Food and snack are an integral part of Chinese New Year and most of these foods bear favorable meanings and blessings for the New Year. What changed is that many of these tradition treats contain hidden levels of culture added into the dough along with other yummy stuff! Learning about the symbolism of these famous holiday sweets helps to give a sneak peek of Chinese values and perceptions of luck, wealth, and kinship.
Whether to celebrate New Year or to start a new school term or a fresh business fiscal year, people like to have pineapple tarts as the first treat of the year or a new beginning.
Surely no Chinese New Year party is incomplete with a box of buttery pineapple tarts waiting to be savored by guests. Little pineapple flans which consist of a delicate pineapple jam filling and a crisp, tender outer short-dough casing.
Apart from delicious morsels to go with tea or coffee, pineapple tarts are also reminders of good Chinese hospitality during festivities. The fruits themselves – pineapples – have been used in China for a very long time as a symbol of repelling bad luck and inviting good luck into the home. Due to their spiny skin and its golden hue they may well resemble ingots the blocks of gold bullion. Presenting home made pineapple tarts are signs that a household is prepared to welcome luck and prosperity for their guests and themselves in the coming year.
The preparation process of pineapple tart dough and fillings especially takes a lot of time majoring on the love and care needed in preparing the tart. The bestowing of the same to friends and relative is a symbolic way of saying have sweet and prosperous new year’s wishes.
Nian Gao: Sticky Sweet Symbol of New Year Blessing
Nian gao or Chinese New Year cake is a glutinous cake symbolizing success, prosperity, and growth in the year ahead. The most traditional ones include glutinous rice flour, brown sugar and oil which when cooked by steaming they acquire a slightly sticky and elastic consistency. Chinese families consume nian gao as a New Year delicacy but they also present it to their friends or cook it for their friends as part of New Year feast.
Its Chinese name means ‘year cake’, and this is a preparation for the year of the lunar calendar. What has a sticky coat then is success, prosperity and everything good to stick in New Year not just in celebrations. Thus, nian gao is expected to summon luck to everyone who takes it into his or her stomach. Greets received from guests should be replied likewise so that they part with their blessings for good luck that remains.
Symbolizing height the Chinese word “gao” in relation to the New Year conveys the desire for climbing up the ladder and enhance or advance to better levels in life. Thus, nian gao flew with the belief that it would bring about the qualities of prosperity, success in profession, success in academics and all round personality development. They are often given as tokens of good wishes for all occasions such as for students, business associates or for those attempting new endeavors.
Today we look at the Bak Kwa – A Hearty Wish for Wealth
Bak kwa, also known as Chinese roasted pork, is a soft, slightly caramelized meat that is both fatty and sweet-savory, and enjoyed a lot during Chinese New Year. People will line up for hours in front of bakeries to buy boxes of this barbecued outlet in the run up to the Lunar New Year.
Besides its enticing taste, it is a thin, shiny square of meat with social importance. According to the Chinese culture it is believed that pork represents wealth, prosperity and financial success. Its layer of fat symbolically denotes the thick, fat layer of rich profits and the crispy, caramelized brown skin signifies a prosperity of a sweet, successful life.
Bak kwa is consumed to show the giver’s intention of showering the receiver with wealth in the new year. The traditional gift is exchanged to friends, colleagues and business associates in an effort to spread positive feelings during this lucky time of the year. According to Chinese tradition, whenever one receives a gift they have to reciprocate with another gift – this ensures that bak kwa gifts create wealth and more cycles of bak kwa gifts.
Bak kwa is also enjoyed during the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve since families gather during the end of the old year. As pork is a symbol of prosperity and satisfaction, therefore by consuming bak kwa one is receiving blessings and good wishes in the house projecting lack of meat in the previous year when welcoming the next year. You can’t go wrong with it and it signifies prosperity as well – which makes bak kwa one of the most popular snacks in Chinese New Year.
Blessing of Luck, Money and Taste for the Chinese New Year
Transthe Chinese new year food items such as pineapple tarts, nian gao, and bak kwa are also symbolic, meaningful and hold the promise of something good for the coming year. Other than just symbolic of good fortunes, these traditional foods equally make fortunes good according to cultural perposal. The traditions are related with the desire for happiness, favorable results, and even kinship – all of which are typical for the Lunar New Year celebrations that have been existing for thousands of years.
The next time you notice the buttery golden pastry twists of pineapple tarts, the tall sticky cakes of nian gao, as well as the glossy rectangles of bak kwa you’ll remind yourself of their symbolism. This tradition also helps everyone to gather with their families and deliver sweet wishes for a prosperous and successful and happy new year. Presenting and sharing these Lunar New Year specialties symbolically and genuinely express your blessings for friends, officemates or dear ones to enjoy prosperity throughout the Year of the Ox and for the rest of the year.
