MUZIChinese Matrix
New Year's Eve · FFET10332
Families stay up through New Year's Eve, many northern homes eat dumplings near midnight, and Song and Qing books each record a part.
The last night of the lunar year: reunion, the year-end vigil, and farewell to the old year
Shousui is the custom of staying awake through New Year's Eve until dawn. Northern Song families sat around the hearth until daybreak for shousui (Dongjing menghualu, scroll 10); earlier records include the Western Jin Fengtu ji by Zhou Chu, whose original text was not consulted here. People in Beijing ate boiled bobo with white-flour wrappers on New Year's Day (Yanjing suishiji; 1900 is the postscript date); the book uses bobo, not jiaozi. Many northern families eat dumplings near the hour of zi; the Qing-era Mongolian custom of eating bianshi at that hour is linked to the traditional explanation gengsui jiaozi.
Shousui is staying awake through New Year's Eve until dawn, and in the north many families also eat dumplings near the hour of zi.1,3
It runs from New Year's Eve into New Year's Day. Shousui was recorded in Wei-Jin, widespread by Sui and Tang, and also called fensui in the Song. Northern Song families sat around the hearth until dawn for shousui (Dongjing menghualu, scroll 10). People in Beijing ate boiled bobo on New Year's Day (Yanjing suishiji; 1900 is the postscript date).1,2,4
After the reunion dinner, families stay indoors to talk or play games, and many northern homes boil dumplings near midnight. New Year's Day bobo have white-flour wrappers (Yanjing suishiji); in the Qing-era Mongolian region, people ate bianshi at the hour of zi.1,3,4
In traditional interpretations, the vigil sees off the old year; a Qing-era explanation links dumplings to the pun gengsui jiaozi, the year changing at the hour of zi.1,3
The vigil and gift money are New Year's Eve customs, and dumplings traditionally symbolize wealth; the available sources provide no figures.5
Legend has it that the physician Zhang Zhongjing handed out ear-shaped jiao'er to the poor in winter, and people copied them and came to eat dumplings at New Year. Chinese Wikipedia presents this as hearsay, not history.
Told in: A popular tale, retold in the Chinese Wikipedia entry on dumplings, which presents it as hearsay, not history.
