The story behind the famous longevity noodles on Tet holiday
Báo Dân trí•13/02/2024
Lunar New Year is always the time when people pray for a peaceful and lucky new year. Not only present in sayings, wishes are also sent in Tet dishes. In East Asian cuisine, longevity noodles are famous for carrying many meanings of wishing for health. Therefore, on every occasion of Tet or birthday, many people choose to enjoy longevity noodles as a way to wish for themselves to always be healthy. "Every year when Tet comes, almost every table orders longevity noodles. Not only delicious and beautiful, this dish also symbolizes luck", said Johnny Mui - owner of a restaurant in New York, USA. In China and some Asian countries, longevity noodles symbolize long life (Photo: Xinhua). Because of the popularity and meaning behind longevity noodles, many people wonder what the origin of this dish is? According to information recorded in documents, longevity noodles were born during the Han Dynasty around 141-87 BC. At that time, Emperor Wu heard and told his ministers that if a person had a long face, they would live a very long life. Because he could not change the length of his face, the emperor decided to eat long noodles and considered this a way to increase his longevity, because in Chinese, the words "noodles" and "face" have the same pronunciation. After that, this custom gradually spread throughout the country. However, Chinese historians do not agree with this hypothesis. "The Han Dynasty was a period when noodle culture flourished in China, contributing to the foundation of today's noodles. However, there is no basis to say that Emperor Wu is the reason why we have longevity noodles," Zhao Rongguan - a leading scholar who has written about Chinese history and culinary culture for the past four decades - shared with CNN . When eating longevity noodles, people often try not to bite or break the noodles (Photo: Xiaohongshu). Although no one knows exactly where it came from, longevity noodles are a popular dish in many Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Chinese community here often uses misua (wheat noodles) as longevity noodles. During Lunar New Year, Koreans like to eat japchae - mixed noodles. At weddings and birthdays, Koreans often eat janchi-guksu - also known as "banquet noodles" or "party noodles" - noodles that symbolize longevity and happiness. In some provinces in northern China, many people still keep the habit of eating longevity noodles in the old way. "When the noodles are served, guests will pick up a little bit of noodles from the bowl, use chopsticks to pull the other end of the noodles skillfully. Then, they will eat and slurp them in one gulp with a happy face. It is a way to express gratitude to the host," said Mr. Zhao Rongguan. Young people in the country of a billion people use carrots to carve meaningful wishes into a bowl of longevity noodles (Photo: Xiaohongshu). Not only that, to make the longevity noodles more attractive and lively, young Chinese people have carved carrots into wishes such as "Happy New Year" and "Happy Birthday" and decorated the bowl of noodles.
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