Chinese New Year or Chinese Spring Festival is the most significant festival in Chinese calendar: it is happy and joyous. For families and friends it is the season to feast as they usher in the new year and enjoy foods thought to bring them good luck, prosperity and sweetness throughout the year. 

An important component of this several days long event is food. Foods that are meaty and spiced, those sweet, crunchy and cheesy pasalubong for relatives and friends, as well as meticulously cooked special occasion treats accompany reunion banquets. Of course the specifics of traditions and some products differ in each region of China as well as in Chinese enclaves around the world but there are some ideal Chinese New Year’s confectionaries and cookies that are necessary for celebrating a prosperous beginning of a year.

This post will also point out some of the New Year’s sweets and baked products popular among Chinese people and the meanings in symbols behind them. Don’t miss the next section for examples of other special sweets and cookies to always keep around to enjoy and share during celebrations!

Uncomplicated New Year’s Gifts from Fruit conveyor: Special Fruits for Rich New Year

Fruits in particular dried fruits and fruits regarded as lucky or prosperous are special Chinese New Year’s snacks as well as decorations. They symbolize a way of wishing a bountiful, productive year. Some top picks:

- Mandarin Oranges: Fruit, notably mandarins, tangerines and oranges are frequent CNY symbols with their sweet, seedless qualities. Symbolizing money owing to their resemblance to gold ingots, mandarins represents prosperity and prosperity in life. It is customary to give them as presents and to utilise their colourful external layer as ornaments during the Lunar New Year.

- Pineapple Tarts: This is due to the pineapple’s outer shell which symbolizes prosperity and fortune because of its appearance, and the inside which is golden orange, which in turn symbolizes richness, thanks to the thick buttery crust. It is truly astonishing how fast these cookies will vanish from your table; delightful and delicious!

- Dried Persimmons: Dry persimmon fruits are known as shi zhi in Mandarin and have become a common fruit to be consumed during festive times. In addition to their prosperity attributions, folklore has it that when the fruits are hung they will ward off evil spirits and keep them at bay. 

In Thailand we have snack foods which are predominantly dessert foods and these are the sweet and sticky rice desserts. 

Steamed sticky rice or sushi rice are made into gelatinous new year candies usually filled with tasty fillings such as red bean paste. Because they are sticky that represents the family being stick together.

Try these lucky rice desserts:

- Nian Gao (New Year Cake): Tang Yuan is probably one of the most iconic Chinese New Year sweet treats that are made from molded rice cake. New Year Cake or nian gao is eaten throughout Lunar New Year and birthday for luck for the entire year. Custom versions are filled with egg yolk for symbolizing prosperity or red bean for cheer.

- Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls): These small, round balls made from the starchy starch known as sweet rice flour are related with loved ones and wealth. Tang yuan is a dish cooked by boiling flour balls and then served in a sweet soup, the stuffing may contain black sesame or red bean paste, near the Chinese Lantern festival it contains colorful jellies. Consuming them together during New Year’s Eve symbolizes the family happiness. 

- Almond Cookies: Delicate and crisp almond cookies on which Chinese words are impressed on, are considered qualifications gifts and snacks during the Spring Festival. They have different names depending on the dialect of the region they are used such as hóng zhū bǐng or gān méi bǐng. This is due to the following imprints on the angpao; characters for prosperity, gold ingots and the God of Fortune.

- Candy Boxes: Candy now comes in beautifully contained boxes or tray stacks of sugared fruits and nuts or New Year specialty chocolates are gourmet treats. Cakeshop made attractive boxes full of sweets that you can give for CNY. Modern candy has also been especially subjected to covering it in gold and/or silver dust because of its indicative connotations to prosperity and also the mere uniqueness of such treatment.

- Candy Apples: Candy apples coated and decorated with edible colored sugars, chocolate or dried fruit powders are favorites in the autumn. The first one is known as “bell apple” due to the honeycomb like sugar crust in the shape of golden bell that attracts fortune in the New Year.

Towers of delicacy for merry feasting 

Chinese New Year meals build up families around mountain-like stack of steamed pastries, scrumptious bite and towering sweetmeats associated with lunar myth and special regional produce. Some celebratory delicacies to stack your table with include:

- Chinese New Year Cakes (niangao): These steamed rice cakes have a more favorable sounding name connotation in Chinese: Niangao means higher year after year. As such, tall, round nian gao towers surface at Lunar New Year banquets. When a guest is served with nian gao they only cut through it halfway to bring out the cake and the fortunes are still on!

- Prosperity Candy Tower: Fertilized with colorful candies, Bejewelled with golden and silver trinket-shaped goodies and topped with a majestic tower of candies is simply one beautiful container for the CNY feast. Wow, that góór cakes could be formed as candy towers that can be about 120 centimeters high! The tall piles of sweets represent aspirations of rising in the new year’s financial ladder. 

- Pineapple Tart Towers: Beautiful, tall and pyramid shaped, buttery shortcrust pineapple tarts look like an honorary centerpiece. The fruit is a spiky-looking bake turned into a golden pastry of luck so tiers of towering plates of them signal plenty of prosperous fortunes during the holidaytime and subsequent months. 

Keep Chinese New Year Treats Sweet with Chinese New Year Sweets!

When celebrating Chinese New Year this year, indulge in cookies and sweets that carry meaningful and even lucky connotations! Keep a tray of mandarin oranges on hand, present elegant boxes of chocolates, and savor traditional treats like pineapple tarts, nian gao cakes, and glutinous rice balls—some of the best CNY goodies that make the festivities even more special. Elevate your holiday table with a graceful display of steamed delicacies and sauces, adding an extra layer of positivity and fortune for both your loved ones and yourself in the coming year. Gong Xi Fa Cai!