Whom is the rooster pointing? The feast that rocks your world - the good or the bad way 尾wĕi牙yá

Whom is the rooster pointing?

The feast that rocks your world - the good or the bad way

尾wĕi牙yá

 

Similar to the Christmas party in the western industries, 尾wĕi牙yá is a feast in the Chinese industries when the management meets the labor to have a gay old time. Many local entertainers receive their most lucrative income of the year by either performing or hosting this type of banquets. Some minimum wage staff might take home something worth more than their annual income; some bosses may make use of the banquet to show that they do care about their staff by being part of the performance (with other management 'big heads', of course); but then, just as a road that goes up the hill will go down on the other end, some will be let go.

尾wĕi牙yá is basically the last time before the end of the year that people present their offerings to the earth god. People in the Chinese business world present offerings to the earth god twice a month, one is the 2nd and the other one on the 16th.   They pray for more money through their trades (what else?), and that everyone in the company remains healthy and safe (less on the NHI spending - not H1N1, though look surprisingly alike - N.H.I, as in National Health Insurance). 

Since there is a尾wĕi牙yá(the character尾wĕimeans tail or the end), there is a 头tóu牙yá (头tóu means head or the beginning). Chinese believe that gods on earth will return to their HQ in heaven to present a summary of their duties on earth. 尾wĕi牙yá (lunar December 16^th) is the last day for presenting offerings to the earth god before he joins other gods for the annual report in heaven; and头tóu牙yá (lunar February 2^nd) is the first day of the year for the offering, when earth god returns 'home' for duty.

Being the last offering of the year, and also near the closing of the lunar year, 尾wĕi牙yá has become the day for the year end banquet of dinner and shows for companies. Lucky draws with bountiful of prizes such as large screen TV, home theatre units, cars, and cash - mostly courtesy of business partners and suppliers; famous singers and performers giving their best to get everybody high as kites; food and drinks and all the merry. Then of course, inevitably, a time to give those who will not be joining next year's banquet a loud and clear hint. 

Chinese nicknamed the layoff or sacking the staff as 砍kăn头tóu, decapitation, 砍kănmeans to chop/chop off (as a job puts food on the table, sacking a person pretty much takes taking the food away, literally equals to chopping his/her head off).  In the ancient days, a 'boss' would use a rooster's head to indicate who would be let go. The way of doing so was to point the rooster's head at the person(s). How did this come about, there seems to have no specific historical accordance to it but only the practice. Although nowadays this ritual is not carried out, whenever the chicken dish is served, the heart(s) of those whom are pointed (by accident, hopefully) would still miss a beat or two. Luckily, thanks to our modernized dinning habits, the head is rarely served with the dish.

Just in case, if you are a staff of a Chinese company, cross your fingers under the table that the head will not look you in the eyes when the chicken dish is served.

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