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Travel Food Feature
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Getting your hands on great cheese in the United States means circumventing an archaic FDA regulation.
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[02/02/00]

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The most important festival in the Chinese calendar, New Year celebrates both the beginning of the New Year and the arrival of spring. A ritual cleansing of the home kicks off the celebration -- an undertaking that combines the idea of spring cleaning with the desire to rid the place of any evil spirits that may have moved in during the past year. Lucky messages are attached to both sides of the front door. A visitor from this world or the next would have a hard time missing the welcome.

A table is set up and covered with offerings for the gods. The three main meats of the Chinese diet -- pork, chicken and fish -- are always there. Candles are lit, incense is burned, family prayers are offered and a little wine is poured, just to keep up the spirits of the spirits.

Celebrate the Chinese New Year with wine

When the incense has burned down about halfway, the gods are considered to have had their meal. Chinese gods have a great diet. They don't actually eat their food the way people do -- gods and ancestors need only inhale the food's aroma to absorb all of its nutritional and sensual elements. Eating, it seems, is not an essential part of their balanced diet. When the gods have finished, the remainder of the meal goes to the family and becomes everyone's dinner.

The foods of the Chinese New Year are chosen for their symbolic meaning. Green foods mark growth and red foods signify warmth and good fortune, the same colors and meanings we see in the West as part of the Christmas celebration. Lotus seeds, peanuts and pomegranates represent a hope for the birth of children during the coming year -- fruits with many seeds symbolize many offspring. If a married woman of childbearing age finds a dumpling filled with sugarcoated lotus seeds on her plate, it is a signal that she will have a son during the next 12 months. Recently, I heard that the widespread belief in the power of these foods has led to a movement advocating warning labels on their packaging.

This is the time for employers to thank their employees for working hard over the past months. Years ago, it was also the time for the employer to indicate any displeasure he was feeling. He would hold a banquet with a chicken in the center of the table, the head pointing toward someone who was going to be dismissed. Today, most bosses point the head toward themselves to avoid any misunderstanding and some of the larger corporations have turned to Chicken McNuggets.

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