What do you eat during the Spring Festival?

1. jiaozi, also known as "jiaozi". Jiaozi originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and is an essential dish for the Northern New Year's Eve dinner. However, the custom of eating jiaozi varies from place to place, from jiaozi on New Year's Eve to jiaozi on New Year's Day.

Jiaozi's homophonic "Jiaozi", that is, the moment when the New Year and the Old Year intersect, means making friends at a young age. Eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival is considered a good thing. Besides, jiaozi looks like an ingot, while jiaozi is like good luck. Eating jiaozi means a rich life. Nowadays, eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival is a unique way for people to express their hope and pray for good luck when they bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.

2. rice cakes. Since the Zhou Dynasty, China has had the traditional custom of eating rice cakes in the New Year. Rice cakes are generally yellow and white, just like ancient gold and silver. Rice cakes not only reflect people's good wishes for a rich life and a bumper harvest, but also have the meaning of "high age" and longevity.

3. Spring cakes. In ancient beginning of spring, the Japanese often ate bread, which was very thin, so it was also called pancake. Spring cakes can be eaten with all kinds of vegetables, called spring plate. Every year when we arrive at the beginning of spring, many northern families eat spring cakes, which is called "biting spring". There are also spring cakes in Jiangnan, but the practice is different from that in the north.

4. Lantern Festival. In the south, it is called "Tangyuan". In some areas of Jiangsu and Shanghai, people will eat glutinous rice balls on the morning of the first day of New Year's Day. Yuanxiao looks like the moon, which means "round and round like the moon". In the Ming Dynasty, Lantern Festival was very common, and the practice was no different from today.