What You Need To Have For Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year (CNY) is just round the corner and besides doing spring cleaning you also need to prepare and get ready the goodies! Incase you are preparing to stock up on some new year shopping and goodies, here is a list you would not want to miss.
What you need to prepare for Chinese New Year:
1. Tangerines and Oranges
Displaying and eating these fruits is said to bring wealth and luck. It’s good if the mandarins have leaves as leaves symbolize longevity. But don’t group them in fours as the number four is associated with death.
2. Long Noodles
Long noodles represent long life.
Put out for visiting relatives to snack on, or given as a gift, the eight (a traditionally symbolic lucky number) compartments of the tray are filled with things such as preserved kumquats(preserved fruit) for prosperity, sweet coconut shreds (tong ye si) for togetherness, longans to bring many sons, chocolates, sweetened lotus root (tong lin ngua) and red melon seeds for happiness.
4. Nian Gao
Nian Gao symbolizes achieving new heights in the coming year. The steamed sweets are made of glutinous rice flour, brown sugar, and oil. Some versions have white sesame seeds, red dates, or nuts in them.
5. Pomelo
This large citrus fruit is popular as it is thought to bring continuous prosperity,
6. Jai
This vegetarian dish is eaten because it’s part of the Buddhist culture to cleanse yourself with vegetables. It’s also packed with “good-luck food” like sea moss for prosperity; lotus seeds for children/birth of sons; noodles for longevity; lily buds to “send 100 years of harmonious union”; Chinese black mushrooms to “fulfill wishes from east to west and more.
7. Long Leafy Greens and Long Beans
Leafy greens, such as Chinese broccoli that are served whole is used to wish for a long life for parents.
8. Whole Fish
The Chinese word for fish sounds like abundance so it’s important that the fish is served with it’s head and tail intact to ensure a good start and finish and to avoid bad luck throughout the year.
Serving desserts brings a sweet life in the new year. A traditional sweet includes the flaky cookie pockets called gok jai, filled with peanuts, coconut, and sesame.
10. Yuanbao (Jiaozi)
Jiaozi dumplings are eaten in the Northern part of China. Families will make a dough and wrap it around pork and cabbage, and boil the dumplings. They are then serve them with vinegar and soy sauce. Jiaozi is called yuanbao, as they are shaped into an ingot which used to be an ancient Chinese currency. Eating these yuanbao is said to bring prosperity. While making them, families sometimes tuck good-luck foods like peanuts (to bring long life) into some of them.
Wishing all a Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai!