We may earn a commission from links on this page

The perfect Lunar New Year dinner for good luck, according to the Cantonese

It’s all about food.

Image: Reuters/China Daily

Echo Huang

PublishedJanuary 23, 2017

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

This post was originally published in 2017. In 2019, Lunar New Year eve falls on Feb. 4.

Like so many other Chinese festivals, the Lunar New Year is celebrated with food.

But for the Cantonese, the food that’s eaten also carries special meaning, carefully chosen because of the belief they will usher in good luck, wealth, better grades, and so on. As such, a number of dishes will be ubiquitous at dinner tables in Cantonese households and restaurants during Chinese New Year.

The big feast is the reunion dinner, or 團年飯, which happens on new year’s eve.

The dish and its Cantonese pronunciation

How the dish is prepared

Auspicious meaning in Cantonese

生菜蠔豉
Sang choi ho si

Lettuce and dried oyster, steamed and served with oyster sauce

Sang choi, or lettuce, sounds like growing money.
Ho si, or dried oyster, sounds like good things.

髮菜蠔豉
Fat choi ho si

“Hair vegetable” with dried oyster, steamed and served with oyster sauce, or boiled in soup

Fat choi, which gets its name “hair vegetable” because of its long, black strands, sounds like fat choy, which means to get rich.
Ho si, or dried oyster, sounds like good things.

髮菜豬橫脷
Fat choi zyu lei

“Hair vegetable” with pig tongue boiled in soup

Fat choi sounds like fat choy, which means to get rich.
Zyu lei, or pig tongue, sounds like luck.

髮菜豬手
Fat choi zyu sau

“Hair vegetable” with pig knuckles, steamed or boiled in soup

Fat choi sounds like fat choy, which means to get rich.
Zyu sau, or pig knuckles, sounds like handy, suggesting one would be able to achieve things without much effort.

芹菜燒肉
Kan choi siu juk

Stir fried celery and roast pork

Kan choi, or celery, sounds like working hard.
Siu juk, or roast pork, is considered lucky because of the meat’s red skin.

年糕
Nin gou

Sticky rice

Nin means year and gou, or cake, sounds like high or tall. Together, they suggest getting taller year after year.

魚
Jyu

Steamed fish

Jyu, or fish, sounds like leftovers, a symbol of being well off. The fish, which is served whole, should have some meat left on it at the new year’s eve dinner. The leftover fish represents a surplus at the end of the year, as dictated by the idiom 年年有餘 (nin nin jau jyu), which means every year will have fish.

雞
Gai

Chicken

Gai, or chicken, sounds similar to tangerine (see below), which is a homophone for luck.

橘
Gat

Tangerine

Gat, or tangerine, sounds like luck.

碌柚
Luk jau

Pomelo

Luk, or rolling, together with jau, which sounds like to have, suggests continuous prosperity. Chinese people also believe that the leaves of a pomelo can help drive the devil away.

湯圓
Tong jyun

Sweet sticky rice ball

Tong means soup, and jyun, or balls, means reunion in Cantonese. The sticky rice balls are an after-meal dessert.

油角
jau gok

Sweet fried dumplings

The dumplings represent wealth because of their resemblance to gold ingots, a currency that was used during the Tang dynasty and beyond.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.