Chinese Reunion Dinners

25/01/2009

to

26/01/2009

Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve Reunion Dinner

Chinese New Year is in January this year and it falls on Monday 26 January 2009.

On the night of New Year’s Eve, Chinese families come together for a celebration dinner. This custom is also called “surrounding the hearth,” from the custom in earlier times of eating dinner around the family hearth. Both children and adults eat together and dinner begins only after all of the family members are present at the table. A table setting (plates) is also placed for those unable to come home for dinner on this day to symbolize their presence though far away as you can see from the picture below.

As the nuclear family becomes an increasingly scarce phenomenon in modern society, this symbol of unity takes on increasing significance. New Year’s Eve dinner is best eaten slowly, savoring the flavor of each dish. Several of the dishes served on this occasion have auspicious meaning and are indispensable to the night’s menu:

1. “Long Year Vegetables” (mustard greens) to represent intelligence;
2. “Whole Chicken,” symbolizing wealth for the whole family (since “chicken” and “family” rhyme in the Taiwanese dialect Chinese); and
3. fish balls, shrimp balls, and meat balls are eaten to symbolize the three top scores earned during the civil service examination in ancient China and, by extension, success in educational pursuits.

The only dish not included in the cornucopia of food eaten on the New Year’s Eve dinner table is whole fish, which is intentionally left off the menu so that “there will be more to come in future years” (since the Chinese words for “fish” and “surplus” rhyme). (source: ChinaCulture.org)

Some families will also prepare jiaozi, Chinese dumplings stuffed with meats and vegetables. Since the shape of the dumplings resembles a gold ingot, eating jiaozi symbolizes the calling of wealth into one’s life, and some go even as far as to stuff real money in the dumplings to insure that the coming year will bring fortune.

Chinese Reunion Dinner in Medan:

There are many Chinese families in Medan celebrating Chinese new year, as times pass by and society modernized, many Chinese families prefer to dine out for reunion dinners. Almost all of the Chinese restaurant in Medan have prepared special menus for the evening of Chinese New Years Eve which falls on Sunday 25 January 2009 including the popular Taipan at Capital Building, Jumbo Seafood, Nelayan Seafood, Kim Chu in Novotel, The Aryaduta Kitchen, The Marriott »”>JW Marriott Jade Restaurant etc.

These menus are usually 8 courses to represent prosperity and are priced per table of 10 people. Prices range from Rp1.888.000, Rp3.888.000, Rp6.888.000. The menu may not be according to the ones described by the ChinaCulture.org above but be sure to have the main Chinese New Year Dish “Yee Sang” as the menu.

Yee Sang is a Chinese-style raw fish salad which in Chinese tradition considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

So, if you are traveling to Medan in a small party, you should try to avoid Chinese Restaurants during the Chinese New Year Eve as you will not be able to get a table as reservations have been made weeks in advance.

If you are from Medan, then be sure to try your best to celebrate Chinese New Year with family members.

To send Chinese New Year Greeting Card, click and send at Kartu Ucapan Imlek

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