In China, people have a custom to stay up at the New Year's Eve till midnight,
and then the well-prepared food, Jiaozi in Chinese, or the so
called dumpling, is served as soon as it is cooked in the boiling water.
Jiaozi is perhaps the most especial food in people's life. First, it is served at a
particular time, right after the midnight. Second, it is
served barely with only some garlic-soy sauce. Third, usually a coin is hidden
in one of the dumplings. The person who find or bite the coin
will be the luckiest one in the new year. But that has been
tested to work even more efficiently on break away the poor teeth of an old man.
My grandpa was once lucky enough to bite the coin in one of the dumplings.
The moment he became the lucky winner, the only tooth he had said good-bye to
him. Perhaps he had no pity despite that for he was supposed to be the luckiest one
that year in our family. Nevertheless, it has been the custom to have dumplings
for the breakfast at the New Year's Day.
It's hard to say when the custom began, but there are many tales telling how it
began. One of them said it got spread from a poor farmer's family. One year, terrible
famine took place and many people died of hunger. It was the New Year's Eve
when the farmer's family had nothing to cook. And they were even out of
firewood. All the family members were too hungry to fall asleep at the New
Year's Eve. Just when they thought hard in vain, there came the sound of drum
telling the high point of a new year had come. And at the moment both the
daughter-in-laws hinted to each other to make a joke over their husbands' poor
father; so the elder daughter-in-law said first to him, "Father, what shall we
have for the first meal of the new year?" The old man was quite ready to answer,
"gold cornu." "And what shall we have to burn in order to boil the GOLD cornu?"
the younger daughter-in-law asked. "Of course, gold bars." That was the answers
of the humorous father. But he wouldn't stop the joke here. So he ordered the
two daughter-in-laws: "Go and cook by the recipe I just ordered, would you?" This
time both the daughter-in-laws were cornered badly. How could they cook such a
meal! Finally they thought of an idea. "Well, I'll wipe off what is left in the
flour jar and you have to get some frozen vegetables in the garden.
So they managed to make some cornu-like food. "But what about firewood?" the other
asked worriedly. "That is easy. Parts of the
fence in the garden will do." So the first breakfast of the year was being made
like that.
The god in charge of treasure happened to see the poor but
interesting family, and he felt sorry for them. So he dropped some real gold
cornua into their jar and some real gold bars over the firewood secretly. As
soon as the able women found the treasure, they cried out happily, which caused
all the neighbors to come to see what was happening. When people heard the whole
story, they all came to recognize it was the cornu-like dumplings that brought the
gold. So people began to do the same as the family for
the first meal of a new year as early as they could intending to catch more
opportunity for treasure from Heaven. That is perhaps the reason why Chinese
people show more interest in having Jiaozi at the New Year's Day.
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