Chinese Food: Chinese Festival Specific Food
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Chinese food is one of the most popular foods in the world. The extensive contact of the Chinese with other nations of the world and culture has given birth to a distinctive form of cooking art. The Chinese have different food for different occasions. Each food for each occasion has a symbolic meaning. It will not be wrong to say that food plays a vital part in the life of the people in China.
The food culture in China is also associated with different festivals. The spring festival or the Chinese New year are some of the most important festivals. On the day of
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the New Year, different foods having different symbolic meanings are served. Serving noodles symbolizes a long life, a whole chicken symbolizes a strong unity of the family, and spring rolls symbolize wealth as its shape resembles gold bars. Fish is an important food in the Chinese New year as it symbolizes prosperity for the coming year. Sweets like steamed cakes and sweet rice cakes mean a rich and sweet life for the coming year.
The Lantern festival is one of the traditional festivals of the Chinese culture. The cultural food of the festival is called as "Yuanxio". It is a special food and a kind of sweet dumpling. It is made of sticky rice flour and is round in shape. The food symbolizes perfect unity, completeness and happiness of the family. The festival is named after the famous food.
In the winter Solstice festival, people of different regions have different varieties of food. The people of the northern part eat dumpling soups. They believe that it will protect them from the cold frost of winter. The southern Chinese eat dumplings balls made of glutinous rice. They believe that it will help them from the evil spirits and ghosts.
The Cultural food of the "Laba festival" is called as "Laba Zhou". It is a special kind of rice porridge made of glutinous rice, peas, red beans, millets and dry dates like almond, peanuts, dry lotus seeds etc. People associate the porridge as a symbol of bringing wealth and luck in the year ahead. The Porridge is also distributed to the poor people. They believe that it will help them to increase their virtue. They also stick the porridge onto the trees of fruits in the hope of a good harvest and luck. It is an important traditional food for the festival.
The "Double ninth festival" is also one of the important cultural festivals of China. The traditional food of the festival is the Chong yang cakes. It is a special kind of cake made of rice. People eat the chong yang cakes because it is believed that it will bring luck and prosperity. They also drink special wines made of chrysanthemum. People believe that the particular wine will help them to ward off the evil spirits and misfortunes. The Chinese cultural foods have a vital role in the Chinese cultural festivals. The foods symbolize the particular cultural festival of China. The cultural foods have a deep symbolic meaning and it contributes a rich part in the Chinese culture.
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