Discover exciting ideas for celebrating Chinese New Year, from decorating your home to enjoying traditional foods. Get ready for a festive and auspicious celebration!The New Year’s holiday marathon is not over. Next up is the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, which the people of the Celestial Empire celebrate for two weeks. The dates change from year to year: in 2025, we celebrate from January 29 to February 12.
Ideas for Celebrating Chinese New Year.
Mume
Celebrate the change of years with dishes that are filled with meaning. For example, Lo-hei salad with salmon and vegetables attracts good luck and prosperity. Hot and sour soup with shark fins is served on special occasions and is a symbol of wealth and power. And dumplings (for example, with beef and shrimp) in China symbolize reunion with loved ones and wishes for health.
Mr. Lee
Traditionally, the two-week festivities to mark the arrival of the New Year in China culminate with the Lantern Festival, when red glowing symbols of the celebration are hung everywhere. So the lantern-shaped dessert plays on the essence: inside is a mousse dessert with passion fruit and coconut. But that’s later, and first – spring rolls with vegetables, glass noodles with shrimp and dim sum with scallops.
Chinese Literacy
Among the eight traditional culinary schools of the Celestial Empire, the most popular among foreigners is Cantonese, which originated in the southern province of Guangdong. The main New Year’s dish in this region is boiled chicken! Let’s diversify the holiday menu by including black duck eggs with tofu, stewed goose in a spicy broth and fried lamb ribs with Chinese spices.
Chuanyu
You still have time for the necessary rituals that the Chinese observe before the main night of the year. You need to do some cleaning, which will get rid of negative energy. Pay off debts – this will give you confidence. Decorate your house with red garlands and lanterns – for luck. And a new hairstyle and wardrobe will give you strength. And only then move on to the menu: how about roast roe deer or bear meat? Sounds very Sichuan.
Chow Chow
The most important part of New Year’s celebrations is the reunion dinner with loved ones. And to enhance the feeling of unity, you can serve a corresponding dish. We are talking about ho-go – “Chinese samovar”, when a pot of boiling broth (for example, from pho bo or tom yum) is brought to the table, in which the guests themselves cook the selected products: meat, vegetables, seafood.
Chinese News
Dragon and lion dances, fireworks, temple fairs, lantern lighting: Chinese New Year is a street festival. And the streets of China are a separate story: neon signs, bright posters, continuous movement. The noisy, bright and cheerful atmosphere is recreated in the restaurant: the ambience will help you choose between Peking duck and Sichuan beef.
Wu Shu.
Chinese wisdom says: a holiday begins with a feast. And tables in China are round, with a rotating platform in the center. On it appear Peking duck, a colorful mix of dim sum, tofu tebu, ludan egg, fried milk… Such a table brings people together, does not single anyone out (no one sits at the head), there is no need to bother others with a request to pass this or that dish, it is enough to spin the “disk”.
Old Sichuan
Ice cream for children, flowers for women: there is a similar principle in China. On New Year’s Eve, children are given money in a red envelope, and the older generation is given fruit and milk. Neighbors and friends are presented with tangerines. However, if you are going to visit and decide to bring a hot dish to the table, you can cook, for example, carp with green peas and bamboo: fish is a symbol of abundance.