Opinion | Why Lunar New Year celebrations are about the people, not the process

Name: How people in northern and southern China enjoy dumplings for Lunar New Year
Uploaded: 2026-02-19T01:30:08.000Z
Duration: 6 min 54 s
Description: How people in northern and southern China enjoy dumplings for Lunar New Year

The most important thing isn’t if you cooked the food yourself or followed tradition to the letter – it’s being with people you care about

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People enjoy their reunion dinner at a restaurant in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district on February 12, ahead of the Lunar New Year. Photo: Sam Tsang

Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen

Published: 9:30am, 19 Feb 2026Updated: 10:23am, 19 Feb 2026

I remember when I was four or five years old, my great-grandmother would get busy days ahead of Lunar New Year. She would clean the house, pickle vegetables in an enormous jar and start pre-cooking dishes for the New Year’s Eve family meal.

One star of the night, called “lion’s head”, is steamed minced pork meat balls that take days to make. My great-grandmother would go to the market ahead of time and pick out pork belly that was the right balance of lean and fat meat, carefully chopping the meat with a knife until minced.

Next, she would dip her hands in corn starch, scoop up the meat and toss it between two hands until meatballs were made. They were then placed on a cabbage leaf and steamed in a small pot. She would repeat this process, crouched in front of the kitchen stove for hours, until there was enough for the whole family. It’s a difficult dish that takes days of effort, but when it goes on the table, it’s usually gone within seconds.

In my childhood memory, the Lunar New Year holiday was always festive and fun. I received cash in red envelopes, fireworks lit up the sky and there was a spread of food that’s more than you can eat.

But in recent years, there have been complaints that the new year doesn’t feel like it used to, or that it has “lost its flavour”. Some pointed to the banning of fireworks in big cities, while some noted that a reunion meal today – when people can access quality food any time – does not feel as meaningful as in the past when food was less abundant.

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How people in northern and southern China enjoy dumplings for Lunar New Year

In a recent article I read, the author said he bought spring couplets from the store, but his father became angry, saying a holiday without writing the couplets by hand didn’t have “flavour” or “a sense of ceremony”. In the end, the author’s family decided to go back to tradition, carving a money god by hand, grinding tofu with a stone mill and holding a calligraphy contest.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The most important thing isn’t if you cooked the food yourself or followed tradition to the letter – it’s being with people you care about

The most important thing isn’t if you cooked the food yourself or followed tradition to the letter – it’s being with people you care about