'Yu sheng' for an auspicious year
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the first time ever in the country, Chinese New Year is being commemorated as a national holiday, and Chinese-Indonesians across the country may openly celebrate the age-old tradition of new year, known here as Imlek, with good cheer and an abundance of good food.
This year's new year falls on Saturday, Feb. 1, and will mark the first day of the Year of the Ram.
Preparations for the new year usually begin about a month beforehand, when people start buying presents, decorative materials, food and clothing. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom to sweep away any traces of bad luck.
The real celebration begins on the eve of the new year when the whole family gathers to feast on the specially prepared new year dinner, the reunion dinner. Tradition and rituals are carefully observed in everything from the food to clothing, to ensure an auspicious start to the new year.
"Popularly recognized as the Spring Festival, the new year usually lasts for 15 days," said F & B Coordinator at Millenium Hotel, Central Jakarta, Yoyo Mulyono.
Eating meat and slaughtering livestock is considered inauspicious, and the special food prepared for the reunion dinner is therefore largely vegetarian or composed of seafood and fish.
The Chinese word for fish, yu, has the same pronunciation as the word for "excess", and a special raw fish salad dish,yu sheng (sheng meaning "life"), eaten on the day, is believed to ensure long life and abundant wealth.
"Yu sheng is an appetizer made from fish and a variety of finely shredded vegetables served with special dressings," hotel F & B Director Roni Martadinata said.
Salmon is served with the various brightly colored shredded vegetables, the centerpiece being shredded carrots and white radish, followed by yellow and red ginger, cucumber, onion, shredded green melon and sweetened melon.
The salad is first mixed with lime juice, raw fish plum sauce, vegetable oil, cinnamon, pepper and sesame seeds to give a sweet, but strong gingery taste.
Using chopsticks, the salad is traditionally tossed by diners, as the Chinese believe that the higher you toss the more prosperous you will become, Roni said, explaining that diners would usually recite wishes for good luck while tossing the salad.
"The act of tossing raw fish is referred to as lao qi or tossing up good fortune," he said.
Other auspicious foods usually served during new year celebrations include prawns for liveliness and happiness, ho xi (dried oysters), for all things good, an edible hair-like seaweed,fai hai (angel hair) to bring prosperity, and jiaozi (dumplings boiled in water), to signify a long-lost good wish for a family.
Millenium Hotel's Hua Ting Chinese Restaurant will serve yu sheng from new year's eve for the 15 days of the traditional new year celebration.
The hotel will also organize a barongsai (lion dance) to kick off the Year of the Ram.