Year of the Dog 2006

                    Happy Chinese New Year

Foods

Dumpling

Since the Spring Festival marks the first day of a brand new year, the first meal is rather important. People from north and south have different sayings about the food they eat on this special day.

In Northern China, people usually eat Jiaozi or dumplings shaped like a crescent moon. It is said that dumplings were first known in China some 1,600 years ago. Its Chinese pronunciation Jiaozi means midnight or the end and the beginning of time. According to historical records, people from both north and south ate dumplings on Chinese New Year's Day. Perhaps because Southern China produced more rice than any other area, gradually, southern people had many more other choices on New Year's Day.

Noodles

In addition to Jiaozi, the most common foods for the first meal of the Spring Festival are noodles, New Year Cakes and Tangyuan, a kind of round sweet dumplings. In China, the noodle symbolizes longevity. Both the cakes and dumplings are made of glutinors rice flour.

Nian Gao

The New Year Cake is called Nian Gao. The Chinese characters 'Niangao' is the homophone of 'High Year', meaning "getting better year by year". It conveys people's hope of improvement in life year after year. The round sweet dumpling is also a symbol of reunion.

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