在日常生活裡，不同地區、不同民族或國家的人們的家庭餐桌上擺放的飯菜不會完全相同。一個原因，是每個地方地理、自然環境形成的食品原材料的體系不同。另一個原因，則是不同地區人們信仰、生活習慣和對食物的文化性認識不同，於是構成了具有濃厚民族性、地域性、或國家與宗教特色的食物象徵性特點。 列舉中日相互類似的文化表象的文章不勝枚舉，對飲食文化的研究、記述也早有很多先學的優秀文章問世。基於史學角度的記述也有大量問世之著。本文對中日兩個文化在正月食品方面的象徵性研究，則主要採用民俗學和人類學的方法。通過筆者實地調查得到的二十世紀八十、九十年代和二十一世紀初期的人們生活中的事例，分析漢族（本論文以北方地區為主要對象）在正月這樣一個特定的時間和環境裡食用某些特定食物的意義所在，然後對比分析日本的正月食品，最終探討自然環境和民族文化如何賦予節日食物以各種文化的特性，以及形成這種特性的民族文化的深層心理。

In daily life, the food on the table in the families varies in different regions, nationalities and countries. For one thing, the system of food raw materials produced in different geographical and natural environments differs, and for another, the belief, the habits and customs and the cultural cognition of the people in different regions vary, which has formed the symbolic characteristics of the food that is featured by rich country’s traits, regionality or national and religious characters. The articles that enumerate the similar cultural representation mutually between China and Japan are more than it can be listed; the articles on the research and account of dietary culture by so many former scholars have been presented to the public. Since a great number of descriptions based on historiography have come out, this thesis, through the research on the symbolization of the food in the first lunar month both in China and Japan, mainly applies the methods of ethnography and anthropology. Based on the cases in 1990’s and in the early period of 21st century gained by field work, the author analyses what it means that the Han nationality (mainly in the northern areas) eat some special food in the special time and environment of the first lunar month, then analyses comparatively the food in the first lunar month in Japan. Ultimately, the author probes into how the natural environment and national culture endue festival food with various cultural characteristics and the deep psychology of national culture that forms this kind of characteristic.