According to traditional Chinese folk customs, the New Year’s Eve dinner is very particular, usually including wontons, dumplings, long noodles, Yuanxiao, etc. There are two indispensable dishes for the New Year’s Eve dinner in southern China. One is a fish with the head and tail intact, which symbolizes plenty every year; the other is meatballs, commonly known as Yuanzi in the south, which symbolizes reunion.
Ravioli
Eating wontons during the New Year means the beginning of the new year. Legend has it that Pangu created the world and made “the light and clear air that floats up is the sky, and the heavy and turbid air that condenses down is the earth.” This ended the state of chaos and created the four directions of the universe. Furthermore, “wonton” and “hundun” are homophonic, which means a full store of food. Eating wontons during the New Year means taking the beginning of the new year. Legend has it that the world was in a state of chaos before it was created, and only then did Pangu create the world and create the four directions of the universe.
Dumpling
Dumplings are one of China’s traditional foods. On New Year’s Eve, as soon as the clock strikes twelve o’clock, people start eating dumplings, so this time is the Zi hour, which means the alternation of the old and the new, and the coming of the Zi hour. Dumplings are usually made before 12 o’clock in the evening on New Year’s Eve and eaten at midnight. This is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month in the lunar calendar. Eating dumplings means “Jiaozi in the new year”. When the child is the child, the dumpling is handed over. homophonic. If northerners don’t eat dumplings on the night of the 30th, they will feel that there is no Chinese New Year atmosphere. They usually start eating dumplings on the morning of the next day during the Spring Festival.
Long noodles
Long noodles, also called longevity noodles. Eating noodles in the New Year is a wish for a hundred years of longevity. In the beginning, the noodles were not rolled or pressed, but the mixed noodles were torn into pieces by hand. After the Tang Dynasty, chopping boards were used to roll the noodles, and gradually there were long noodles, short noodles, and dry noodles. Noodles, plain noodles, meat noodles, dried noodles, all kinds.
Sweet dumpling
Also known as glutinous rice balls and floating yuanzi, it is more common in the south. Tangyuan is made from glutinous rice and rolled into a round shape (different flavors of fillings can be added into it), and then put into a pot for cooking, which symbolizes reunion. Tangyuan is usually served as breakfast or as a staple food for New Year’s Eve dinner. This delicacy is very popular whether in restaurants, hotels or at home.
According to traditional folk customs, New Year’s Eve dinner customs vary across China: northerners eat dumplings, southerners eat rice dumplings and water-milled rice cakes, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong and other places eat Yuanxiao on the first day of the Lunar New Year, either fried or boiled; people in Zhangzhou, Fujian On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, they eat raw garlic and preserved eggs; Chaozhou people in Guangdong eat the unique local “fuyuan” on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Rice cake
The custom of eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival began in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming Dynasty. Eating rice cakes is derived from the auspicious and wishful meaning of “every year (sticky) and high (cake)”, which is interpreted to mean rising every year. Nian Gao, also known as “Nian Nian Gao”, is homophonic with “Nian Nian Gao”, which means that people’s work and life are improving year by year. It is said that at first, rice cakes were used to worship gods at midnight and for ancestors during the New Year, and later became a Spring Festival food.
Fish
Eating fish during the Spring Festival is very particular, as it indicates that there will be plenty every year, so eating fish during the Spring Festival is a common custom in China. When having a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, fish is an indispensable dish on every dining table. The word “yu” for fish is the same as “yu”, which means there will be more than enough every year, which is auspicious and festive.
