Today, 16th February 2024, is the 7th day of the Chinese Dragon New Year 2024. This morning, to my surprise, I received more than 30 greeting cards wishing me “Happy Birthday” from my Chinese friends, within my social media. Apparently, today is traditionally known as 人日 – “Everybody’s birthday”.
As usual I spent the morning reading and replying all incoming good morning greeting messages etc. and just before lunch I received a most interesting Chinese message from a young girl by the name, Siau Mei; it reads like so: “老師們早，我的外国同學問，為何中国人定下大年初七為人人生日？謝謝您，祝您生日快樂 – 小美”. Translated in English as ” Good morning teachers, my foreign students ask why the Chinese terms today as the birthday of every body? Thank you, wishing you a Happy Birthday – Siau Mei”.
I don’t know about the origin of this, even though I have been a Chinese for the last 85 years – so I decided to seek help from my contact list who are well educated Chinese friends. I forwarded Siau Mei’s question to 10 of them.
The first response, within a minute, came from Elsie who worked as the secretary of the Hakka association.传说女娲创造苍生，顺序造出了鸡、狗、猪、羊、牛、马等动物，并于第七天造出人来，故此初七为人的生日。人日：指阴历正月初七，古代相传农历正月初一为鸡日，初二为狗日，初三为猪日，初四为羊日，初五为牛日，初六为马日，初七为人日。 In Chinese mythology, Nüwa was the goddess who created the world. She created the animals on different days, 1st day the Chicken, 2nd day the Dog, 3rd – the pig; the 4th day – goat, 5th day – the cow, 6th day the horse and she created the human beings on the 7th day after the creation of the world.[1]
So armed with my new found knowledge, it led me to research how one should celebrate this day. As with most Chinese celebrations, there is a link with food and I found out that traditionally – 7 vegetable foods like 7 vegetable soup or 7 vegetable congee. However Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese use the “seven coloured raw fish”(七彩魚生) as the auspicious food. With very little notice, my daughter Ruey Ru, found a nearby restaurant ” Iron Chef” for us to have “Yu Sang” with 7 auspicious vegetable combination.
Different people may use different vegetables, all up to you if you are superstitious enough to link each vegetable to some meaning. I found an interesting article online of selecting 7 auspicious vegetable for making salad or soup at home:-
- Lettuce (sun choi 生菜), this symbolises growing wealth (sounds the same in Cantonese as sun choi 生財). Another meaning is very lively (in Cantonese is sun sun mang mang 生生猛猛).
- Celery (cun choi 芹菜), this symbolises hard working (in Cantonese is cun lo 勤劳)
- Leek (da suan 大蒜), symbolises someone is clever with money (in Mandarin is hui suan chen 會算錢).
- Spring onion /scallion (chong 蔥), this symbolises someone is very clever or smart (in Cantonese is chong ming 聰明)
- Chinese chives or garlic chives (gau choi 韭菜), this symbolises something good lasts ever after (in Cantonese is cheon cheon gau gau 長長久久)
- Carrot or mooli 蘿蔔, these two vegetables are normally called chai tao 菜頭 in Teochew which sounds simliar to (how chai tao 好彩頭) meaning bringing good luck.
- Coriander (yuen sai 芫荽), this symbolises serendipity (yuen fen 緣份)
By now, you understand the importance of the 7th Day of the CNY being served with 7 types of vegetables as salad or soup.
It triggers my memory back to 1988, after my retirement from RTB, when I was engaged as an Audio Consultant to the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club for the refurbishment of their Public Address System refurbishment. During a CNY social gathering, my Hong Kong friend mentioned that it was the 7th Day of CNY and every one birthday so I have to buy several rounds of alcoholic drinks for the entire gang. Being a teetotaler I ended up carrying 18 cans of soft drink back to my hotel! I hope you are not drunk to count how many persons in that group?
I thought it was an interesting Chinese Traditional culture and would be nice to share with all my friends and dear families so this Chinese tradition could pass on their younger generations as a family legacy. Please copy this URL to forward on:- https://memoriesofthewaywewere.wordpress.com/2022/02/08/renri/
As usual, we do love to have comments and feedback from our readers. Do you celebrate Everyone’s birthday in your family?
Since you have read up this point I like to invite you to listen this special Birthday, this day 16 February 2024 , the 7th day of the Lunar Chinese New year of the Mighty Dragon. It is also a special Birthday for Everyone including you! What do you think of this post so far? Have you read this before? Like to read more, just follow us then you can read another 138 more stories. Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon
Memories of The Way We Were 
Very interesting, thank you for the new knowledge. As what we did yesterday during our PD session we have identified we all are life long learners 😊
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Totally agree with your comment. It is always good to keep an open mind and keep learning. To challenge yourself to keep learning small skills and gain new knowledge is always good but to encourage someone else to do the same takes skill and dedication. I have the utmost respect for teachers who challenge and encourage young minds to learn.
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Thank you for your kind comment and taking the time to read our post.
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The Chinese culture is an endless fountain of traditions. Your research has added to my understanding for food symbolism and another day to celebrate with family. Thank you for sharing. And birthdays in our family are a very special celebration. There is always singing of the “happy birthday song” and a cake with candles 🎂
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Hi Yin, no wonder we are always told that we get a year older every chinese new year….just never knew why! Any excuse for cake right?
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Reblogged this on Kuala Belait Chung Hua Middle School.
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