Eat jiaozi in the New Year because "jiaozi" and "jiaozi" are homophonic. Eating jiaozi means happiness, reunion and good luck, and it also means good luck for a year. Eating jiaozi on New Year's Day expresses people's good wishes for life in the new year.

New Year's Day, namely 1 on the Gregorian calendar, is commonly known as "Chinese New Year" in most countries in the world. Yuan means "start", and the beginning of each number is called "yuan"; Dan means "day"; New Year's Day means "the first day". New Year's Day usually refers to the first day of the first month in the calendar.