Feasting Together
Chinese New Year is also referred to as Lunar New Year (農曆新年) or Spring Festival (春节). It is the most important celebrations according to the Chinese traditions. A reunion dinner (团圆饭) is one of the highlights or should I say, a must, for Chinese New Year celebration.
Reunion dinner takes place on the eve (年除夕) of Chinese New Year. Family members who are away from home will make it back in time for the occasion. It is the time for everyone to catch up with each other. This is an important part of the Chinese traditions that helps keep the family bonded.
The feast is expected to be sumptuous. It is not only for a good time together but also to symbolize a good start of the new year.
What to eat?
It is important to include certain symbolic dishes in the reunion dinner.
Symbolization is usually drawn from the name of the dish sounding similar to words that mean good luck, wealth, prosperity and the like.
These dishes are pronounced differently in different Chinese dialects. We can expect their significance to vary among the various Chinese dialect groups. Some dishes may also be included because they shape like certain auspiscious items.
Eat in or out?
It is in the Chinese traditions to be home for the reunion dinner. Nothing beats having dinner at home and truly enjoy the warmth of the family.
However, in this fast-pace modern time, elaborate preparation for the feast is challenging. More people are loving the convenience of eating out. It has become so popular that advanced reservation is highly recommended especially at popular restaurants. In some restaurants in Singapore, diners are given time slots and are expected to complete their meals within the given time.
Restaurants are also competing to come up with innovative menus. Dishes are given prosperous sounding name and priced auspisciously, eg. S$388 or S$888. You will never find a reunion dinner package priced at $444.
There are only so many families a restaurant can take in at any one time. So, businesses have been quick in coming up with 'takeaway packages' giving the best of both worlds. You do not have to dine in a rush with so many strangers around you. However, this only works if you have sufficient room to accommodate everyone in the family.
Cooked dishes or steamboat?
Cooked dishes are wonderful as the ingredients can be prepared in many ways. However, you can only have so may dishes in one meal.
Steamboat (火锅) is a practical alternative to hold a reunion dinner. Everyone can add any imaginable ingredient in the bubbling broth, whipping up every possible combination of good luck and wealth in the soup.
Literally translated steamboat or huoguo means 'fire pot' in Chinese. It has its name originated from traditional steamboat which uses charcoal fire to heat the pot.
Traditionally, reunion dinner is also known as weilu (围炉) which means circling around the stove. From this, we can imagine how reunion dinner was held during the ancient time.
Eating with?
Traditionally, children away from home are expected to come back for the dinner. Married daughters will join their husbands and they will return home on the second day of the new year.
In Singapore, (694 km2 / 268 sq mi) nobody lives more than an hour away from another. Married children continue to visit their parents regularly. Given this, the significance of reunion dinner is somewhat reduced to an occasion to feast rather than a time to reunite.
Where possible, parents would want to dine with all their children, son or daughter, married or otherwise. As such, it will not be possible for every family to hold reunion dinner on the eve of the new year. Nowadays, reunion dinner begins a week or two before the actual day.
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Is CNY Reunion Dinner Losing its Meaning?
A reunion dinner "Nián Yè Fàn" 年夜飯 (also known as Tuán Nián 團年 or Wéi Lú, 圍爐 meaning "gathering around the family hearth") is traditionally held on Chinese New Year's Eve during which family members gather for celebration. It is considered to be the most important part of the celebration and every family member is expected to return to their families. Traditionally, married couples will go the the man’s parental homes (and to the woman's parents on the second day of the festivities).
Reunion dinner is supposed to bring everyone in the family harmoniously together, but for some reasons or other, not following the tradition, is causing tensions among families. This is especially so if one is celebrating his/her reunion with his/her parents as well as with the in-laws. It is therefore not surprising that one would have reunion dinners on a different earlier dates and nowadays, some hold it a week or two before the actual day. By doing so, the traditionalists believe that the Chinese New Year's Eve Reunion Dinner is losing or has even lost its meaning and significance.
To keep up with the tradition that Chinese New Year's Eve Reunion Dinner should be held on its actual date, and that married couples should return to man's parental homes, many families are compromising in order to make everybody happy:
- Eating reunion dinner twice, which means having the first dinner early, and then rushing off to do a second dinner by a certain time on the same actual day.
- Alternating the dinners yearly, one year with parent and following year with in-laws.
