by Tricia Lye

Created on: February 05, 2011   Last Updated: January 18, 2012

Depending on the dialect group, traditional foods for the Chinese new year or Spring festival differs from region to region. Whichever that year may be on the Chinese zodiac, traditional foods that celebrate the end of winter also is an extension of the hope for a good year ahead.

Northern Chinese favors dumplings as a new year food. Wrapped with fillings of minced meat and chopped vegetables, the little ingots are expertly made by the women folk of the household on the eve of the new year for the reunion dinner of that night. Excess dumplings are also deliberately made as leftovers for the first day of the new year. This symbolizes an excess for the year to come.

Spring festivities brings about a plethora of dishes which would normally not be consumed, especially for the rural folks. Whole fish , which rhymes with 'abundance' ,  are de rigueur on any Chinese table. Folks in Hubei, China's central province, serve their chicken in soup, symbolizing completeness and peace, and the claws eaten for a better grasp of the year's fortune.

In southern China, waxed meats and sausages are regarded as a traditional new year treat. The meat is prepared by steaming on rice, with its fatty drippings flavoring it.

Nearby Fujian favors the longevity wheat noodles on the first day of the lunar new year, prepared without any cutting implements for a good long life. Across the straits, in Taiwan where local beliefs mingle with Chinese traditions, ' longevity vegetables' is a dish of  stringy mustard  leaves fried and mung bean noodles eaten for the same reason.

Sticky rice cakes, made from milled glutinous rice and brown sugar, are first offered to the door god to bribe him into making a good report for the household to the heavenly authorities. The rice cakes seal the mouth of the messenger and forestall any trouble for the year.  Sticky rice cakes, which rhymes with 'promotion' are also eaten with the hope that careers would advance by leaps and bounds.

Little rice dumplings, stuffed with brown sugar, are cooked in a syrupy concoction of  preserved dates and dried fruits. The dumplings, rhyming with 'reunion', ensures the family sticks together and are eaten on the first day of the new year.

Traditional snacks for children and visitors are placed in an octagonal shaped container, the 8-treasure-box, with an offering of nuts and preserved fruits that symbolizes  fertility and a life of bliss for the coming year. The list is inexhaustible : candied lotus, candied melon strips, melon seeds, walnuts, groundnuts, cashew nuts, pistachios and candy are just a few of the popular choices.

Chinese new year traditional foods are a reflection of the desire for good fortune, familial peace and longevity. Above all, these foods bring a sense of security into the new year, a source of comfort with which one faces the uncertainties ahead. 

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