Celebration:
Family members will gather together to have a big feast and making glutinous rice dumplings.
Dumpling:
Glutinous flour dough shaped into small round ball and stuffed with a small piece of brown sugar, pre-cook in boiling water and eat with ginger soup. (see photos below)
Symbolic meaning of the Dumpling:
Closer ties, warmer affection and prosperity within the family.
Method of cooking:
Small piece of brown sugar in dough after mixing glutinous flour with warm water
Shape into small round ball
(1) Pre-cook dumplings – Put two pints of water in saucepan, when water boil, add in dumplings, cook for three minutes
(2) Ginger soup – Put water, two or three slices of ginger and brown sugar in saucepan, bring to boil, then add in (1) above.
Yummy!
Chinese New Year
Introduction
Chinese New Year is the most vital festival which marks the new beginning of the year, it normally falls between 20th January and 20th February according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. New Year is a good beginning, when firecrackers are let off at the midnight of the New Year Day, whatever was bad and unhappy will vanish without trace.
There are many myths, legends, traditions and ceremonies associated with New Year celebrations and these can differ from north to south and from province to province in China.
For the oversea Chinese, Lion & Dragon Dance together with a special festive market (consist of a number of Chinese Culture stalls, food stalls and Calligraphy stalls etc.) are always part of the program in China town around the globe to welcome the Chinese New Year. Every year in London, numbers of “Lion Dance” collecting “Lucky Red Packet” from shops around the area, which starts from morning till late in the evening. One of the shop’s “Lucky Red Packet” normally contains over US$15,000, and the amount keeps increasing every year as a sign of their business prosperity. The “Lucky Red Packet” is arranged in a difficult way so that the “Lion” will have to employ their skillful Martial Arts technique to collect, and such occasion should not be missed.
(Source: ebeijing.gov.cn)
Miao and Bouyei minority girls in China are highly skilled at wax printing. The realistic designs are usually plain, simple or rough in style. The shapes, not confined to the exact detail of nature, are boldly diverse and often exaggerated. This diversity and exaggeration come purely from the imagination, and are breathtakingly charming. The varied designs presented in either geometric shapes or as natural images, which generally stem from human life or legend, and are characterized with a rich folk hue.