Southern Fujianand Taiwan：Culture of fish eatingduring the Spring Festival

Family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve in Fujian and Taiwan is called "Weilu"， which is attached great importance by Fujian and Taiwan people. Besides， Fujian and Taiwan people also pay particular attention to the names of food and food paring of the dinner， the selected food must have special meanings. There must be a whole fish on table， which symbolizes surplus every year. Eating fish head symbolizes a lot of wealth in the next year. There must be mashed sweet taro because Chinese character "Yu" is of the same pronunciation with that of "Yu" with the meaning of "wealth". There must be blood clams which will be had almost at the end of the family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve because the shape of shells of blood clams are similar to ancient silver， which symbolizes a lot of money. Blood clams need only to be ironed with boiled water， don't need to be boiled or steamed， and will lost the freshness if boiled.endprint