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Certain dishes are eaten during the Chinese New Year for their symbolic meaning, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year. 

The auspicious symbolism of these traditional Chinese New Year foods is based on their pronunciations or appearance. 

We've rounded up seven essential Chinese New Year dishes, and included the symbolism behind them all.


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Fish 


In Chinese, "fish" (鱼 Yú ) sounds like "surplus".  Chinese people always like to have a surplus at the end of the year, because they think if they have managed to save something at the end of the year, then they can make more in the next year.

Steamed fish is one of the most famous Chinese New Year recipes. What fish should be chosen for the New Year dinner is based on auspicious homophonics.

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Dumplings


Dumplings are a classic Chinese food, and a traditional dish eaten on Chinese New Year's Eve, widely popular in China, especially in North China.

Dumplings can be made to look like Chinese silver ingots. Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat during the New Year celebrations, the more money you can make in the New Year.

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Spring Rolls


Spring rolls get their name because they are traditionally eaten during the Spring Festival. It is a dish especially popular in East China: Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, etc.

Spring rolls are a Cantonese dim sum dish of cylindrical-shaped rolls filled with vegetables, meat, or something sweet. Fillings are wrapped in thin dough wrappers, then fried, when the spring rolls are given their golden-yellow color.

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Glutinous Rice Cake


Glutinous rice cake is a traditional Chinese New Year recipe. In Chinese, glutinous rice cake sounds like it means "getting higher year-by-year". 

That means the higher you are the more prosperous your business is a general improvement in life. The main ingredients of glutinous rice cake are sticky rice, sugar, chestnuts, Chinese dates, and lotus leaves.

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Sweet Rice Balls


Sweet rice balls are the main food for China's Lantern Festival, however, in South China, people eat them throughout the Spring Festival. 

The pronunciation and round shape of tangyuan are associated with the reunion and being together. That's why they are favored by the Chinese during the New Year celebrations.

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Longevity Noodles


Longevity noodles unsurprisingly symbolize a wish for longevity. Their length and unsevered preparation are also symbolic of the eater's life.

They are longer than normal noodles and uncut, either fried and served on a plate or boiled and served in a bowl with their broth.

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Good Fortune Fruit


Certain fruits are eaten during the Chinese New Year period, such as tangerines and oranges, and pomeloes. They are selected as they are particularly round and "golden" in color, symbolizing fullness and wealth, but more obviously for the lucky sound they bring when spoken.

Eating and displaying tangerines and oranges is believed to bring good luck and fortune due to their pronunciation, and even writing. The Chinese for orange is 橙, which sounds the same as the Chinese for "success" (成). One of the ways of writing tangerine (桔) contains the Chinese character for luck (吉).

Eating pomeloes is thought to bring continuous prosperity. The Chinese for pomelo (柚) sounds like "to have" (有), except for the tone, and exactly like "again" (又).

From China Daily