The Chinese New Year or "the spring festival" as it is called in Chinese, is celebrated every year to celebrate the earth coming back to life and the start of ploughing and sowing for the new crops. This is a very important celebration in the East and people start preparing ahead of time for this holiday.

        Special foods and decorations are prepared to symbolize the holiday. The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar calendar and therefore the date of the holiday will vary from late January to early February. The year 2000 is called the year of the dragon and, children who will be born under this sign will qualify for good luck and prosperity. On New Year’s Eve families will get together for dinner and traditional food will be serve.

        The food served for the Chinese New Year is symbolic. Some food or daily items should be avoided for fear of bad luck, such as: knives which are considered weapons and therefore trigger violence, red meat should not be consumed, tofu or fresh bean curd cannot be added to dishes for its white color (white is considered the color of death and bad luck).

        For the New Year people visit each other and a traditional “prosperity tray” is always present in each household and will be served to the guests. The tray will have tangerines to symbolize wealth and good fortune, lotus seeds or melon seeds for proliferation, dates for prosperity and different kind of Chinese cookies and cakes. Fish is eaten at this holiday to promote long life and good fortune.

        This menu is very easy to prepare and will delight your guests. Red is the color if you want to make some decorations. To complete this Chinese menu you can serve some green tea.