(Newswire.net — January 24, 2014) Scottsdale, AZ —
The Lunar New Year is when the Chinese New Year is determined since the days of centuries ago, the moon was used as the source of determining time and the calendar before the sun was used. There is a fluctuation of about 3 ½ weeks that the Lunar Calendar can move versus the sun. For this reason, the Chinese New Year falls on a different day every year between the 3rd week in January and the 2nd week in February.
With such a rich history, this custom of using the Lunar New Year has maintained its tradition forever. The moon has always had significant importance as well as is evidenced by the “moon cakes” that are served with melon, beans, and a salted egg. The astrologists back in the days of the Chinese emperors was a very important figure to the emperor since the calendar and the tracking of days in a season would affect the agricultural economy and its respective harvest. A miscalculation could be devastating to the harvest’s yield and cost the astrologer his life.
Chinese people all over the world set out on a pilgrimage to visit their families and friends where they have an opportunity to catch up, share traditional meals and delicacies, and pass “lucky money” to the children in red envelopes called “hung bau” which signifies good luck and fortune for the coming year.
Restaurants like The Jade Palace look forward to sharing this rich tradition with their customers as they often times will serve special banquets and meals on their menu. It is an opportunity to reach back into their family traditions and offer “good luck” meals and festivities for a two week period of time.
Chinese restaurants rarely close since people always rely upon the Chinese restaurants to be available whenever they are hungry. Crazy at it seems, on traditional holidays celebrated in the Western world like Christmas and New Years (American), Chinese restaurants can most often be counted on to be open.
So what is the fascination with the animal names of each year? There are twelve animals that represent a twelve year cycle that signifies different characteristics of people that were born in that year. The ancient belief was that we were on a twelve year revolving calendar, similar to the astrological signs that Westerners use for the months of a year. The belief in the twelve animals was that each animal had its own unique qualities and was also a convenient way to keep track of the revolving years. The story behind the animals was that Buddha had a race amongst twelve animals and the order of the animals was determined by the finishing results whereby each animal had its own ability to be clever and figured out its way to succeed. There are no bad signs but each year does in fact have specific characteristics that indeed unique and separate them from the others.
Food seems to always be at the center of the Chinese traditions since Buddha’s Delight is a predominantly vegetarian dish that is a crowd favorite for the New Year. Its ingredients contain dried bean curd, rice noodles, Chinese shitake mushrooms, and different ingredients that have an important name or quality tied into the tradition. There are yellow cakes that are sponge like that are important because of the “golden” color. These are called “faht gou” which means “fortune cake” and thus the golden color’s importance. Noodles are also an important food since noodles are long and represent “long life” and are always served for the New Year and for birthdays.
Chicken, fish, and meats are also served with dumplings. Chicken and fish is traditionally served with the head and tail which represent the completion of life where anything that you start, you must finish. For more information on traditional Chinese food in Scottsdale, contact The Jade Palace Restaurant at:
23623 North Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale; AZ 85255 Tel: (480) 585-6630
9160 East Shea Boulevard Scottsdale; AZ 85260 Tel: (480) 391-0607