"If you don't have three dishes for hospitality, and six people don't sit on the king's eight seats", what's the point here?
When I was a child, there were guests in the house, and children were not allowed to eat at the table, which is a rule, and this rule is more common during the Chinese New Year. The most important thing is hospitality, such as the old saying: "Hospitality is not three dishes, six people do not sit on the turtle seat", which is the taboo of hospitality, so to speak, this is full of the wisdom of the old generation.
But why don't you entertain guests with three dishes, and six people don't sit on the turtle seat", just say that when entertaining guests, you can't fry three dishes, if you serve three dishes, it's disrespectful to the guests, you can fry four dishes, six dishes, you can't say singular, we say that the good things come in pairs, and the six people don't sit on the turtle seat, which is said that six people can't sit like a turtle when they eat, which is very bad.
Let me explain these two sentences separately.
Let's talk about the last sentence first, if you don't have three dishes for hospitality, why can't you fry three dishes, you can imagine that if the dishes are served, the three dishes will become a triangle, and the triangle will become an arrow, which is very unlucky. There is also an important reason, just say that the three is the number of awe, we see that when the sacrifice is to be on the three incense, every family sacrifices to the ancestors in the New Year, one note respects the sky, two lords respect the earth, three notes respect the ancestors, if you serve three dishes to entertain guests, and the three of the sacrifice collide, this is a very unlucky thing, so, when entertaining guests, people in general, to avoid this three numbers. This is already the basic common sense of hospitality.
Next, let me say again, the six people do not make turtle seats. For example, if you sit on a rectangular table, one person at the head and one at the end, and two people on each side, this becomes a turtle seat. This is also something that the seat holder should be avoided. Why should this be taboo? Let's talk about why. As we all know, the turtle is a spirit animal, generally a symbol of longevity, but although it is long-lived, there is also a time of death, and the six people sit like a turtle, and they are eating and drinking, and they have the appearance of eating themselves. As long as it is unlucky, it is not good.
This is the implicit meaning, and if you sit on a turtle seat, the first and last two people will not be able to eat the food, which will embarrass the guests and completely lose the feeling of being at home. Actually, it's easy to solve the turtle seat, just make a round table.
Although these ancient sayings are very unscientific, we still say that we should abide by the experience and rules left by our ancestors, after all, these condensed wisdom of the older generation, we do it, at least there is no harm. I hope that when we receive guests, we try to avoid it: we don't serve three dishes for guests, and six people don't sit on turtle seats."