Making Dumplings for Chinese New Year
My favorite part was folding the dumplings!
February 23, 2021
Friday, February 12th was Chinese New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year marks the first new moon of the lunar calendar, which was traditionally used in many Asian countries, including China. Each year is assigned one of the twelve zodiac animals, this year’s being the ox. My family and I celebrated the beginning of the year of the ox by making dumplings and enjoying each other’s company.
In China, where it is known as Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday, as big or even bigger than Christmas in the United States. Students get school off for two weeks and families gather for a reunion. Chinese families living in the United States, usually cannot gather with relatives because we don’t get the luxury of a two-week-long break, but we still celebrate!
My family typically spends Chinese New Year with my grandparents. We usually go out to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Sharon, Massachusetts on Chinese New Year’s Eve and then eat dumplings made by my grandmother on Chinese New Year. We also watch the Chinese New Year Gala on TV; it broadcasts live every year from China, but since the time zones are different, we watch a recording. Because of the coronavirus pandemic this year, we couldn’t go out to dinner with my grandparents, so on Chinese New Year’s Eve, my family enjoyed hot pot at our house. In past years, I couldn’t make dumplings because of school, but since Chinese New Year coincided with February break this year, I could make dumplings with my family! We had always used pre-made wrappers from the Kam Man Food marketplace in Quincy, but this year, we had time to make dumplings from scratch. The venture was extremely successful, and the dumplings exceeded our expectations by tenfold!
