What Are The Most Important Family Traditions

Mother My mother was also from a family of farmers and most of the vegetables her family ate came from their own farm. My mother and her family would often sell their own livestock rather than eat them. The money that they earned from selling them would go into purchasing food that they could not procure from their own farm. This would include meat, rice, fish and other vegetables. They would go out to buy groceries, maybe once every 2 weeks or a month, depending on their income. They bought from other farmers who would set up little street side stalls to sell their own crops and livestock. Sometimes they would also go to small farmer markets that had appeared over the years in the area. Foods that they commonly had with their meals included

Some of the most important family traditions that she could remember were those surrounding birthday celebrations, the Lunar New Year, and many of the Chinese holidays that she would celebrate throughout the year. On the day of someone’s birthday, they would be served a red chicken egg to celebrate their birth from their own chickens. If it was possible, they would also be served a chicken wing from one of their own. This was rare because they would often try to save what they had of their livestock. On the Lunar New Year, her family would always try to make enough money to buy a chicken to cook. The chicken would be marinated in salt and water and used as an offering for Chinese deities and their ancestors before it was served for the family. My mother told me that the chicken symbolized family unity. Worshiping and honoring their ancestors and deities played a large part in my mother and her family’s Chinese holidays. These holidays would happen throughout the year and her family would always cook several different dishes to offer to them in front of the altar with incense in their house. Chicken was always one of them along with steamed gai lan, pig feet made with lotus root, and Chinese roasted pork. There was always six or eight different dishes because these numbers symbolized luck, wealth, prosperity, and good business. Zongzi (Chinese tamales) was one of the foods whose method of preparation was passed down from generation to generation and they were made to celebrate the Dragon Boat festival. The family would get together to prepare them and cook the foods for the offering later that night. They were made of rice, peanuts, pork belly or Chinese sausage, and salted duck eggs wrapped in large bamboo