Preparing for the Chinese New Year?🍽👪✨ Food plays an important role in Chinese New Year and certain foods have symbolic meanings. Symbolic means using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea.
For example, the lucky cat (in the picture above) represents good luck and good fortune.
Are you planning on going out for the New Year's Eve dinner or cook at home?
Don't forget to add these lucky foods onto the menu🍀
★☆Lucky foods during Chinese New Year's Eve 😋 ▶spring rolls ▷dumplings ▶glutinous rice balls ▷glutinous rice cakes ▶noodles🍜 ▷fish🐟
Do you know what these dishes represent(=to show or describe something, or to be a sign or symbol of something)? If not, take a look:
▶Spring Rolls: a fried dish that contains minced pork, shredded carrot, bean sprouts and other vegetables.
What is it symbolic for?
Because spring rolls looks like gold bars, it represents a wish for prosperity.
▷Dumplings: made of minced meat and finely chopped vegetables wrapped into a piece of dough skin. The classic version is with ground pork with Chinese cabbage. Usually boiled, steamed or pan-fried (pan-fried dumplings are also called 'potstickers')
What is it symbolic for?
Dumplings are a symbol* of wealth because it is shaped like an ancient Chinese gold ingot.
*Symbol: a sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something
▶Glutinous Rice Balls (tangyuan): a dessert made from glutinous rice flour mixed with water to form balls and then boiled. The balls can be either small or large, and filled or unfilled. The usual filling includes black sesame, peanuts, or red bean paste.
What is it symbolic for?
The round shape of the glutinous rice balls represent completeness and family reunion.
▷Glutinous Rice Cakes: made from glutinous rice that is ground into a paste, then steamed or fried. It is mainly sweet in taste
What is it symbolic for?
The Chinese pronunciation of the cake, Niangao, has a homophonous meaning of 'increasing prosperity year after year' specifically your career or studies.
▶Longevity Noodles🍜: very long Chinese egg noodles with a chewy texture
What is it symbolic for?
Eating longevity noodles in the New Year symbolizes that everything is going to be smooth in the coming year.
▷Fish🐟: usually eat carp or catfish (due to the Chinese pronunciation)
What is it symbolic for?
Fish is pronounced as 'Yu' in Chinese which means surplus* and fortune.
*Surplus means to have more money than is needed
Now, it's time for the listening practice:
Watch the video and answer the questions below: 1 - What is the story behind Chinese New Year? 2 - Name 2 things that are favorites for kids during the CNY. 3 - What does tangerines symbolize? 4 - What is Chinese New Year about?
What are you planning to do during the Chinese New Year?
↘Click into the post and swipe→til the end and try to answer the quiz!⏱Comment below✨↙
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