View Chinese Culture - #1 for an explanation of this series.
Chinese Tradition: Eating Noodles on your Birthday
To me, a lessor origin for this is: You are what you eat. (No, not a noodle)
Let me explain.
Probably the most honored wish to bestow on a fellow Chinese person is the wish for them to have a Long Life. You see this on greeting cards, posters, gifts, wrappings. If you don't know what a symbol on a Chinese trinket says, you can guess its 'Long Life' and you'd be right most of the time.
So with noodles, the thought is that noodles are long. So to eat something long on your birthday, or better yet - be given something long to eat on your birthday, means that you are being wished to have a long life. Long noodles equals long life.
So, eat noodles on your birthday. The long spaghetti kind, not the macaroni style, and wish yourself a long life!
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