The New Year’s Eve dinner at the end of the year is the most important dinner for the Chinese people. In this special meal, there are many dishes with bad meanings that need to be avoided.
1. Bitter gourd
The New Year’s Eve meal is usually hearty and sweet, bitter melon is not suitable for this occasion. Eating bitter taste at the time of saying goodbye to the old year, welcoming the new year is bad luck. Especially in the home with elderly people, there are often difficult times, for the elderly to eat bitter melon during the New Year’s Eve meal seems disrespectful. Bitter melon is an extremely nutritious and healthy vegetable, but should not be left on the table on New Year’s Eve.
2. Tofu
Tofu is not on the New Year’s Eve table in many places, firstly, tofu is too cheap and not high-end, and second, according to the custom in many places in China, bowls of tofu are served only when family family funeral.
3. Pickles
New Year’s Eve dinner is hearty, rich, ingredients must be as delicious, as much as possible. The usual cheap appetizers like pickles are not suitable on the New Year’s Eve dinner table, people expect a rich and happy life. Many people are very abstain from putting pickles at parties, fearing that there will be difficulties in the coming year, and eat pickles every day.
4. Non-whole fish
Fish is a must-have dish in New Year’s Eve dinner, this is a symbol of abundance and affluence. However, this fish dish is very special, must be whole, not split in half, pieces of fish can be cut but must be connected to achieve the noble meaning of wealth and auspiciousness. Especially do not display fish in small pieces, it will have the opposite meaning.
5. Dishes from lotus root
The lotus root is delicious and nutritious, but in some places it is not suitable to be displayed on the New Year’s Eve dinner table, there is a hole in the middle of the lotus root, it is said that this will “lose money” and even if the owner earns no matter how much money they get next year, they will also miss it.