year's EveThe last night of the lunar year: reunion, the year-end vigil, and farewell to the old year