Spring Festival foods

The Spring Festival is the most important festival in China, celebrating the earth coming back to life. The festival falls on the 1st day of the lunar new year. It is the custom for the Chinese people to visit relatives and enjoy family reunions during the Spring Festival.

People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China.

Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another."