Chinese New Year Dinner - Essay Example

While most of the world finds the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations to be highly colorful, joyful, and enjoyable, the tourists who actually experience the festival find the dinner reunion of the families to be kind of strange. That is because as Chinese, there are two sets of food set out on the table. One set to eat and another to just admire. That is because the latter set has a specific purpose within Chinese traditions that non-Chinese are not familiar with.

Known as Nian Ye Fan the Chinese reunion dinner tradition is held on New Year's Eve. Normally held at the home of the elder family members, this is the one time during the year when the whole year when clan is expected to gather to partake of a  dinner normally composed of chicken and fish. The strange part is that the chicken and fish dishes are not consumed but are instead meant as offerings. I have often had to explain to our foreign guests that the chicken and fish are meant to honor the Chinese pun that says “every year have chicken and fish leftover” or “have profit every year” for businesses, and for families,  it could mean “be blessed every year”.