I am doing a presentation for two kindergarten classes next week for Chinese New Year.  I ended up making a Power Point slide with a lion dance movie embedded in it.  It’s very cool, if I must say so myself.  The school has smart boards so that I can just operate the power point presentation right on the big screen.  This is my first year with public school since my time, so I am easily excited.

Anyway, I found that I ended up talking about food a lot.  Just like most everything I write here, it always somehow goes back to eating and food.  I thought I’d share with you on some of the most popular symbolic food that we eat for our Reunion Dinner on New Year’s Eve.

1.  Scallops – because they look like ancient Chinese coins

2.  Whole Chicken – symbolizes happiness and marriages

3.  Whole Fish – because the Chinese word for fish (yu) sounds similar to the word “plenty”, and that you must not eat the whole fish so that you will have leftovers.

4.  Long Noodles – their length represents long life.

5.  Steamed Dumplings – because they look like the shape of traditional Chinese gold ingots.

6.  Nian Gao (Sweet Sticky Rice Cake) – because its pronunciation is a homophone for a “a more prosperous year”

Doesn’t this make your mouth water?  Happy New Year!