What food is eaten on New Year's Day

The customary foods for the Lunar New Year include dumplings, sticky cakes, sesame candies, guan dong candies, sugar melons, rice cakes, fire roasts, rice cakes, popcorn candies and fried corn.

Southern people usually eat rice cakes, rice crackers, dumplings and Zao sugar;

Northern people usually eat dumplings, pasta and sugar melons.

Expanded Information:

Small New Year Origin:

The twenty-third and twenty-fourth days of the twelfth month of the Lunar Calendar are the traditional days of the Zaos festival in Chinese folklore, also known as the "small year". Legend has it that Master Zao was originally a commoner, Zhang Sheng, after marrying his wife, he spent his days drinking and losing his family business to begging on the streets. One day, he begged to his ex-wife Guo Dingxiang home, ashamed, head to the bottom of the stove pot burned to death.

When the Jade Emperor found out, he thought that Zhang Sheng could return to the bottom of the pot, and was not bad enough, since he died at the bottom of the pot, he made him the King of the Stove, and reported to Heaven on the 23rd and 24th of the Lunar New Year every year, and then returned to the bottom of the pot on the 30th of the Lunar New Year. The people felt that the king of the stove must be honored, because he had to go to heaven to report. Thus, the folk have the Lunar month 23, 24 of the sacrificial stove "small year", praying for the next year of peace and prosperity.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Xiao Nian