Celebrate Chinese New Year with symbolic foods that represent luck, prosperity, and happiness. Mark the occasion with traditional dishes like fish, dumplings, whole chicken, spring rolls, Chinese New Year cake, and sweet rice balls.

Chinese New Year food traditions are hugely symbolic. Traditions include serving two whole fish and saving one for leftovers to represent surplus in the new year, serving a whole chicken to represent wholeness and prosperity, and serving items like spring rolls, which resemble gold bars and symbolize wealth.

The most common Chinese New Year foods include dumplings, fish, spring rolls, and niangao. We've rounded up 7 essential Chinese, or Lunar, New Year dishes, and included the symbolism behind them all.