It’s been more than a month since our family’s last real holiday celebration. Given the continuous stream that begins in October with Diwali and Halloween, by early January we’re tuckered out after virtually two months of on-and-off revelry. It’s time for a short respite – to focus on resurrecting the house, finally toting all the holiday decorations back to the garage, and generally getting back into a “normal” routine. By early February though, we’re bored with tidying up and organizing, and ready for an excuse to party. Luckily, we’re just in time for Chinese New Year 2011, year of the rabbit. With a household half full of rabbits, in the astrological sense, this marks an auspicious year, and one in which two of us will reach ages measured in multiples of 12, the Chinese Zodiac repeating as it does, every dozen years. We won’t mention which multiples.
This past weekend we were invited to ring in the New Year at the home of friends, a cross-cultural family – Chinese and Mexican. Besides treating us to a delectable and authentically prepared meal, our generous hosts introduced us to a wealth of holiday rituals including the Chinese fascination with puns. We soon learned that many of the foods shared at the New Year play on this sense of linguistic fun. For instance, tangerines are consumed because the word for the fruit sounds like the word for lucky. Similarly, dumplings are eaten at gatherings with friends and family, since the word for dumpling is close to the word for reunion. Dumplings are round like money – so eating more of the stuffed, steamed buns might even be good for the pocketbook (if not just for the appetite).
We were equally entertained hearing the mystical tale of the Kitchen God, a spirit charged with the task of spying on family behavior, and reporting back to heaven with full-disclosure upon the New Year. A negative write-up by this imposing god dooms a family to bad luck for a full twelve months. With such a fate in the balance, so the story goes, creative folks wisely offer tempting plates of sticky cake to this front-office guy (should he come to call). The hope is that he’ll stuff his mouth completely full of sticky delights, turning utterly speechless and incapable of passing on unfavorable reports. Apparently the Kitchen God is quite the glutton for sticky sweets.
Besides tangerines, dumplings and sticky foods, noodles, symbolizing long life (be sure not to cut them!) round out the New Year menu. Filling our plates with home cooked delicacies – lovingly assembled, we tried our hand at using chopsticks to pick up every succulent morsel – with limited success. Luckily fingers are allowed.
If you were lucky enough to find yourself in Northern California this week, you may have chosen to celebrate the occasion by eating outdoors on the patio, like we did. As we passed through the doorway, we noticed a Chinese character (meaning “lucky”) hanging overhead and apparently upside down. Our friends explained the clever double meaning behind the adornment: the words for “upside down” and “arrive” being similar, the topsy-turvy orientation of the “lucky” character proclaims to guests, “luck has arrived”. I can’t imagine a more gracious manner (with an obvious sense of fun) in which to greet friends and family, as well as the arrival of a New Year!
Note: In case you’re wondering about my odd choice of titles, every February, Chinese pun fans work tirelessly to create the best play on words for the New Year. This year a popular greeting inserts the character for “rabbit”, which sounds like the English word “to”, into the classic salutation, Happy New Year to You.
Recipes to Welcome the Year of the Rabbit
Recipe – Pan-Fried Chinese Noodles
Recipe – Chinese Style Stir-Fried Vegetables
