Chinese Spring Rolls
The spring roll originated in China. It was traditionally
a festival food. According to
Weldon Russell of Cooking.Com, “The spring
roll is a traditional Chinese festival food, eaten at Chinese
New Year, which officially heralds the coming of spring” (Russell
http://www.cooking.com/recipes/static/ recipe1174.htm).
Chinese people (both in China and around) use two different
calendars. They use the
Gregorian calendar (the one used in Western Europe and North
America) for day to day business and life. However, they also
use a special Chinese calendar for determining festivals
(Anonymous
http://webexhibits.org/calendars /calendar-chinese.html).
The Chinese calendar was created by the Emperor Huangdi in 2637
B.C. (Anonymous
http://webexhibits.org/calendars /calendar-chinese.html).
According to Calendars Through the Ages,
The Chinese calendar is based on exact astronomical
observations of the longitude of the sun and the phases of the
moon. This means that principles of modern science have had an
impact on the Chinese calendar (Anonymous
http://webexhibits.org/calendars /calendar-chinese.html).
The dates of the festivals of the Chinese calendar change
slightly because they are based on observations of the sun and
the moon. According to Calendars Through the Ages,
An ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has
13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355
days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When
determining what a Chinese year looks like, one
must make a number of astronomical calculations
(Anonymous
http://webexhibits.org/calendars
/calendar-chinese.
Html).
This
means that the exact dates of festivals will vary year to year.
According to Holiday Pages for Activity Village,
“Chinese New Year is on February 5th this year”
(Anonymous http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_new_year.htm).
This means that Chinese New Year usually starts sometime in
early February.
Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in
Chinese culture. It is a festival to celebrate the coming of
spring. Because the Chinese calendar is slightly different
every year the date of Chinese New Year does not fall on the
same date on the Gregorian calendar. According to the
Chinese New Year Webpage,
Chinese New Year starts with
the New Moon on the
first day of the new year and ends on the full
moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year
is called the Lantern Festival, which is
celebrated at night with lantern displays and
children carrying lanterns in a parade
(Anonymous http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/ 438/
CHINA/ chinese_new_year.html).
During the traditional food for Chinese New Year is the Spring
Roll. It is served at a special diner called Weilu or
“Surrounding the Stove” (Anonymous http://www.educ.uvic.ca/
faculty/mroth/438/ CHINA/ chinese_new_year.html). Weilu is when
families honour the spirits of their ancestors with a large
communal meal. This meal is held on New Years Eve in the family
banquet table. According to the Chinese New Year
Website, “The communal feast called "surrounding the
stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past
and present generations” (Anonymous http://www.educ.uvic.ca/
faculty/ mroth/ 438/ CHINA/ chinese_new_year.html).
Every food cooked and eaten during Chinese New Year has
symbolic meaning. According to Harriet Docker on the
Waitrose Food Illustrated Webpage,
Children in China and Malaysia are taught from
an early age the importance of cooking and eating,
and how different foods affect the body. Too many chillies, for
example, are said to cause mouth
ulcers; fried foods make the body unhealthily hot; while lychees
have a cooling effect. This comes
from the ancient concept of yin-yang: foods have
yin (cooling) or yang (heating) properties and must
be kept in equilibrium in the body. Accordingly,
an excess of any one food can upset the balance
and cause disease (Docker
http://www.waitrose.com/
food_drink/wfi/index.asp).
Customs surrounding food are passed down from generation to
generation. The ideas of Yin and Yang or the opposites in the
universe (Male/female, Hot/Cold, Wet/Dry, Black/White, etc..)
are an important part of customs for Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is a very important day in the Chinese culture
and it is believed that activities on this day will determine
individual and family fortune in the year ahead (Anonymous
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/ faculty/ mroth/ 438/ CHINA/
chinese_new_year.html). Because of various superstitions
families have developed customs about who does what activities.
For example, when Docker was learning about Chinese New Year
from her friend Michelle Lee she learned that the cooking duties
in a family often switched on Chinese New Year. Docker quotes
Lee as saying, “My Dad did all the fancy cooking while my Mum
did the everyday dishes, so now I can do both”(Docker
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/wfi/index.asp). This
would appear to be another example of how the concept of Yin and
Yang influence the activities of Chinese New Year. Usually the
women do the cooking. But on Chinese New Year along with many
other festivals the men do the cooking.
One final note of interest. The fillings placed into
spring rolls various from region to region. According to
Russell, “The fillings used in spring rolls vary throughout the
regions of China, with each region claiming theirs as the best”
(Russell
http://www.cooking.com/recipes/static/ recipe1174.htm). This is
very similar to certain foods in North America.
Bibliography
Anonymous, Calendars Through the Ages,
2005: http://webexhibits.
org/calendars/calendar-chinese.html
Anonymous, Chinese New Year, 2005:
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/
faculty/mroth/438/ CHINA/ chinese_new_year.html
Anonymous, Holiday Pages for Activity Village,
2005: http://www.
activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_new_year.htm
Docker, Harriet, Waitrose Food Illustrated Webpage,
2000:
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/wfi/index.asp
Russell, Weldon, Cooking.com WebPage, 2005:
http://www.cooking.com
/recipes/static/ recipe1174.htm.
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