chuxi

Chuxi Jie (New Year Eve)

New Year Eve Dinner

The last evening of the twelfth lunar month is the New Year Eve, or Chu Xi. Chu means getting rid of and xi means night. So Chu Xi means the night to get rid of an old year and usher in a new one.

The whole family will invariably get together that evening for a reunion dinner. In north China, the dinner means dumplings and in the south a very sumptuous feast. In Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, it has ten courses. One speciality served us asparagus lettuce soaked in rice water to soften, fried in oil and again stewed with soy sauce and vinegar, and cooked again with lotus root, gingko, dates and brown sugar. This lotus root(ou) and the other additives(cou), that is, the combination of the two words, mean in Chinese turning ill luck into good luck. For New Year Eve dinner in Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai, egg dumplings are a must because they are made in the shape of yuan bao, a sliver gold ingot. Made of golden yellow egg sheets, they are stuffed with red minced pork and boiled in anearthenware pot. Then green spinach and bean vermicelli, white and semitransparent, are added before they are served piping hot. This pot of egg dumplings, which looks good and tastes good, alone will give a touch of festive mood at the dinner table. There are, of course, pork shreds (rou si) fried with bamboo shreds(sun si), and so si si qi qi which means everything is all right and there is everything everyone wants. There is also a bowl of meat balls signifying happy reunion, a bowl of pork and boiled eggs (one for each member of the family,meaning the whole family will survive from generation to generation), and, finally, a bowl of fish,another must. When fish is served, one must not touch its head or tail; this way, one can have "a good start and a good finish." Of course, there is always tu su wine for everyone, young and old alike, whether he is a drinker or not. After the wine, faces are crimson and everyone is happy, laughing heartily and cracking jokes.

People of Taiwan call their New Year Eve dinner wei lu (sitting round a stove). The whole family will sit at a round table on which a casserole is placed. Those who normally do not drink will have to sip some wine at the dinner. Each and every member of the family is expected to taste all the dishes on the table, for every dish served implies something nice. Thus, fish balls mean reunion, turnip means good omen, chicken (pronounced as jia in Taiwanese dialect) means eating it and the whole family (jia) will get rich. Some fried foods mean "prosperity". Eating blood clams, pronounced as pang (also meaning fat), means one will get rich and gain weight. The vegetables are served whole and eaten whole; they must not be cut into pieces when being prepared in the kitchen and should not be bitten into pieces but swallowed bit by bit. This is a way to wish one’s parents long life. When sitting round the casserole, if any one in the family is away from home, there is a vacant seat with clothes placed on it to show that the whole family misses the person.

Night Watch

After dinner, nobody goes to bed. According to Feng Tu Ji (Notes on Local Customs), "On the New Year Eve, people do not go to bed but sit up to the morning. Guarding the year, it is called." A poem entitled "Guarding the Year" by Su Dongpo reads:

Children refuse to go to bed,

Watching the night together for fun.

Children naturally do not wish to miss the happiest moment they can have and the grownups just sit and shoot the breeze, with housewives busy steaming, stewing and frying food for the New Year.

That night, every house would be bright lit, with oil lamps everywhere, both indoors and outdoors, and in the kitchen too. This was supposed to shed a benevolent light on things in all corners that might bring bad luck. In hangzhou, there was the old custom of climbing up the Wu Hill on the New year Eve to have a bird’s eye of the whole city---lights in myriad’s curling upward, now and then firecrackers zooming into the sky and making big noises amidst the sound of drums and gongs. The fireworks would glare in the dark sky, some like red lanterns hanging high overhead, others like flowers in full bloom. That night, housewives would have everything ready for New Year Day sacrifices---colorful paper money, tinfoil papers and fruit, both dried and fresh.

House Cleaning

Cleaning up the house on the New Year Eve is another age-old custom that is still being observed today.

In the past, many poor people in debt had to make themselves scarce on the New Year Eve to get away from their creditors. In Taiwan, on the New year Eve, there are theatrical performances staged in monasteries known as "show for those in debt." The people in debt go there to see the show and if and when creditors come to look for them to dun, they will be jeered by the audience.