1. Dumplings

are one of China’s traditional foods. Also called flat food or boiled pastry. In ancient times, there were only wontons but no dumplings. Later, the wontons were shaped into crescents and became dumplings. The habit of eating dumplings in the Tang Dynasty has spread to remote areas of China. On New Year's Eve, as soon as the clock strikes twelve o'clock, people start eating dumplings, so it is the Zi hour, which means the alternation of the old and the new, and the coming of the Zi hour.

2. Wontons

Eating wontons during the New Year takes its meaning from the beginning. It is said 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 having a full stockpile of food.

3. Long noodles

Also called longevity noodles, eat them in the New Year to wish you a hundred years of life. All pasta in ancient times was called cakes, so soup noodles were also called soup cakes at first. The first noodles were not rolled or pressed, but the mixed noodles were torn into pieces by hand and mixed with those eaten in the north. The methods of "crow head" and "monkey ear" are similar. After the Tang Dynasty, chopping boards began to be used to roll noodles, and gradually there were long noodles, short noodles, dry noodles, plain noodles, meat noodles, and dried noodles.

4. Tangyuan

Tangyuan is more common in the south. It is made by rolling glutinous rice into a round shape (different flavors of fillings can be added into it), and then put into a pot for cooking, which means reunion. Yuanxiao is usually served as breakfast or as a staple food for New Year's dinner. This delicacy is very popular whether in restaurants, hotels or at home.

In many places, some non-staple foods are served with the New Year’s dinner, in order to bring good luck. Eat dates (spring comes early), persimmons (good luck), almonds (happiness comes), tofu (family portrait), three delicacies (Sanyang Kaitai), peanuts (immortality), rice cakes (nigao niangao) , getting higher year by year)? Of course, the variety of New Year’s Eve dinner in China is even more abundant. Chicken, duck, fish, delicacies, and about the best dishes that can be seen in a year are all put on the table.

According to traditional folk customs, New Year’s Eve dinner customs vary across China: northerners eat dumplings, southerners eat rice dumplings and rice cakes, and places like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong eat Yuanxiao on the first day of the Lunar New Year, or Fried or boiled; people in Zhangzhou, Fujian eat raw garlic and preserved eggs on the morning of the first day of the lunar month; people in Chaozhou, Guangdong eat the local unique "fuyuan" on the first day of the lunar month; people of the Hui ethnic group eat noodles and stewed meat on the first day of the first lunar month, and only eat dumplings on the second day of the lunar month.

5. Rice cakes

The custom of eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival began in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming Dynasty. Eating rice cakes has evolved from the auspicious meaning of "every year (sticky) high (cake)" to mean rising every year.