What is the significance of eating dumplings at New Year's Eve dinner?

Dumplings have the meaning of the old and the new is also adhering to the meaning of God, people will be used as a tribute on New Year's Eve and rituals, while the Spring Festival when the family in a distant place to come back and the family over the Spring Festival to eat dumplings, it is in order to show that there is a successful homecoming.

The custom of eating dumplings at Chinese New Year already appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Every day from 23:00 to 1:00 alternating time is called Zi Shi, and the New Year's Eve is the old and new year alternating called Zi Jiaoshi. Therefore, eating dumplings at Chinese New Year takes the meaning of "changing the year and handing over", "子" for "子时" and "交" for "子时" and "饺" for "交" and "饺". The word "dumpling" has the same sound as "饺", which means "joyful reunion" and "good luck".

Expanded Information:

The Origin of Dumplings

Dumplings Originating in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was first created by Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of medicine. Dumplings are made with cold water and flour, the flour and water are kneaded together to form a large coarse dough, covered with a dry, wet gauze or towel, and left to molasses for an hour or so, then cut with a knife or hand-picked into a number of small dough balls, which are then successively kneaded into a long, round strip of about 3 centimeters in diameter, and then cut with a knife or hand-picked into a single, small noodle dessert.

Roll these small dosage of dough with a small rolling pin into a dumpling skin slightly thicker in the middle and thinner around the periphery, wrapped around the filling, pinched into a crescent shape or horn shape, first boil cold water, wrapped up into a pot and use a slotted spoon or a soup ladle (reversed convex-side up) along the edge of the pot to prevent the dumplings from sticking in a circular arc, cook until the dumplings float to the surface of the water can be (such as meat fillings can be added to the boil a little cold water to reboil, repeated). (For meat filling, add a little cold water to the boiling water and boil again, two or three times).

The dumpling skin can also be made of hot noodles, crispy noodles, or rice flour; the filling can be meat or vegetarian, sweet or salty; the maturation method can also be used for steaming, boiling, pan-frying, deep-frying, and so on; the meat fillings include sanshin, shrimp, crab roe, sea cucumber, fish, chicken, pork, beef, mutton, and so on; and the vegetarian fillings can be divided into assorted vegetal fillings and ordinary vegetal fillings, etc. The dumplings are characterized by a thin skin, and the skin is very thin. Dumplings are characterized by thin skin and tender filling, delicious flavor, unique shape, never get tired of eating.

Dumplings are made from a wide variety of nutrients, and the steaming method ensures less nutritional loss and is in line with the Chinese food culture of color and flavor. Dumplings are a time-honored folk food, popular among the general public, and there is a popular saying that "nothing tastes as good as dumplings". Dumplings have become an indispensable delicacy during the Chinese New Year festivities.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Dumplings