Xiao Nian

We had a double celebratory dinner tonight. It's AUstralia Day for me, and also Xiao Nian for the Chinese so we went to have wonderful Hot Pot (my favourite). Usually, we go to hot pot restaurants and there is one big pot in the middle. Tonight we went to a place that had smaller individual pots. It was great.

Going round the circuit of food from the top right....

A large plate of fresh vegetables, processed ham, Terri (although she was the best dish there), Hot sauce for dipping, huge plate of 5 different types of mushrooms and a fungus, ground shrimp meat, chicken pieces served in bamboo leaves, black noodles, sliced beef, sliced tofu skin. And all YUMMY.

Xiao Nian Festival

The 23rd day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar year is called Xiaonian and on this day, Chinese people offer sacrifices to Kitchen God. On this day, the Kitchen God goes up to Heaven to make his report to the Jade Emperor. He would report the good and evils of the people to the Jade Emperor for the Jade Emperor to give his rewards and punishments. To stop Kitchen god from telling the Jade Emperor the bad things, the people offered him a special candy which stuck his teeth together. He could only tell the Jade Emperor the good things and not the bad.

These days the festival is celebrated by giving friends and family the same candy.