Food Case

Food is a very substantial and necessary part of our lives. We use food for a variety of different intentions and the food that we appoint to eat is chosen because of a variety of different influences. Food also plays an important part in how we celebrate it. We eat food because we need it to survive. It gives us the source of nourishment that our bodies needed to grow. Another reason we eat food is because of emotional reasons. If we are pleasant, we eat; if we are unhappy, depress, then we do not eat. Food is also a part of our many celebrations and festivals. However, the way that food is used in celebrations and festivals diverse from country to country, culture to culture. The way we celebrate them are literally influenced by our culture.

As a Chinese people, I celebrate certain festivals every year, such as Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese New Year is made up of abounding elements of symbols, traditions and belief. With a cultural inheritance that spans more than 5,000 years, it's a celebration brimming with subtle atmosphere and relationships, many of them involving food. Given the importance of food in Chinese culture, it is not astonishing that food portrays a crucial and significant role in Chinese New Year celebrations. What gives a particular food symbolic significance and meaning? Sometimes it is based on appearance and presentation. For example, serving a whole boiled chicken during the Chinese New Year season indicate family togetherness and emphasizes family unity. Noodles represent longevity in life; an old superstition declares that it is considered very unlucky to cut up a strand. Spring Roll symbolizes wealth because of its similarity to golden bars. On the other hand, a food may have special significance during Chinese New Year because of the way the Chinese word sounds. For example, fish play a huge role in festive celebrations. The word for fish, "Yu," sounds like the words for hope and prosperity. As a result, on Chinese New Year, it is habitual for my family to serve a fish as a symbol of a wish for abundance in the coming year. For added symbolism, the fish is served whole, with head and tail attached, signifying a good beginning and ending for the coming year.

Another essential festival for Chinese people is Mid-Autumn Festival or better known as Moon Cake Festival. People eat moon cakes at Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon cake is a kind of cakes with miscellaneous fillings, such as nuts, sugar, sesame, ham and egg yolk, and on the surface are engraved various artistic and exquisite patterns. As the moon cake is circular in shape, it denotes the reunion of a family, so it is clear and obvious to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can inspire the missing of distant relatives. Nowadays, people give the moon cakes to relatives and friends to determine that they wish them a long, blessed, and joyful life.

Aside from Chinese New Year, as a Catholic,