腊月二十六杀猪割年肉

　　The 26th day of the 12th month in Lunar Calendar: The folk saying goes like 腊月二十六，杀猪割年肉.

　　腊月26号，俗语说“腊月二十六，杀猪割年肉”。

　　Chinese people usually go to market to get some meat to prepare for New Year feast。

　　中国人常常会去集市买些肉食来准备年夜饭。

　　Food must be prepared ahead of time, as one of the popular Chinese New Year superstitions dictates that all knives must be put away。

　　食物必须在年前准备好，因为中国年的迷信传说中有一个说道在新年所有的刀都必须收起。

　　In the old days, many people could not afford meat dishes and so they really looked forward to the New Year Feast of meat. It is not difficult to understand why meat represents wealth in folk belief. This is a claypot of a famous festival meat dish, 红烧肉， ( hong shao rou, or literally Red Cooked Meat, the braised pork belly cubes with sugar and soya bean sauce)。

　　在过去，许多人承受不起肉食，所以他们很期待新年年夜饭能吃上一顿肉。在传统理念中，肉食代表财富。最具盛名的节日肉食就是“红烧肉”。

　　Nowadays, meat dish is very common in daily diet. However, Chinese people will still prefer having meat in accordance with the festival season. This may be the reason why Bak Kua ( 肉干，rou gan, barbecued dry meat product) is very popular among South East Asian during Chinese New Year period。

　　如今，肉类菜式已经在日常生活中相当普及了。但是，中国人依然偏爱在节庆时节吃肉。这可能也就是为什么肉干在中国新年之际在东南亚地区十分受欢迎的原因。

（沪江英语）