Written by: Michelle Tran
Edited by: Nehaa Kousihan
Designed by: Alessa Zaitseva
Published by: Maryam Khan
What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year or Tết) is a 15-day festival that is celebrated by many South-East and East Asian countries. The festival is when family and friends come together to celebrate the new year followed by feasts, charity, parades, and events.
Lunar New Year includes many kinds of activities, a very popular one, however, is the lion dance.
These dances are often performed on stages to crowds of people. The streets of Asia are usually covered in yellow and red— the colours of the New Year. Celebrators use this time to show gratitude to the new year by participating in activities that will bring them luck. The communities are covered with joy, and loved ones celebrate the holiday together.
During the streets of Lunar New Year, celebrators often love to try foods unique to the holiday. Many food trucks and stations come together to create and make significant and delicious foods that celebrators are bound to try.
Feasts
Here are three popular foods that many (including myself) love to eat during Lunar New Year:
1. Soup Dumplings
Soup dumplings have been traditional for the Lunar New Year. It is also a popular food in Asian culture. Soup dumplings are known for their “ingot-look”, signifying gold and silver pieces that were used in ancient times (Vincenity, 2023). Due to this, it is believed that the filling has lucky connotations while the dumpling itself represents all the money you’re eating.
2. Spring Rolls
Spring Rolls represent wealth during the Lunar New Year. Many celebrators eat spring rolls to represent a wealth status as spring rolls “appear as gold ingots.” Not only do they have a special meaning, but their crispy outside and full inside allow the taste to be majestic for those who eat them. Spring rolls are a tradition not only in Lunar New Year but in Asian culture overall.
3. Candy and Other Sweets
Candies and sweets are known to symbolize a sweet life. Growing up, I have always loved Asian sweets as they always tasted a specific way compared to regular Canadian sweets. The way Asian sweets taste truly resembles the word “sweetness” which is why it resembles a sweet life in the Lunar New Year.
Outside of Food
Keep in mind, however, there are many other significant dishes that are celebrated during the Lunar New Year. The holiday doesn’t revolve around food but revolves around the new year of the lunar/lunarsolar calendar. Let us take this time to remember how great our year was, and celebrate it with those we cherish the most.
Works Cited
“File:CNY Lion Dance (7987466867).jpg.” Wikimedia Commons, CNY Lion Dance, 1 1 2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CNY_Lion_Dance_%287987466867%29.jpg. Accessed 25 1 2-24.
Fishauf, Louis, and Maude Lambert. “Lunar New Year in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2012, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-new-year-in-canada. Accessed 25 January 2024.
Soo, Emily. “Chinese New Year candy tray | My classroom one. Not precisel….” Flickr, 11 February 2006, https://www.flickr.com/photos/hale_popoki/98153008. Accessed 25 January 2024.
“Soup dumplings… ready to be eaten | When I opened up the s….” Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriafee/2308539559. Accessed 25 January 2024.
Vincenty, Samantha. “11 Traditional Lunar New Year Foods for 2023 – Year of the Rabbit.” Oprah Daily, 23 January 2023, https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/g34895835/traditional-lunar-new-year-foods/. Accessed 25 January 2024.