Spring Festival’s Flavor in Weihai

Another year has passed, and a new one is just around the corner. People in Weihai are preparing to usher in the most important festival of the year in China - the Spring Festival. Mothers are very important to this great festival and begin busy preparation for the big holiday during the twelfth lunar month.

Smoked Spanish mackerel is a traditional and authentic Spring Festival dish in Weihai. The frozen mackerel is cut into pieces and salted. It is then fried in a pan until it turns golden brown, and then placed it on a plate. Next, add salted soup into the same pan that was used to fry the fish on high heat until the soup starts boiling. Last, place the fish into a grate and smoke it over the boiling soup, and wait until the steam makes the fish nice and tender. After that, the dish is ready to be enjoyed by family and friends as the first meal of the Spring Festival.

The cauldron is an essential element of the Spring Festival in Weihai. As the fire crackles, sponge cakes steam on top of the cauldron. Steamed sponge cakes are symbolic of making a good fortune during the new year, and the term “steamed buns” in Chinese means prosperity and sweetness. The steamed buns fill the house with a savory smell to remind everybody that the Spring Festival has started.  

People returning home from afar can’t wait to eat the big and juicy homecooked mackerel dumplings made by their mothers. The delicate mackerel meat, fat, and leeks are minced into a paste, wrapped in a palm-sized dumpling wrapper, placed into a large pot of boiling water, and then turned a few times. They are what wanderers yearn for, and symbolize the flavor of the Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival atmosphere lies in the sausages that your mother dried by hand, in the dough twists she fried, in the red Chinese “Fu” characters that she cut. It is also in the shopping malls and rural fairs that you spend time with her.

To put it simply, the Spring Festival atmosphere is the craftsmanship of mothers and the taste of home. It is the reunion of relatives and good friends. The Spring Festival atmosphere is the hometown and local accent, and the family affection and roots of this hometown which is plain but extremely cordial.

People living here, year after year, create a happy life through hard work and insist on good expectations with time. 

In the new year, let’s look forward to the future together!

(Source: Publicity Department of Weihai Municipal CPC Committee)