New Year's Eve · FFET10331
New Year's Eve reunion dinner
Families gather for a dinner on New Year's Eve, with dishes chosen for auspicious names, and Song and Qing books record the vigil and the year rice.
The last night of the lunar year: reunion, the year-end vigil, and farewell to the old year
A New Year's Eve dinner brings the family together on the evening of day 30 of the 12th lunar month (sometimes day 29). Dishes are often chosen for their names and meanings, including fish, dumplings, sweet rice balls and rice cake. In Beijing, the evening was called sanshi wanshang, with 1 bowl of year rice holding pine and cypress branches and games played by the family; the Yanjing suishiji postscript is dated 1900. Song customs included the vigil, ancestor rites and hearth gatherings, but the texts differ in scope: Dongjing menghualu and Mengliang lu cover these customs, while the Dongjing menghualu section read does not describe a meal.
What
The New Year's Eve dinner is the meal a family eats together on that night, with dishes chosen for their names and meanings.1
When
It falls on New Year's Eve, usually day 30 of the 12th lunar month and sometimes day 29. Northern Song families sat around the hearth until dawn, a vigil called shousui. In Southern Song Lin'an, customs included cleaning, new door gods, ancestor worship, sweets and snacks, and drinking by the stove while keeping watch. In Beijing, the evening was called sanshi wanshang; the Yanjing suishiji postscript is dated 1900. Households also prepared year-end dishes and kept food from the old year. The texts differ in scope: Dongjing menghualu, scroll 10, describes no meal; Mengliang lu, scroll 6, covers Lin'an's New Year's Eve; Jingchu suishiji names New Year's Eve only in a commentary; and the Han and Western Jin records of year-end rites are known here secondhand, without checking the originals.1,2,3,4,5
Where
It is eaten across China and in Chinese communities abroad, with local table customs in Guangfu, Chaoshan, southern Fujian, Taiwan, Sichuan and Chongqing, and the Beijing suburbs.1
How
The family sits down together at home or in a restaurant, with dishes such as fish, dumplings, sweet rice balls and rice cake. In Taiwan, a long-life vegetable and spring rice are served; in Sichuan, the dinner may pass among relatives' homes over several days. In old Beijing, a bowl of year rice held pine and cypress branches, coins and jujubes.1,2
Why
Dishes carry traditional meanings through sound or shape: fish for plenty, dumplings for wealth, sweet rice balls for reunion, and rice cake for rising.1
Impact and influence
Takeout and restaurant dinners are now common, and the CCTV Spring Festival Gala has been broadcast live since 1983.1
No tale about this food has been found.