As one of the most important aspects of the Spring Festival, food has symbolic meanings. In Northern China, people usually eat jiaozi (dumplings), which first appeared in China some 1 600 years ago. The Chinese pronunciation of jiaozi means “midnight” or “the end” and “the beginning of time”. Its crescent shape resembles that of ancient gold and silver ingots or a crescent moon which symbolizes the hope for a plentiful year. Sometimes, people stuff jiaozi with sugar for a “sweet” life, and others put one or two coins inside — if you happen to come across a coinstuffed jiaozi, you will have good luck. But southerners like to eat niangao, or “New Year Cakes” — a sweet, sticky, brown cake made of rice flour and sugar. In Chinese, gao is a homonym for “high”. Niangao is a homonym for “higher each year” and symbolizes improvement in life year by year. Another important part of the Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao Festival is eating small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour called yuanxiao or tangyuan. Made of sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing and round in shape, they symbolize family unity, completeness and happiness.
When the Chinese New Year arrives, the sky is illuminated with fireworks and strings of lights to ring out the old year and ring in the New Year. Fireworks and firecrackers, known as yanhua and baozhu, were originally made of real bamboo and were traditionally set off to frighten the legendary monster, Nian. You can hear or see fireworks and firecrackers everywhere, which usually lasts for a few hours. Some people will continue to set off fireworks periodically throughout the first half of the first lunar month.
on the gate they will put up gateguarding warriors and on both sides of the warriors the Spring Festival couplets. Decorations are an important feature of the celebrations for the Chinese New Year. One of the main decorations is the red couplets — Chinese good luck proverbs written on red paper. The pieces are often about happiness, wealth, longevity and a satisfactory marriage, including more children. Today couplets are written on paper. In ancient times, they were made of peach wood.