Gather for Spring Festival Dinner

By Caren Zuo

        "My favorite dish at spring festival dinner?" says Shanghai resident Wang Min, 27. "Are you kidding? Who cares what dishes we eat at the festival?"

        It wasn’t a smart move asking her. For white-collar workers in the big cities like Wang Min, spring festival more likely involves questions about travel destinations and holiday packages promoted by different travel agencies.

        "It's too troublesome making spring festival dinner. We go to a restaurant instead: convenient and trendy," says the sixty-two years old Wang Ping, who lives in Beijing.     "Do housework all year around, my sons and daughters say I should 'have a rest.'"

        More than half the tables at the famous Quanjude, Peking Duck Restaurant in Beijing had already been booked one and a half month ahead, People’s Daily reported on Dec 21 of 2004. Other famous Beijing restaurants offer packages, and the most widely accepted price is varying between 800 yuan and 1,200 yuan for 10 people.

        While Beijingers seem to be losing the meaning of spring festival, others who come to live and work in the city are busy trying to book tickets home on crowded public transport.

        Yang Wei, who came to Beijing four years ago, is trying to book train tickets for Harbin. "Every year, it’s a big headache. But I do go home. My mouth waters at the thought of my mother's home-made dumplings. They’re delicious. How can frozen dumplings in the stores ever match my mother's?"

        Yang Wei's roommate, Yuan Lanlan, a resident of Jinzhou in Liaoning Province, says homemade dishes might not be as delicate as those made in restaurants, but the atmosphere is more important.

        "Our family is a big family, old and young, more than 20 people gather to celebrate the beginning of a new year. We enjoy our times at home. The dinner usually lasts three to four hours, the children play games, the men drink wine, the women share views on fashion…"

        As a general rule it seems the smaller the city, the more important the festival dinner.

For Chen Lifan, a housewife in Yuci City of Shanxi Province, spring festival dinner means she won’t have to cook.

        "On spring festival eve, we go to my mother-in-law's home. My cooking skills aren’t so hot and so what I do is just clean bowls and tables. "

        "On the second day, my husbands' two sisters and their families come over, and they are always good assistants to my mother-in-law." Chen said with a little satisfaction. For so many young housewives like Chen, they spend three to five days that nearly far away from kitchen.

        The busiest person in her family at spring festival time, says Chen, is her mother-in-law Tian yahong. Tian’s work begins one week before the festival. She has to fill the kitchen and refrigerator and make snacks by herself. The snacks always include fried dough twists, grandson Xiaoxiao's favorite.

        "I feel a little tired," says Tian,  "but I am very happy to see the whole family gather together, especially when I see the cute Xiaoxiao. They are the masterwork in my whole life."

        Old habits die hardest in the countryside. Yang Yuemei, 64, who lives in a village of Laiyuan County of Hebei Province, is extremely busy on spring festival eve preparing.

"People are not allowed to use knives, scissors or other sharp instruments at Chinese New Year: you might harm your luck in the coming year."

        Before breakfast, Yang's husband Gao Zhiming builds a bonfire of branches and burns them at the center of courtyard. It is the most solemn ritual before breakfast and symbolizes that their home will be prosperous and every member will be lucky in the coming year.

        "The youngsters don't believe it, but I do,” says Yang. “I believe there is someone powerful in charge of this world. We can't see him, but he is watching us and blesses those who are pious towards him. "