Chinese New Year

Food, Traditions, Lunar Calendar, Other Countries

 Samantha - Food
During the Chinese New Year, Chinese people eat a variety of Chinese food: Dumplings, fish, spring rolls,
and niangao, sweet rice balls, good fortune fruit, and longevity noodles.Chinese specifically eat these
foods because it is believed if they eat them, their year will be filled with luck, wealth, happiness, and
blessings.

❖ Dumplings: Chinese people eat dumplings during the new year because they believe it will bring
them wealth. These are especially eaten in North China. Chinese don't eat Chinese sauerkraut (酸菜
suāncài /swann-tseye/) dumplings at Spring Festival, because it implies a poor and difficult future.
On New Year's Eve it is a tradition to eat dumplings with cabbage and radish, implying that one's
skin will become fair and one's mood will become gentle.
❖ Fish: Eating fish causes an increase in prosperity. These are the luckiest fish to eat: Crucian carp,
Chinese mud carp, eating two fish, eating one catfish
❖ Spring rolls: Wealth - there is a lucky saying for spring rolls: “A ton of gold”. This is said because
spring rolls look like golden bars.
❖ Sweet rice balls(tangyuan): Eating this brings family togetherness.
❖ Longevity noodles(changsou): Happiness and Longevity.
❖ Good fortune fruit: brings fullness and wealth
Megan - Traditions
● Ghosts, spirits, and Nian
○ Nian is a monster that brings destruction
○ To scare away Nian, Chinese people…
■ Wear red
■ Hang red banners
■ Set off firecrackers
■ Perform a lion dance
● Food
○ Jiaozi resemble ancient Chinese gold
○ In the southern parts of China, rice cakes are more common than Jiaozi
● Red envelopes
○ Older generations give younger generations red envelopes filled with money
■ Lucky money
○ Some companies even give end-of-year bonuses in red envelopes
Angel - Lunar Calendar
- Lunar Year is Friday, February 16
- A lunar year is only 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 34 seconds.
- The lunar calendars lose around 11 days per year
- The beginnings of the Chinese calendar can be traced back to the 14th century
B.C.E.
- Emperor Huangdi invented the calendar in 2637 B.C.E.
Luis - Other Countries
● Other countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year besides china are Vietnam
and Korea
● Korean New Year's celebrations begin with everyone wearing traditional
dress called a hanbok
● A traditional New Year's meal for Koreans is duk gook a soup of thinly sliced
rice cakes
● It officially ends on the seventh day marked by dragon processions stalking
the streets
● A traditional New Year's meal for Vietnamese is Banh Chung