Who Says It's Old Hat???

How can anything be old hat when it's faithfully observed from one year to another, and from one generation to the next? It's alive, it's vital, it's ... well, if not hip, at least cool.

Before I go any further - and before you get even more muddled - let me explain what I'm talking about. Tradition. That link between the past, the present and the future. Every race and every culture has them. 

Talking about traditions brings to mind those observed during Chinese New Year. 

The one I'm fondest of is the tradition of Loh Hey and the eating of Yee Sang, where all family members gather round the dining-table and have fun tossing the Yee Sang high in the air before eating it, with shouts of good wishes for the New Year.

As an uninformed but inquisitive child I often wondered why the family dined on Yee Sang on the seventh day of the New Year. 

A kindly great grand-aunt undertook to enlighten me. According to her, the world, and everything else that exists, were created by the goddess Nu Wa a long, long time ago. On the seventh day of her construction work (no, the goddess didn't need a developer's licence), Nu Wa created mankind. To commemorate this day, known as Renri (also called as human day), everybody feasted on the dish known as Yee Sang. 

Years later, I picked up a copy of "The Origins of Chinese Festivals" (printed by Asiapac) and found that my great grand-aunt was not guilty of invention. The myth was exactly as she had told it. 

Wanting to know more about Yee Sang, I did a little research. It seems its tradition  goes all the way back to the era of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.). It was started by the fisherfolk who lived in the province of Guangzhou, along the southern coastline of China. 

Those folks celebrated the common birthday of all humanity in their own way. They had a slap-up feed by feasting on their own catch. That probably explains why folks today still have a hankering for sashimi in their Yee Sang.

To lend more variety to their Yee Sang, those fisherfolk added pickles and vegetables. Then they poured over the ingredients a  dressing made up of vinegar, oil and plum sauce. A far cry from the delectable concoctions of Spring Toss.

One aspect of the enjoyment of Yee Sang has survived the ages. What they did back then in the good old days, we do now in the new hip age. If you haven't guessed, I'm talking about the Loh Hey ritual, that endearing practice of tossing the ingredients high and wishing for New Year Blessings. 

Personally, I can't think of any happier way to usher in a New Year than to "Loh Hey" with your loved ones. The only thing that can beat Loh Hey is when all those yummy Yee Sang ingredients pass your lips and settle on your tongue and ... I think I'd better stop. It's not Renri yet, but I'm craving for Yee Sang so badly I keep seeing pickles, crackers and sashimi on my monitor!

- BOLDWRITER -