China Travel News

Spring Festival Eve dinner, a reunion dinner, also called "tuanyuan fan" in Chinese, is an extremely important dinner. "tuanyuan" means "getting together". Wherever they are, people will try their best to go home just for this "tuanyuan fan". This reunion dinner is held on Spring Festival Eve where members of the family, near and far, get together for celebration.

This custom is also called "surrounding the hearth," from the custom in earlier times of eating dinner around the family hearth. The dinner begins only after all of the family members are present at the table. A table setting is placed for those unable to come home for dinner on this day to symbolize their presence though far away. Spring Festival Eve dinner is best eaten slowly, savoring the flavor of each dish. The dishes are always rich and delicious. There is a dish of fish is unnecessary. Eating fish has a special meaning. In Chinese it means "niannianyouyu". Because fish in Chinese means "yu", eating "yu" symbolize "Surplus Year after Year".

With the changes of society and the improvement of the level of people´s life, there is a new form of the Spring Festival Eve dinner. Once the reunion dinner was held at family, now more and more people have this special dinner at restaurant. It is reported that around 2 million people in Shanghai enjoy their Spring Festival Eve dinners in restaurants every year since 2000.

Having the Spring Festival Eve dinner surrounding the table is the eternal custom during Spring Festival.