Christmas and Chinese New Year Dishes

Introduction:

Christmas and Chinese New Year are two end-of-year festivals that are celebrated widely around the world. Christmas, originally a religious feast commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is primarily observed on December 25th, near the end of the Gregorian calendar year. Christmas celebratory customs vary from country to country, exhibiting a mix of pagan, Christian, and secular themes. Nowadays, Christmas is celebrated religiously by the majority of Christians as well as culturally by many non-Christians on a global scale. Chinese New Year, on the other hand, celebrates the transition to a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. Traditional observances span from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival, or the 15th day of the year, and are associated with a variety of ancient myths and customs. Chinese New Year has strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations in China’s neighboring cultures and is observed worldwide by the Chinese diaspora as well as other Sinophone populations.

For our folklore collection project, we decided to document special dishes pertaining to Christmas and Chinese New Year celebrations. Here, the word “dish” is used in the general sense, encompassing a variety of food and drink categories such as appetizers, entrées, soups, desserts, and beverages. We investigated not only the recipes and ingredients of the dishes themselves but also related contextual folklore, such as stories, sayings, superstitions, and traditions that are strongly associated with the origin of the dishes or pivotal to their preparation and consumption. In total, we collected 32 dishes, 18 for Christmas and 14 for Chinese New Year. For the Christmas dishes, most of our informants are Americans with multicultural background or international students. One of our informants is Jewish and Russian American, so he chose to share Hanukkah and New Year’s dishes instead; however, he acknowledged that those dishes are also eaten for Christmas by many non-Jewish Russian families. For the Chinese New Year dishes, our informants are mainly friends or family members with Chinese heritage, some currently living in the US and others living abroad. 

Through our interviews with the informants, we hoped to capture the diversity of Christmas and Chinese New Year dishes, paying special attention to stories of origin and the influence of immigrant cultures. In addition, we took notes on different types of significance related to history, religion, culture, and family.

Presentation:

Google Slides – Christmas and Chinese New Year Dishes Presentation

PDF Version – Christmas and Chinese New Year Dishes Presentation 

Items:

Christmas Dishes

  1. Salad: Ensalada de Noche Buena 
  2. Entrée: Menudo
  3. Entrée: Mole
  4. Beverage: Ponche
  5. Entrée: Tamales
  6. Entrée: Hot Pot
  7. Entrée: Roast Chicken
  8. Entrée: Dry Noodles
  9. Entrée: Rotisserie Chicken
  10. Entrée: Surf Clams
  11. Entrée: Lechon (Roasted Pig)
  12. Snack: Queso De Bola (Cheese Ball)
  13. Dessert: Suman (Sticky Rice)
  14. Entrée: Jamón (Spanish Dry-Cured Ham)
  15. Entrée: Filipino Spaghetti
  16. Dessert: Pandoro (Italian Christmas Cake)
  17. Dessert: Kutja (Wheat Berry Pudding); Salad: Salat Olivier (Olivier Salad)
  18. Salad: Selodka Pod Shuboy (Dressed Herring); Soup: Borshch, Shchi, and Gribnoy Sup (Beet, Cabbage, and Mushroom Soup)

Note: some dishes in 17 and 18 are more commonly eaten for New Year’s than Christmas.

Chinese New Year Dishes

  1. Entrée: Catfish
  2. Entrée/Dessert: Glutinous Rice Cake
  3. Entrée: Braised Pork and Gold Ingot Egg
  4. Topping: Osmanthus Honey
  5. Dessert: 8 Treasure Rice
  6. Beverage: Ancestral Beer
  7. Entrée: Foo Chow Mee Sua Noodles
  8. Entrée: Kyauk Swe Kyaw
  9. Entrée: Steamed Whole Fish
  10. Entrée: Dumpling
  11. Dessert: Glutinous Rice Ball 
  12. Entrée: Rooster
  13. Entrée: Lamb
  14. Entrée: Soft-shell Turtle

Key Takeaways:

Christmas Dishes

  • We were impressed by the diversity of the Christmas Dishes in terms of the cultures represented (American, Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, Italian, Russian) as well as the types of significance exhibited (historical, religious, social, cultural, familial). Nevertheless, we noticed several common features, even across the different cultures.
  • The Christmas feast, typically on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, is a major highlight of Christmas celebrations. There is almost always some form of pork or poultry served at the table. Large meat dishes represent abundance and demonstrate the generosity of the host.
  • Most immigrant families in the US continue to prepare traditional dishes from their home country for Christmas. In some cases, the traditional dishes are modified to be “more American.” Sometimes, immigrant families also choose to adopt classic American Christmas dishes, but the flavor is often tweaked to better suit their tastes.
  • Most religious families also choose to celebrate Christmas as a food holiday, and many of the commonly served dishes have little religious significance, at least according to the religious informants we interviewed.

Chinese New Year Dishes

  • Many staple dishes for Chinese New Year such as dumplings, fish, and rice cake are prepared widely across provinces in China, though there are clear regional variations and preferences.
  • The Chinese New Year feast, typically on Chinese New Year’s Eve, also features one or more meat dishes; however, fish is much more common than alternatives such as chicken and pork.
  • Unlike Christmas, Chinese New Year is not a religious holiday. However, many Chinese dishes are closely tied to ancestor worship and other ancient traditions. The superstitions related to the dishes are heavily reliant on wordplay, specifically homophones that occur in the dish names. Other superstitions also focus on more superficial features such as color and shape. These types of superstitions were observed in a few of the Christmas dishes, but not widely seen across all the cultures.

Similarities

  • As mentioned previously, both Christmas and Chinese New Year place significant emphasis on a large family feast. Preparations often begin weeks in advance. The feast is usually accompanied by alcoholic beverages such as beer or champagne and toasts are made among the family members.
  • While the dishes themselves are considered material lore, there are many types of contextual folklore such as celebratory customs and family traditions that are strongly associated with the preparation, presentation, or consumption of the dishes.
  • Traditional festival dishes are not static. Many families introduce modifications to recipes passed down through generations, often combining different cultural or regional traits. In some cases, families even invent new dishes altogether based on their own interpretation of Christmas or Chinese New Year.
  • Historical events and socioeconomic conditions play a major role in shaping food traditions as seen through the Russian Revolution and the Cultural Revolution in China.
  • Some Christmas and Chinese New Year food dishes are heavily commercialized, sometimes with an obsession on specific brands, e.g., Costco Rotisserie Chicken, Queso De Bola, Bauli Pandoro, and store-packaged Glutinous Rice Cake.
  • Many of our informants expressed strong feelings of nostalgia after sharing stories about family dishes from their childhood. After all, the sentiments behind many of the dishes, such as family unity, joy, and, love are universal across all cultures.

Collectors:

  • Items 1~5: Carlos Yepes 
  • Items 6~10: Yilin Huo
  • Items 11~15: Xenia Dela Cueva 
  • Items 16~22: 💡 Winston Wang 
  • Items 23~27: Chris Chao 
  • Items 28~32: Stela (Yunjin) Tong 

Tags/Keywords:

  • Christmas
  • Chinese New Year
  • Material Lore: food, recipe
  • Verbal Lore: saying, legend, folktale
  • Customary Lore: celebration, belief, superstition, family tradition, religious custom
  • Food, Drink: entrée, soup, salad, snack, dessert, topping, beverage
  • Culture: American, Chinese, Mexican, Filipino, Italian, Russian