14 Traditional Foods To Enjoy During Chinese New Year

Across the globe, many cultures have devised ways to usher in the new year, usually with much pomp, joy, and enthusiasm. In China, the festivities last for 15 days, a week of which is a public holiday. The date of the Chinese New Year varies every year; because it follows the lunar calendar, it occurs on the second new moon after the Winter solstice. As such, the festival also welcomes the beginning of spring, which is why you may hear the Chinese New Year referred to as the Spring Festival or the Lunar Festival.

As China's most significant celebration, the festivities and food are unmatched. The first banquet is a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve; it's an opportunity for all the family to gather together and enjoy foods that symbolize luck, prosperity, and harmony. There are many new year's food superstitions worldwide, but have you heard of noodles that determine the length of your life? Wordplay that suggests eating special snacks might bring you gold? We like the sound of that! Let's delve into the traditional foods you can enjoy during the Chinese New Year.

A cake is typically at the forefront of any celebration, and this is no exception. In Northern China, people make nián gāo by steaming glutinous rice flour, sugar, and water together in a small woven bowl lined with banana leaves. Often, revelers will place a small, circular piece of red paper on top of the Chinese New Year cake. Red has long been associated with power, happiness, celebration, fertility, and even repelling evil. So, from paper lanterns to sweets, you'll see the color everywhere during Chinese New Year.

Due to the relatively small number of syllables in modern Chinese languages, homophones — characters that sound the same but have different meanings — are common. Nián gāo means sticky cake and "higher year," (via the Journal of Pragmatics), which symbolizes children's growth, higher income, and better times to come, explains Inquirer.net. The source continues by telling the story of how nián gāo was named: A clever villager named Gāo managed to outsmart a monster named Nián who intended to eat the people. Gāo instructed them to make rice cakes and place them outside their doors. The monster ate the rice cakes and left the people in peace, hence nián gāo.

Spring rolls are a beloved appetizer in Chinese restaurants worldwide due to their crispy, paper-thin pastry and savory, umami-packed filling. Although it's a traditional Chinese recipe, thin spring rolls are most likely to be found in restaurants that specialize in Northern Chinese cuisine. Further south, you're more likely to find what Americans know as an "egg roll," a thicker, more robust version.

In celebration of Chinese New Year, spring rolls are piled high on dinner tables everywhere. Even the name, chūn juǎn, directs to the history of spring rolls as a spring festival (otherwise known as Chinese New Year) dish sent to family members to bless the new season, (via UPB Products). There's even a lucky idiom shared as you eat spring rolls: "Hwung-jin wan-lyang," which translates to "A ton of gold," refers to the fact that golden-brown and crispy spring rolls look like gold nuggets. Due to this, spring rolls traditionally symbolize wealth and prosperity.

If you'd like to make homemade spring rolls for a special spring festival banquet, ensure success by avoiding these common mistakes people make with spring rolls. Fill them with shredded vegetables, noodles, beansprouts, or pork, and you're guaranteed to get everyone drooling.

According to the BBC, revelers mark the final day (the 15th day) of celebrations with the Lantern Festival. On this day, hundreds of lavishly decorated paper lanterns are released into the sky to symbolize letting go of the old and welcoming the new. Afterward, the whole family comes together to share a sweet dessert made from glutinous rice stuffed with roasted black sesame seeds, sugar, and butter, named tāng yuán. Although the name directly translates to soup balls, it also sounds similar to the word for a reunion. Because the Chinese New Year is one of the most significant occurrences in the Chinese calendar, families will travel long distances to reunite, making the homophone especially poignant. However, per KCRW, in the Northern regions of China, some people still refer to tāng yuán by its ancient moniker, yuán xiāo. Yuán xiāo has a poetic translation of "first evening," referring to the new moon rising for the first time. Did you notice that the sweets look just like the new moon?

You'll find the glutinous rice balls served in a thin, sweet broth and, per Chinese superstition, you should invariably distribute the sweets in even numbers — excluding four, which has an unfortunate association with death, (via Vice).

Whole poached chicken, also known as a white-cut chicken, is one of the most prevalent preparations across Southern China and Hong Kong. The chicken is cooked whole (head, feet, and all) using a slow poaching technique that yields tender, juicy, and succulent meat with crunchy skin. After cooking, the chicken is cut into small pieces and seasoned with aromatic ginger, scallion, and soy sauce oil which celebrates the subtle flavor of the meat. Some Chinese restaurants will spice the poaching broth with turmeric to color the chicken skin pale yellow; many communities value this as a sign of a healthy chicken. Additionally, smaller chickens produce a more delicate flavor and succulent texture. Head out to your local Asian grocery shop for the best choice.

Some of you may be reluctant to give this one a go — after all, very few people think poaching is the best way to cook chicken. Nevertheless, poaching is a tremendously healthy way to prepare chicken, and Chinese cuisine has perfected the method. Gone is dry, bland chicken. In its place rises gentle, meltingly tender meat. Even chef and food show host Andrew Zimmern is a fan of poached chicken, so why not try serving the Chinese dish along with some rice on your dinner table this Chinese New Year?

One of an array of vegetarian dishes enjoyed for the Chinese New Year, Buddha's delight is perhaps the most robust and hearty. The meal obtained its name due to its popularity amongst Buddhist monks, who follow a vegetarian diet. Of course, it's not just monks who enjoy this dish. It's recently acquired worldwide popularity as a light and tasty dish suitable for vegans and vegetarians, but everyone — regardless of their dietary requirements — enjoys Buddha's delight during the festive period.

The ingredients in Buddha's delight vary widely depending on the region and chef. Typically, you'll find lightly braised vegetables such as crunchy bamboo shoots, crisp water chestnuts, earthy wood ear mushrooms, fresh carrots, leeks, baby corn, and snow peas. Proteins like wheat gluten (seitan), beancurd sticks, and fried tofu provide nutrition and soak up the tempting flavors of sesame oil, soy sauce, and vegetable soak used to cook the ingredients.

Lotus isn't just beautiful flowers; all parts of the aquatic plant, from the stems, roots, seeds, and petals, are used in Asian cuisine. According to Healthline, the ingredient has been used for at least 7,000 years, and in centuries past, many people believed that the plant could heal ailments such as coughs, fever, and high blood pressure. It transpires that lotus does indeed have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.

One of the most common ways to enjoy lotus for the Chinese New Year is in a hearty soup with a subtle sweetness. Lotus root soup with pork ribs is perfect for omnivores; the ribs impart a fatty, salty depth of flavor. Alternatively, vegetarian preparations with peanuts are just as popular — they symbolize longevity, via The Journal of Ethnic Foods. Although it's hard to date when lotus root soup began to be associated with Chinese New Year, archaeologists uncovered a pot of lotus soup in an ancient tomb, per ECNS.

Originating in China, gai lan is a fresh leafy green that's part of the Brassica family, just like broccoli and kale. Like other members of the same family, gai lan is incredibly nutrient-dense; it provides just over 40% of your daily recommended vitamin C, according to WebMD. In addition to offering health benefits, gai lan is the perfect simple, crisp, and fresh side dish when stir-fried with garlic, chili, and oyster sauce. Furthermore, gai lan represents harmony in family and relationships.

If you don't have access to gai lan, either broccolini or large flowering broccoli can work as substitutes. Indeed, in Chinese culture, flowering broccoli is seen as auspicious because the flower signifies new life. Each variety has a different flavor — broccolini is mild, sweet, and tender, compared to earthy and crispy flowering broccoli — but all options will pair beautifully with the other dishes in a Chinese New Year banquet.