Food Symbolism - Eat for Wealth, Health & Happiness

When you chomp into a slice of kueh lapis during the Lunar New Year season, pause to consider that you're making a wish for an ever upward move in the new year. Upward in wealth, upward in happiness, upward in your career.

I bet you did not know that. Or that abalone, prawns, sea cucumber, leeks, fish, oranges, dried oysters, spring rolls and steamboat are also foods that hold great meaning to the Chinese during the Lunar New Year

Each sound in the Chinese language comes in four tones. Depending on which tone is used, a word can mean dried oysters or Happy Events . Dried hair moss called Fa Cai also sounds like good fortune . So the two ingredients combined together mean Happy Events and Good Fortune.

Back to the Kueh Lapis. Why does it mean an ever upward path in life? Because the many layers of the cake symbolise upward steps in the world. In the same way, the tiers of the sugar cane also symbolise the upward path of life in the new year. Both of these foods are part of the Hokkien tradition.

The sugar cane has an even more romantic tale to tell. Legend has it that in days of yore, a foreign army invaded the Hokkien heartland. All the Hokkien soldiers fled into the fields and immediately a whole forest of sugar cane sprung up to hide the army and protect it from the enemy. This saved the Hokkien race and since then the Hokkiens have celebrated the ninth day of the Lunar New Year by placing stalks of sugar cane on either side of the front door. This is also the birthday of the Heavenly Jade Emperor. In Singapore the message is re-emphasised with the Kueh Lapis that is eaten on this day.

Ever upward is also the message borne by the sticky gluey steamed glutinous rice flour cake called Nian Gao (). This is because the word also means to be "yearly taller" (). There are many sounds of good fortune associated with food during the Lunar New Year season, with the Cantonese making an art of this play of words. Restaurant menus, from the eve of the New Year to the 15th day, concentrate on offering these auspicious dishes to please the palate as well as the soul.

Eating for health, wealth and happiness by Violet Oon 31 Jan 2000 When you chomp into a slice of kueh lapis during the Lunar New Year season, pause to consider that you're making a wish for an ever upward move in the new year. Upward in wealth, upward in happiness, upward in your career.

I bet you did not know that. Or that abalone, prawns, sea cucumber, leeks, fish, oranges, dried oysters, spring rolls and steamboat are also foods that hold great meaning to the Chinese during the Lunar New Year. Why? These foods, because of their shape and the way their names sound, speak a powerful language of love and good intentions between family, loved ones and business associates. Each sound in the Chinese language comes in four tones. Depending on which tone is used, a word can mean dried oysters () or Happy Events (). Dried hair moss called Fa Cai () also sounds like good fortune (). So the two ingredients combined together mean Happy Events and Good Fortune. Back to the Kueh Lapis. Why does it mean an ever upward path in life? Because the many layers of the cake symbolise upward steps in the world. In the same way, the tiers of the sugar cane also symbolise the upward path of life in the new year. Both of these foods are part of the Hokkien tradition. The sugar cane has an even more romantic tale to tell. Legend has it that in days of yore, a foreign army invaded the Hokkien heartland. All the Hokkien soldiers fled into the fields and immediately a whole forest of sugar cane sprung up to hide the army and protect it from the enemy. This saved the Hokkien race and since then the Hokkiens have celebrated the ninth day of the Lunar New Year by placing stalks of sugar cane on either side of the front door. This is also the birthday of the Heavenly Jade Emperor. In Singapore the message is re-emphasised with the Kueh Lapis that is eaten on this day.

Ever upward is also the message borne by the sticky gluey steamed glutinous rice flour cake called Nian Gao . This is because the word also means to be "yearly taller". There are many sounds of good fortune associated with food during the Lunar New Year season, with the Cantonese making an art of this play of words. Restaurant menus, from the eve of the New Year to the 15th day, concentrate on offering these auspicious dishes to please the palate as well as the soul. Celebrations actually begin earlier, in southern China on the 24th day of the 12th lunar month when the Taoist Kitchen God called Zao Jun goes back to heaven to report on the household's behaviour in the past year. His lips are rubbed with honey so that he will have only sweet words to say. This feast is celebrated on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month in northern China.

The most important day of the year for the Chinese is the eve of the Lunar New Year, which this year falls on Friday February 4. It is a day of family reunion, and it is symbolic of abundance and wealth to have plenty to eat as one relaxes and enjoys a few day's break from work. There should be leftovers enough to last three days.

Kitchen knives and brooms are kept out of the way till the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. Traditionally the house is swept one last time just before midnight on New Year's even, and then at midnight the doors are thrown open to greet the New Year with great joy and abandon. In the past, this was the moment when fireworks were set off all over the country. Of course, Singapore long ago banned firecrackers so we no longer greet the new year in that explosive way.

It must be remembered that in China, where food was not plentiful, this would be the only time in the year when a whole pig, a whole duck, a whole chicken and a whole fish would be served at table. The word fish also means for abundance

That is why Chinese banquets always feature a whole fish at the end. The host, when thanked for his hospitality, will say, "There is yu (abundance)."

(to be continued)

from straitscafe.com