What do tangerines symbolise

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Email required Address never made public. Name required. Search this Portal Search for:. Facebook Fun with Tania. Categories Categories Select Category Uncategorized. Follow Following. Tania Marie Join 10, other followers. All those glorious summer-sweet peaches and cherries are long gone when these golden globes appear. As such, they offer sweetness and much-needed vitamin C when people need them most: during long, dark winter days when other foods are harder to come by.

Apparently the word for tangerine in Mandarin Chinese sounds very similar to the word for luck. As a result, they draw a direct parallel between that word and the fruit itself. In fact, many cultures around the world use homonyms as symbols of good or bad luck. For example, the number four is considered unlucky in China because the word for it sounds very similar to the word for death when spoken aloud. Tangerines represent wealth because they look like bright balls of gold.

Since Chinese New Year represents a fresh start for prosperity and wealth, tangerines are offered to people in the hope that they will help to bring good fortune to the recipient. In China, tangerines can also symbolize fertility—but only if the stem and a couple of leaves are still attached to the ripe fruit. This goes along with the idea of representing wealth and good fortune, as being blessed with a child is considered great fortune indeed.

To make sure that the symbolism is complete, it's a good idea to boil or steam the chicken with the head and feet still on to represent unity. Go the extra step and make a symbolic offering of chicken to your ancestors, too.

You may not get any takers, but showing respect for the past and enthusiasm for the future is a big part of the holiday. In Chinese tradition, melons and pomelos are also symbolic of family and are the embodiment of the hope that the family will remain large and whole. The pomelo, a citrus fruit that looks like a big pear and tastes a little like a sweet grapefruit , is also a symbol of abundance. A popular family New Year's Eve tradition is to get together and make boiled dumplings jiaozi.

Boiled Chinese dumplings are fun and relatively easy to make, and their fried counterparts, pot stickers, are also a Western favorite. Filled with vegetables like cabbage and spring onion, and flavored with pork or shrimp, Chinese dumplings make a filling appetizer or side dish any time of year. If you plan on following this Chinese New Year tradition, encourage everyone in the family to participate in the preparation and conceal a coin in one of the dumplings in the batch. If the person who finds it doesn't chip a tooth, he's destined to have a very, very lucky year.

Pomegranates are a natural for Chinese New Year. They're filled with colorful seeds for fertility and are a bright vibrant red, which represents a large family. They're also good for you, with an abundance of antioxidants and vitamin C to help you recuperate after the celebrations are over.

You probably already know that pomegranate juice is a great pick-me-up and base for a number of alcoholic beverages it's often made into a sugar syrup called grenadine , but pomegranate seeds are also refreshing in salads and perk up the color and sweetness of meats when added to marinades.

They make an eye-popping garnish too, especially when paired with slivered carrots, purple cabbage or orange segments. If you want to experiment, peel a fresh pomegranate and sample the seeds. They have a predominantly sweet flavor with just a slight sour aftertaste. They're wonderful as a fresh, cold dessert all by themselves.

Seeds are important in Chinese New Year celebrations because they're symbolic of the harvest, abundance and fertility. Sunflower seeds symbolize having many offspring, especially sons and grandsons , which is important in traditional Chinese culture. Many seed-rich fruits are either used as ingredients in classic dishes or for decoration. Besides the symbolic significance of the seeds in fruits like oranges, tangerines, melons , pomegranates and pomelos, seeds are also used by themselves or as major ingredients.

Red-dyed melon seeds are added to candies and offered to guests or children , and the sweet seeds of the lotus are candied, too. While lotus seeds symbolize a healthy family , red melon seeds have multiple meanings because they incorporate the significance of red for joy with happiness and truth represented by the seeds themselves. A large all vegetable medley is a favorite New Year's Day dish. Make sure to use plenty of root vegetables. Chinese New Year is the beginning of the spring planting season , so it's a great time to use up those stored winter veggies and clear the shelves for spring greens.

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Chinese New Year customs you need to know. Chinese New Year, which is also known as the Spring Festival, is celebrated on a different date each year as it is based on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. Share this article. Dian Arthen The Jakarta Post. Topics :.