This Chinese New Year has been pretty tame, compared to the constant festivities, outings, and reunions we had last year. This year, we remained in at home, barely even venturing outdoors. Instead, we stayed warm and cozy, spending a lot of quality time with our little diminishing family. This year’s celebrations could be summarized as a lot of good home cooked food, a lot of relaxation, and a lot of mahjong.
One thing we did do though. We celebrated all the right ways with all the food traditions. So this year, I thought it’d be fun to tell you a bit about typical Chinese New Year traditions.
Chinese New Year is pretty intense in China. It’s so important that everyone gets the entire week off of work. Usually that time is spent visiting different family members to wish them good luck and prosperity in the new year. Of course, this translates to a lot, a lot of eating. Chinese New Year is like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one holiday, magnified by 10, and then spread over a couple of weeks.
There are a lot of auspicious foods eaten during the celebrations. Usually the foods have lucky meaning because of how they sound or look. Here’s what my family got up to this Chinese New Year and some of the important traditions!
Chinese New Year Eve
This year, I made sure to get to Beijing on Chinese New Year Eve. This is traditionally a big family gathering night for a “ringing in the new year with luck” feast.
Normally, dumplings are eaten on Chines New Year Eve. Dumplings symbolize wealth and prosperity for the new year because they are shaped like ancient Chinese gold coins. The superstition is that the more you eat during the new year celebrations, the more wealthy you’ll become. I guess that’s a good reason to stuff yourself silly!
It’s important to make the dumplings by hand. My uncle prepared the dough and used a machine to squeeze it into sheets, from which he could cut into round pieces for the wrappers. The dumplings were wrapped by my aunt and grandma, while my only job was to transfer the wrappers from the kitchen to the dining table.
I think we made well over 150 dumplings that day.
Also, you should do any house cleaning you need to do on this day. 1) to start off the new year with a clean house, and 2) because any cleaning in the first few days of the new year could be sweeping away good luck.
1st day of Chinese New Year
On this day, a couple of extended family members came over to spend the day. We had a huge traditional CNY dinner – all homemade by my aunt and uncle, the masterchefs.
Here are just a couple of the traditional dishes:
Fish is a MUST for a lucky CNY feast. It’s an auspicious dish because the Chinese saying for fish is “yu”, which is also the same pronunciation as “abundance”. Thus, fish symbolizes that the year will have surplus. And tradition is that you’re supposed to leave parts of the fish to further symbolize surplus. However, I don’t think this is a family tradition for us. I think we just didn’t finish the fish because we have way too much food on the table. :P
This glass noodle + spinach dish is a family tradition from my aunt’s family. It’s tossed with a delicious secret recipe sauce that’s peppery and flavorful. She remembers her dad making a huge bowl of this for her large family every year. Both of her parents are now confined to hospital care, and she has continued this tradition.
Here’s my contribution to the family feast: prawn crackers flown all the way from Malaysia :P. This isn’t tradition (obviously), but just wanted to show it.
Noodles are another important traditional dish to eat on the first day of CNY. The long strands of noodles symbolize longevity. The longer the better. Again, my uncle made the noodles from scratch.
Noodles can be eaten many different ways, but my uncle made da lu mian (Chinese gravy noodles). This is a northern China noodle dish made of a thick broth loaded with veggies (and we also had shredded chicken). It’s very much a homestyle dish, so each family will have their own recipe and way of making it. I remember my mom always making this for us, and it’s the ultimate comfort food on a cold day!
Oh, and it was my uncle’s birthday! He was born on the first day of Chinese New Year of his year, and even though the date of CNY changes every year, that’s when we always celebrate his birthday. His real birth date? I’m not sure anyone knows…
This next one doesn’t specifically fit into a certain day, but more like just throughout the celebration. I think we actually ate this on the 2nd or 3rd day.
Sticky rice cake is a must during CNY. The reason for this is because the Mandarin pronunciation for sticky rice cake is nian gao (年糕), which also sounds like “every year higher” (meaning more and more success every year).
Sticky rice cake is a sweet “cake” made with sticky rice layered with red bean paste and/or date paste. My grandma likes to spruce hers up with dates, chestnuts, and chocolate. I know the picture doesn’t look like anything, but it’s really good!
5th day of Chinese New Year
This day is known as po wu (破五), which literally means “break five”. The “break” means that the many bad luck taboos break on this day. This is another important day for family gatherings and feasts. So my aunt’s sisters’ families came over for the day.
Traditionally, Northern Chinese will celebrate with day with dumplings. It’s especially important to make the dumplings completely from scratch on this day. Any vegetables and minced meat for the filling need to be chopped completely by hand. The dough for the wrappers need to be cut and rolled by hand. My uncle prepared the meat while my aunts made the dough and wrapped the dumplings (I forgot to take a picture of this because I was too busy winning at mahjong.. oops).
Also, on this 5th day, you can start to sweep the house again, as the taboo has broken. Most shops and small businesses also re-open on this day. After the big feast, my grandma and I finally returned to her place after 6 days spent at my aunt and uncle’s.
7th day of Chinese New Year
This day was li chun (立春), or Coming of Spring. I believe li chun is on the same day every year, but this year just happened to occur on the 7th day of CNY. Perfect – just another reason to have a huge dinner! This is a holiday that signifies that winter is ending and that from this day forward, the days will get warmer and warmer.
To celebrate Coming of Spring, what else do we eat but… Chinese spring rolls (春餅)? My aunt and uncle came over for dinner to share this meal with us.
Chinese spring rolls is basically a variety of meats and veggies to be wrapped in a large soft doughy wrapper. It’s accompanied with a sweet dark bean sauce and spring onion sprigs. Think of it like a Chinese burrito. Standard dishes always include scrambled eggs, glass noodles, and bean sprouts. This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes!
I forgot to take a picture of how it looks assembled, so here’s an older picture from another time:
For my family, this day also marked the 1 year anniversary of my grandfather’s passing.
15th day of Chinese New Year
The 15th day is the last official day of CNY. Yep, we really know how to celebrate over 2 weeks of festivities. (We haven’t gotten to this day yet for 2017, but I figured I’ll still write about it.)
The 15th day is known as the Lantern Festival and is always the night of the first full moon of the new year. On this day all over China, glutinous rice balls (tang yuan, 汤圆) are made and eaten. The roundness of the rice balls symbolize togetherness and family gathering. This is the last day that the family will all gather together to celebrate CNY for the final night. After this day, things go back to normal and there are no more new year wishes.
Last year, I wrote an entire post about this including a step-by-step recipe for making the glutinous rice balls from scratch. Check it out here!
Maybe we didn’t do quite as many activities this year, but our time so far has been filled with warmth, tradition, and family. It’s been the perfect way to celebrate :).
Have you heard of any of these traditions before? Have you celebrated CNY before? If you’re from another country that celebrates CNY, let me know how you celebrate or if you have any of these traditions. I’m curious!
omg everything looks sooo yummy!!!
They were! wish you were here!
What a celebration!! I hope you are having a wonderful CNY with all your family! Happy New Year to you and I wish you nothing but happiness and anything else you might fancy!
Thanks Kerri, and we are! It’s pretty quiet this year, but can’t complain about a lot of food and relaxation!
Everything looks so tasty! I have a long-standing invitation with one of my best friend’s fathers to stay at their house for CNY but I’ve never been in the position to be able to. I really hope I can one day! x
Oh that is so awesome!! If you get the chance to, I hope you take up on it Amanda. I bet they have wonderful celebrations too with a lot of good food!
great traditions! lots of yummy food:) #wanderfulwednesday
Yeah, everything was delicious, especially when it’s all home made! :)
Wow I never realized how symbolic the food was I was eating! How amazing that your uncle made the noodles from scratch, along with everything else! He makes it look so easy! My mom used to make homemade spring rolls when I was a kid and they were amazing! She learned how to make them when she lived in Japan before I was born. She doesn’t make them anymore which makes me sad! Guess I’ll have to continue the tradition! #WanderfulWednesday
That’s so cool that your mom used to make homemade spring rolls.. I hope you learn and continue! I know someday, I’ll have to learn all this too, so I can continue the tradition as well. Hehe I guess it’s easy to make noodles from scratch when there’s a machine that can feed the dough through and it cuts it into strips. But another way to do it without the machine is to cut the dough into strips yourself and then pull on them to make them long.
Oh my god all that food!!! Looks amazing! I wish I’ll get to experience Chinese New Year one day ;)
You’ll have to get out of the arctic ;). CNY is a pretty amazing celebration, and we really know how to eat!
Ummmm this all looks SO good!! I have some food allergies so wasn’t able to eat Chinese food for a long time – then in December I went to a Chinese restaurant that catered for my allergies and OH MY – your food is SOOO good!! I think the spring rolls look the yummiest :) I also love that there is meaning and tradition behind each meal!
Yeah it was so fun to learn more about the traditions and symbolism of food eaten during the CNY celebrations. I’m glad you found a Chinese restaurant you can actually eat at!
Well, the dishes are different (since Malaysian Chinese are mostly Cantonese), but the activities are the same. Cook, eat, repeat. :D
Don’t forget the mahjong! Hmmm do you guys at least eat fish and noodles (since I know malaysians love their noodles). Oh wait, you guys have that yee sang thing, which I’ve never experienced.
150 dumplings in one day!! Wow! I’m very hungry now… sadly it’s difficult to find good Chinese food in Italy :(
It didn’t even take them that long to make that many dumplings! Oh yeah, I can imagine it being really hard to find authentic Chinese food in Italy. But Italy has it’s own version of dumplings and a lot of noodles, of course. :)
We have seriously been talking about making dumplings recently! It was dumpling week here in Portland, Or and we’ve been inspired. Now we are even more inspired! Thanks for the awesome post girl.
That sounds amaaaazing – dumpling week!! Dumplings are seriously my favorite food and I can probably eat it every day for the rest of my life. And I love Portland! I visited once on vacation and have been wanting to go back ever since. I hope your dumplings making was successful! :)
If you ever visit, let us know, we will take you an awesome Russian restaurant with the best dumplings.
Oh my such wonderful food and one of them my favorite are the dumplings. Great information on the food traditions. Thanks for sharing :-)
Dumplings are my favorite too! I can never get tired of eating them.. so I love it that it’s such a huge part of CNY. :)
So lovely to learn the history and thinking behind some of these traditions Anna. I just love how something like noodles represent longevity – so simple yet so meaningful! And SO impressed that they have made them all from scratch! Bet they taste amazing and all those homemade dumplings are so tempting!!
It was fun for me to learn about the traditions and experience them too. My aunt and uncle are obsessed with making all their dough products from scratch now ever since they bought the machine. They do taste so much better!
Food, food glorious food. Great information regarding the traditions of the food too. #feetdotravel
Thanks Carole :). It was fun to experience CNY and go through all the traditions!
All of this looks so good. I wish a Chinese family will adopt me during the CNY, I will be the happiest person ever; and that noodles machine – OMG I wish I could have one (and use it). I bet the food was delicious and you had a great family time. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Oana! If you ever have a Chinese friend who invites you over during CNY, do it! Yeah the noodles machine is so cool, and makes making noodles look sooo easy.
OMG everything looks so good! We’ve been to Beijing and loved the dumplings there! thanks for sharing all these traditions, really interesting read, oh and great foodie pics too!
I love the dumplings in Beijing too – they’re my absolute favorite! And it’s so hard to find good ones outside of China. I always can’t wait to come back to Beijing to gorge on dumplings, especially when they’re homemade. :D
I really like how family oriented CNY is and the food looks amazing ! Thank your for sharing your family time with us :-)
Thanks for reading Sam! Family is such a huge deal in China in general. It is really nice how everyone gets the whole week off just to visit with family!
That just looks incredible! I love Chinese food and it was really interesting to read about the traditions and how to correctly make it! Sounds like an incredible family experience and I am sure you found it difficult to get up after all that food! Thanks for sharing
Oh boy, I stuffed myself silly every meal. And there wasn’t even a chance to be hungry at all in between meals, haha! And don’t even mention the weight I’ve gained!
I’m happy to say I’ve eaten most of these foods or knew the significance of them. This is because my husband is Chinese and I was very involved in the Chinese Student Organization in college. I still don’t know how to play mahjong though. Time to learn!
I loved your post on Chinese New Year customs! Haha I just learned to play mahjong last year, and it is *very* addicting. So easy to just spend hours playing and not even realize!
I believe it! Whenever I see people play, they are playing for hours!
Love the look of all that food! Looks like and amazing celebration! Would love to be in China some time for the New Years celebrations that’s for sure!
We had a good time! Honestly, China (at least, Beijing) is not very exciting during Chinese New Year. It is very quiet and dead, because everyone goes back to their hometown or is with their family. But if you can find a Chinese family to take you in, then it is absolutely wonderful! :)
Anna, thank you! I miss CNY in Beijing and just love the traditions and the food that go with it. Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Xin Nian Kuai Le to you too Shona! I hope you’re able to recreate some of the meals and traditions! :)
What I absolutely adored about visiting China the most, was the people and it’s strong sense of family and community values! In truth, the world can learn a lot from how the Chinese are so social and family-orientated, it was heart-warming to see so I am not surprised that CNY is celebrated with loved ones steeped in tradition. I absolutely loved this post, not just for finding out more about the meaning behind the celebrations but hearing it from a chinese perspective was brilliant so thank you Anna for sharing this! I love dumplings and had an opportunity of making them whilst in Beijing, but to make 150, wow, I hope there were a few of you :D I didn’t realise the importance of fish in CNY as we don’t eat it (we are divers so like to see the fish swimming and not on our plates but that’s purely our choice and understand there are many people in the world who love fish), this means that we would miss out on an important part of the tradition so when we do get a chance to be a part of a CNY (which we definitely want to do!), we will be sure to put this aside to fully immerse ourselves :D #feetdotravel
You are so right, Angie – Chinese people are so family oriented, and i love that! I mean, they get an entire week off just to visit family for CNY! That’s so awesome that you learned to make dumplings in Beijing! They’re my absolute favorite. And don’t worry about not eating fish… I don’t have any qualms about eating it, but whole fish is definitely not my favorite, and I try to not eat it if I can get away with anyone not noticing :’D.
Thanks for sharing all the traditions and customs that the Chinese enjoy during the New Year celebrations. Great family time and a lot of love going into those dishes. All that wonderful food, I would have to at least taste most of it!
Thanks for reading Lisa! I love all the traditions and family time we have for CNY too. It’s so hard not to stuff yourself silly for every meal!
I love Chinese New Year as it equals lots of food for me! Seriously though I do enjoy traditional Chinese food as it’s so much better than the Chinese takeaway stuff I used to eat as a kid in the UK. My girlfriend is from Taiwan so we had some rice balls the other day :)
Oh yeah, you can’t compare real Chinese food to that takeaway crap! I can never do that since I grew up on real homemade Chinese food. That’s so awesome that you had rice balls. I hope you and your gf celebrated CNY with just as much food and traditions!
My mouth is watering! So cool that your uncle makes noodles from scratch. I need to get myself one of those noodle makers! Thanks for sharing about all these delicious foods :D
The noodle maker is so easy use and makes making noodles/dumplings from scratch seem to easy! Thanks for reading Diana. :)
Oh my goodness, so much delicious food! I’d love to try da lu mian, it sounds right up my street :)
You can totally make it yourself!! It’s just a bunch of veggies in a broth, and mix that with cooked noodles. I think we usually do that string mushroom, woodear, cucumber, tomato, and beaten egg. I think the broth is chicken broth with soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, white pepper, and a bit of starch to thicken it up. It’s super easy to make!
Yum! Ok, I’m going to try it :)
Omg this is the besssst. We had a Chinese New Year celebration in my Mandarin class this year! :) Also – I BOOKED MY CHINA TICKET! Yahooo! I’ll be in Beijing June 25-29th-ish and then in Chengdu July 1-30! It’d be sooo cool to meet up! <3
HOW EXCITING!!!! Omg I’ve always wanted to go to Chengdu. I love the food in that region and to see the pandas of course!!! Let’s try to make that happen!