The seventh day of Chinese New Year is called 人日, loosely translated as “human’s day”. Legend has it that different animals were made on different days, and on the seventh day, humans were made out of clay. I was told stories as a kid about why were are encouraged to eat raw food on this day, but unfortunately I can’t quite remember them at the moment.
As a kid I was just glad for any excuse to eat anything.
The Chinese in the South East Asian Region like to practice eating something called 鱼生 (yusheng) which signifies prosperity. The dish is made of various vegetables (like julienned carrots and radish) and raw fish.
This piece of information also coincides with a theory that eating your food raw for a certain percentage of your daily diet is good for you. (I don’t know about keeping enzymes in your food but I do believe that vitamins are best transmitted from fresh food)
So why not just make one day of the week your day for raw food? I understand that raw fish isn’t for everyone, but salads and vegetables and fruit have such a glorious crunch and fresh taste to them that there really are very few reasons against it!
Besides, it takes a massive amount of fruits and veggies to actually overeat – to me, that sounds like an all-you-can-eat day!
Happy munching!