My New Year of 2015

Updated: 2015-03-04 08:51

[图/Xinhua]

By Yu Shaoying (余少颖)

Here we go! I want to begin my New Year story from the second day.

As the Chinese tradition, the second day of the Lunar New Year is the day when daughters go back home to visit their parents. I returned home with my husband with a growling stomach, desiring the delicious dishes made by my dear mother.

My dear mom is a wonderful chef. She loves cooking and trying out new dishes and this time was no exception. She made a new dish again, called Four Number One Scholars. The dish consists of garlic sprouts, ribbon fish, bean-curd and streak pork. Not only does it have a meaningful name but it also tastes wonderful. My mom’s excellent culinary skill always makes our appetite explode. Mom is a happy sunbeam and she always says that she loves life and food. With a passion for life she can cook wonderful food and the wonderful food she cooks gives her a happy and wonderful life in return. I love mom’s simple philosophy of life. It is tasty and nutritious for the mind.

Having meals with mom is always happy because she has lots of interesting stories to share. While we were enjoying the delicious feast she suddenly recalled something funny happened many years ago.

She said once they were invited by a friend who lived in the rural area. As it was always the case in the rural area many years ago that dogs and cats and even the chicken were not kept in a particular place and they could walk where ever they pleased. So when families were having meals at the table, there were always lots of hungry animals waiting and looking for food under the table. What made thing more interesting was that people would drop something, say the chicken bones and the like onto the ground. So can you imagine what would happen when the hungry animals saw the food? There must be a fierce battle for food! Except bombarding by the animals’ sounds of fighting, people had to pay attention to their feet to avoid being bitten by the animals, so they would raise their feet at the same time! That’s why in most rural areas people used to crouch on the chairs when they were having meals. We laughed out loud after hearing this funny story.

The next following day when we headed for the countryside to visit some relatives, I did hope that I could have the same funny experience, though I was risking being bitten. However, things are different in rural areas now. People’s living standard has greatly improved. They even have bigger houses than those of people living in the city due to the low price of the land.

Most houses have a little garden and it is quite enjoyable to have meals in the open air listening to the twitter of birds, the cockcrow and some occasional barking dogs from the neighborhood. Besides the quiet atmosphere, which is quite different from the bustle and hustle city life, living in the countryside makes you refreshed at the same time.

In the countryside, people had their traditional way of celebration .We had a dragon and lion dance. Performers dressed in the lion and dragon costumes performed in the open square where people were having temple fairs. The smoke of burning incense made the atmosphere much more mysterious and sacred. There were many people holding bunches of incense and praying for a better life in the coming year. Becoming emotional at the scene, I suddenly felt the divineness of our traditional culture. No matter how developed technology becomes, nothing can take the spirit of the traditional culture away. That is not superstition but the belief and desire for hope.

Spring Festival means so much to the Chinese. For the carefree children, it is the happiest holiday, filled with much joy. For adults it is family reunion and for the old, the festival has deeper meanings. That is to make the tradition carry on. Everyone has his own recognition of the New Year. And I am sure that in every Chinese heart we have an everlasting love and passion for our gorgeous traditional culture. No matter how widely Western culture will be presented in our daily life, we will never lose our faith and we will love our tradition forever!

The Lunar New Year has almost passed and we will return to our places and carry on our usual days. The spree will end but a new start will begin in everyone’s heart. Wish everyone a prosperous year and good luck! Let’s be up and doing!