Making Longevity Noodle for Birthday

Receiving gifts was not the traditional way to celebrate birthday for children. However, it becomes a new common culture everywhere in the world nowadays. My personal view on receiving gifts for children's birthday celebration is a huge waste way of living. Just taking the consideration of these piled up packages left over from the birthday party, they will go all to the landfill. I rather give a red envelope with money to my daughter or her friends to have. When they receive the money, they can learn to save these money for later use or for their education and something really in need.

Passing a value tradition to my daughter is my passion, I would like her to know and understand the Chinese cultural traditions, especially the wisdom behind the tradition.

There is a special way for celebrating birthday in Chinese traditional culture. That is eating noodles on the BIRTHDAY. This noodle dish thus is called as longevity noodle dish. It does not have to be a special noodle soup or dish if some's mom didn't have a time to make a special one.

However, these is a special way of making noodle for birthday celebration, it is called longevity noodle. This noodle is made from a single long noodle, it is ok if it breaks during making the noodles. Mothers or grandmothers are the ones who normally make these noodles. This long noodle represents the longevity or long life for the birthday wishes. It is the best wishes for the birthday person. 

This video was made from my daughter's 12th birthday. We made a single long noodle together. It was fun. This video shows you how to make a longevity noodle.