Don't Miss the Spring Festival Eve Dinner

The Spring Festival Eve, the last day of the last lunar month, is called Chuxi in Chinese. It is the most important day in the whole Spring Festival. Anyone who missed the Spring Festival Eve dinner, or the family reunion dinner on this day would feel very sorry. On this special day, all the preparation is made for the Spring Festival Eve dinner. It is the moment of joy for all adults and children because they can enjoy delicious food.

You can't miss the Spring Festival Eve dinner since there are so many delicious dishes. In ancient times, people can only enjoy the most delicious food on Spring Festival Eve. I want to introduce several famous dishes that are most frequently appearing “musts” in the Spring Festival Eve dinner.

1. Niangao
Southern Chinese eat niangao on Spring Festival Eve, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another."

Niangao, or sticky cake, is a typical traditional delight. There are a variety of ways to make niangao and there are also different kinds of niangao, such as Shanghai Niangao and Canton Niangao, Hunan Niangao, etc. Niangao is made of glutinous rice and other ingredients.

2. Fish
The Spring Festival Eve dinner, fish is included, but not eaten completely and the remainder is stored overnight. The strange tradition origins from the Chinese famous saying “年年有余” (nián nián yǒu yú), which means "may there be surpluses every year". Since it sounds the same as "may there be fish every year", people tend to believe that they shouldn’t finish eating the fish and should remain some to the next year.

3. Babaofan
“Babaofan”, or "Eight Treasures Rice", is made of glutinous rice and stuffed with red bean paste. Being decorated by jujubes, lotus seeds, cherries and the likes, babaofan symbolizes the treasures for the next year.