Yunnan has always been well known for its ethnic customs and beautiful scenery. However, Yunnan's food is also rather attractive, such as Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodles, Steaming-Pot Chicken, Dazzling Insect Dishes and so on.
A special feast is held in Yunnan when the Spring Festival comes. Native people will be familiar with a feast called Shazhufan, which consists of pork dishes and is also known as the “slaughtering of pig for celebrating the Spring Festival.”
The feast is full of native flavours. It also carries a kind of simple feeling of hospitality. Every family slaughters a pig in the twelfth lunar month and invites neighbors, relatives and friends to have a pork feast. Everyone gathers together to enjoy the harvest and celebrate the time of year. The feast reflects the warm and hospitable personalities of the people of Yunnan.
The pig slaughtering is an indispensable custom in various regions of Yunnan for celebrating the coming of the New Year. Normally the event is held in winter and before the New Year when the weather gets cold. It is also the most festive season before the Spring Festival.
It is the most joyful duration for a family to hold the feast. Some foods are prepared a few days in advance after a good day is chosen, it will be a busy day early in the morning to kill the pig, and neighbours are asked to help catch the animal fed by the host for the New Year.
When the pig is killed and shaved, the pork is taken home, where people will be busy washing vegetables, brushing pots, cutting meat and cooking meals.
When spare pork meat remains, a temporary booth will be placed at the door of the host's home. From here, meat is sold to villagers at prices lower than found at markets.
The feast starts at about 5-6 o'clock in the early evening and invited relatives and friends gather at the host’s home to enjoy the hearty meal, enjoying the traditional tastes passed down generations for thousands of years.
The feast consists of the home-made food prepared by the host. Each dish is relatively simple but is full of the joy of the host family, with an intense flavour of nostalgia. The pig is fed with native forage and green fodder, which keeps the pork tasting fatty but not greasy.
At the beginning of the feast, every dish provided on the table is made of pork, such as stirred-fried meat, pork fried with pickles, pork chop soup, plain boiled pork and so on. The feast in each region is unique, although it is simple. Such dishes are plain and home-cooked and they contain an intense taste of the homeland.
The pork feast of Yunnan people not only contains various and delicious dishes. The host is also hospitable. They will add the dishes and rice when noticing the bowl of each guest is empty, and they will also present drinks.
The host will also gift a piece of fresh pork when the guest says goodbye after the meal, in a gesture expressing good luck.
various regions of Yunnan for celebrating the coming of the New Year.
Local family
