Made in Macao | When school starts

Jenny Lao-Phillips

This week sees Macao’s mornings getting back to the usual hustle and bustle. A sign that the long summer holidays are over and that schools are back to their normal operation. In the Chinese tradition, the first day of school used to be quite a big deal, with a number of practices that have long been forgotten by our younger generation. One interesting custom is the things students would bring to school on the first day. Instead of books, students used to carry different kinds of food for the success of their school year. These foods are not for eating, just to be carried along for luck.

A couple of years ago, a photo of a kid going to school with a bunch of spring onions in his back pack, and with two large bags of food, was widely shared on the Internet. While most people commented on the weirdness of making one’s kid carry all sorts of stuff to school on the first day, this kid was actually doing it right, custom-wise. But why spring onions and other specific foods?

The food children carry on their first day of school has special meaning, all taken from the pronunciation of the food. The word for spring onions in Chinese 蔥 “chung” has the same pronunciation as intelligent 聰츠 “chung meng”, therefore, carrying spring onions is believed to make students intelligent. Not just carrying spring onions on the first day of school; many parents would also make their kids eat more spring onions, saying that it will make them smarter when they grow up.

Aside from spring onions, there are a few other kinds of food students need to carry to school with them on the first day. One common kind of food carried on the first day of school is apple 蘋벎 “ping gwo” which sounds similar to 틱갛 “ping on” meaning peace, representing that the student will have a peaceful school year. Then there are cakes, the same reason that Chinese people have birthday cakes, not for a celebratory reason, but because cakes in Chinese 멤 “go” has the same pronunciation as tall or high. Eating cakes on one’s birthday signifies growing taller, and bringing cakes to school on the first day represents achieving higher.

For studying, of course there must be something related to hard work. For kids to study hard, families will give them celery to take to school, as celery 핼꽉 “kan choi” sounds similar to hardworking which is 핸 “kan”. Finally, amongst the most usual kinds of first day of school food is garlic 渠 “syun”, which sounds similar to calculate, as done in mathematics. It is not hard to guess that having kids carry a bunch of garlic to school is not to repel vampires, but to help them excel in mathematics.

Aside from the traditional spring onions, apples, cakes, celery and garlic, nowadays, there are parents getting instant noodles for their children to carry on the first day of school. Not that instant noodles sounds like anything with significance to education, but because there is a brand of instant noodles in mainland China named 100. Well, I guess the brand name is self-explanatory.

Relating to getting 100 percent in all grades, the traditional practice, before carrying the 100 instant noodles, was eating eggs. It is right that one egg is bad luck, as “eating an egg” in a Chinese saying means getting zero. But to turn eggs into luck, parents would prepare two boiled eggs and put them next to one chopstick for their kids’ breakfast on the first day of school to wish them scores of 100 in all their work.

Although the first day of school was a few days ago, we are still at the opening week of the school year, so it is not too late to stuff your kids school bag with spring onions, apples, garlic, celery and cakes. And don’t forget the two-egg breakfast, to be eaten with one chopstick.