The Dinner on the Spring Festival New Year Eve is considered the most important one.
Chinese New Years Eve
New Years Eve takes place the last day before the New Year. This is a very important time for family reunions. According to Chinese tradition people should stay together drinking, talking and eating until the midnight, which is a symbolic act of people cherishing the past year and also welcoming in the New Year. According to Chinese historical records, the tradition of Chinese New Years Eve was started during the North and South Dynasties (420 AD-589 AD).
People in the northern part of China like to eat dumplings during New Years Eve. The dumplings look like ingots, which is a kind of money used during ancient times, while people in the south eat Sticky Cake or New Year Cake, known as “Nian Gao”in Chinese. Nian means Year and Gao means step higher. This special food symbolizes the idea that people will step higher and higher in the New Year. The first bowl of dumplings and first piece of New Year Cake traditionally are also used to worship ancestors, symbolizing respect to the ancestors. The second bowl of dumplings is used to feed animals, like pigs, ox, etc, which symbolizes an appreciation of animals for feeding people in the past year. The third bowl of dumplings is for people. Even in today’s society people in more remote areas still keep this kind of tradition.
Spring Festival Dumplings
In the cities, people will use this time to call friends, relatives, etc to deliver greetings to each other and watch TV programs, like CCTV. The China Central TV station always prepares very good celebration for all Chinese people to watch. Almost 80% of China’s TV stations air this celebration on New Years Eve, making it possibly the most popular televised celebration in the world.
Sticky Cake in Shape of Fish
