On New Year's Eve, families gather together to have a wine and dinner, or invite friends and relatives to have a meal together and drink happily, which is called "New Year's Eve". Because New Year's Eve is the dividing line between the old and new years, eating Fensui wine means that the old and new years are separated on this night. Therefore, no matter whether you are rich or poor, you should try to make this meal as sumptuous as possible.
Wenzhou people call New Year’s Eve dinner “Five Years Wine”. After nearly a month of running around, the New Year’s goods are almost ready. On the eve of New Year's Eve, ordinary people will place ten red tall bowls on their dining tables to show "perfection." Cold dishes such as citrus, cured chicken, bacon, eel, jelly, cockles, red dates, oysters, pork liver, etc. are much richer than usual. The "top ten bowls" in the middle include rice cakes, yellow croaker, pig's trotters, chicken, duck, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, fried cuttlefish, fried pork belly, etc., and finally there are desserts such as eight-treasure rice and red dates and longan soup. The whole family had fun and enjoyed the reunion.
As the New Year bell rings, the sound of firecrackers resounds through the night sky, one after another, shaking the earth. Wenzhou people call it "closed-door firecrackers", which are used to ward off evil spirits and drive away evil. People look forward to another peaceful and happy year in the coming year.
Farewell, that is, the sumptuous dinner that people eat on New Year’s Eve, commonly known as “New Year’s Eve Dinner”, “Reunion Dinner”, “Reunion Dinner”, “Family Reunion”, “Parting New Year Wine”, “Shou Sui Wine” and “Farewell New Year Wine” ". The custom of saying goodbye to the new year has been very popular since the Jin Dynasty.
That night the flesh and blood were reunited, the children and grandchildren gathered around, the lights were feasting and the people talked about the reunion. The next step is to stay up late. The "Feng Tu Zhi" of the Western Jin Dynasty said: "On New Year's Eve, sitting around the stove and not sleeping until the end of the night is called staying up late." Many poets have poems about staying up late. The poet Meng Haoran wrote: "The bright light continues, the candles are painted, and the feast continues after the New Year." The joy of watching the new year is vividly written.
Every year during the New Year's Eve dinner in Wenzhou, every household must close the door, no loud talking, no tapping of bowls and chopsticks. After the New Year's dinner, the table should be cleared and the door opened. This is called: close the door to make money, open the door to make money. There is a legend about the origin of this custom.
A long time ago, during the New Year's Eve dinner, every house had its door open. The Jade Emperor wanted to understand the sufferings of the people, so he sent Tieguai Li down to earth to check at this time. Tieguai Li was a lame "beggar", so he lamely begged along the street with a basket while eating New Year's Eve dinner in the human world. After begging for the New Year's meal, he showed the things he had collected to the Jade Emperor. At this time, it was clear who was poor and who was rich. Accordingly, for the rich, the Jade Emperor ordered the gods to let him suffer disasters several times a year, and for the poor, he would make him rich several times to prevent him from getting too poor. This matter gradually spread to the people. There was one family who was quite treacherous, and they quickly came up with countermeasures. During the New Year's Eve dinner, he ordered his family to close the door and not speak loudly. By the time Tieguaili begged for food, his family had already had the New Year's Eve dinner. When he opened the door, the table was already empty and there was nothing to give to Tieguai Li. Tieguai Li saw that the family was too poor and could not even afford the New Year's Eve dinner, so he left a few gold ingots at his door and left. . Now this family became rich.
But there is no airtight wall. When others see the reason for his wealth, they will all learn from him. Unexpectedly, when Tieguai Li saw that every family was having New Year's dinner behind closed doors this year, he knew that people knew about his mission and stopped begging for food in the world to check the rich and the poor. However, the custom of eating New Year's dinner with the door closed has been passed down ever since.
There is another definition of fen-year-old wine. In some areas of Wenzhou, people do not drink New Year's Eve wine, but usually within ten days before the Spring Festival, the host sets up a banquet to entertain relatives (usually cousins).