Ordeal By Meal Blog Assignment - Will

For Chinese people tradition means everything; however, for reasons unknown to me traditions for each family is different. For that matter traditions within families can vary, the real decider for traditions would be the elderly. My grandmother on my father's side controls the family tradition and the biggest one that comes to mine would be Chinese New Year. For other families Chinese New Year is celebrated with red envelopes and the feasting of traditional delicacies, but for my family its a little more than that. The big rule is that meat is not allowed on the day of Chinese New Year, this also includes fish so the only thing I'm allowed to eat on Chinese New Year is vegetables and fruits. Despite how grueling this might sound, its actually quite delicious although there is no meat. But since this tradition only applies to my family as far as I'm aware of, its very rude to eat meat since the thought process I believe is that one must remain pure on Chinese New Year and cleanses their body by forsaking meat for a single day. I've never eaten meat during Chinese New Year since that way of thought was beaten into me at a very young age, but I shudder to think what my family especially my grandmother would think of me if I failed to follow their expectations, after all its just one day without meat and I've already done it 19 times how hard can it be to follow for the rest of my life. Many of my Chinese friends find it extremely strange to spend Chinese New Year without any meat and even more wonder how I last the entire day without any meat but I tell them its for my grandmother.

-William Jim