To my 76-year-old mama, Lunar New Year has always been about luck—not just hoping for prosperity, but cooking for it. Every year, usually in January or February, she prepares a table full of dishes meant to invite good fortune, long life, and family unity. As an immigrant who grew up in a family of Chinese descent in Thailand, these traditions are her way of honoring the past while holding onto hope for the future. And she also shares them with friends and neighbors, one lucky plate at a time.
Similar to how many celebrate the Western New Year, Mama also believes Lunar New Year is a chance to start over. “It is an opportunity to change your life,” she says. “And eating the right kinds of lucky foods on the new year helps.”
Intrigued? Read on to learn more about Mama’s beloved rituals and how you can make your own feast at home, too.
Allrecipes / Patricia Kaowthumrong
What Is Lunar New Year?
In many parts of Asia, the holiday marks the beginning of the year according to a traditional lunisolar calendar. Celebrations, which can last multiple days, center around gathering with family, honoring ancestors, and welcoming good fortune for the year ahead. While customs vary by country and region, common activities include cleaning the home to sweep away bad luck, giving red envelopes stuffed with money, preparing symbolic foods, and setting off fireworks or firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. In countries like China, Vietnam (Tết), Korea (Seollal), and beyond, it’s a time of reunion and new beginnings.
It’s a holiday tied to the rhythms of the moon and, in Mama’s Chinese culture, the turning of the zodiac wheel. Each year ushers in a new animal sign, which corresponds with your birth year and is believed to bring its own fortune and vibe. On February 17, 2026, we leave behind the Year of the Wood Snake for the Year of the Fire Horse. If the past 12 months brought struggles, this is the time to let go and start fresh. And if it brought luck? You can carry that success forward. Either way, we ring it in with good intentions and a table full of dishes meant to nourish both body and spirit.
How My Family Celebrates
In my Thai-Chinese family, that means turning to Mama. In the days leading up to Lunar New Year, she assembles trays and trays of long-life noodles, juicy roast pork, rotisserie chicken, and verdant vegetables to make offerings to both our ancestors and a small shrine housing an image of Buddha in our home—and distribute to friends and family.
“We offer food and drink and ask Buddha to protect our family and ask him to make us healthy and wealthy,” Mama says. “It is also important to share with friends and neighbors to bring good karma—spread the luck and it will come back to us.”
Photographer: Jake Sternquist / Food Styling: Holly Dreesman / Prop Styling: Breanna Ghazali
The Lucky Dishes on Our Table
Mama’s family-style feast has many elements. “On Lunar New Year Eve, we eat foods that look like and represent good fortune in the next year,” she says. Here are the key players and what they symbolize:
- Greens: If you want the Year of the Horse to be full of riches, it’s vital to devour as many leafy greens as possible on the eve of Lunar New Year. Mama usually blanches big batches of gai lan (Chinese broccoli) or bok choy to pair with noodles. But sautéed or wok-fried greens are also popular. “The more greens you eat, the more rich you will be,” she says.
- Noodles: The pièce de résistance of our meal is noodles slicked with garlic oil, which symbolizes longevity and good health. Avoid breaking the strands in half during cooking or serving—the longer they are, the better!
- Fish: Mama stuffs a whole seabass or tilapia with thinly sliced scallions, ginger, and cilantro, then bakes it in the oven in a bath of seasoned soy sauce. But other Chinese-style recipes call for steaming the fish. Whatever recipe you use, fish is a symbol of wealth, and serving it whole with the head and tail intact represents a positive beginning and end to the year, ensuring that things are carried through smoothly.
- Pork: Since pigs root forward with their snouts, they stand for forward movement and progress. The animals also symbolize wealth and strength due to the rich nature of their meat. So Mama whips up two types of pork for the new year: sweet char siu (Chinese-style barbecue pork) and crispy-skinned roast pork belly.
- Duck: Ducks symbolize abundance and prosperity and are often served whole to represent family unity and completeness (So “nothing is missing in your life,” Mama says.) To save time and oven space, Mama orders half a dozen whole ducks from her favorite Cantonese barbecue restaurant. Ensure your future is extra promising by making a Peking duck—the embodiment of abundance due to its luxurious preparation.
- Chicken: Similar to ducks, having a whole chicken in your spread honors family harmony and prosperity. The dish is also a traditional offering to ancestors, whose blessings we seek. While Chinese-style chickens are often steamed or roasted, Mama relies on buying at least a dozen rotisserie chickens from Costco for her feast.
- Egg rolls: These fried delights, stuffed with seasoned pork and shredded carrots and cabbage, symbolize wealth because of their golden-brown color and cylindrical shape resembling gold bars.
- Buns: In addition to grilling char siu pork to enjoy with noodles and greens, Mama also uses it to make a filling for baked pork buns, which symbolize rising fortune and hope. While hers are baked, steamed varieties are also common sights at Lunar New Year celebrations.
- Wontons: Mama and I fold dozens of pork-and-shrimp wontons shaped like gold ingots (get her recipe below) and pork-and-shrimp siu mai resembling pots of gold.
Get the Recipe
Mama’s Pork and Shrimp Wontons
Happy Year of the Fire Horse
Watching the parade of dishes Mama churns out of her kitchen—and cooking alongside her— are the highlights of my winter every year. The smell of five-spice and incense wafts through the air, and the house bustles with energy. I love how she looks over my shoulder as I fold wontons and wrap pork buns, and how she playfully criticizes my techniques with my dad.
It’s an annual reminder that Lunar New Year isn’t just about superstition or symbolism—it’s about love, intention, and care passed from one generation to the next. I’ll pass Mama’s acts of cooking and nourishing loved ones to fill our home with hope, with my son, Jack, who I am certain will adore our traditions, too.
Allrecipes / Patricia Kaowthumrong
