Food full of meaning

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, most companies have a traditional Spring dinner for their employees, and end the work day early on Lunar New Year's Eve so everyone can go home for the reunion dinner. For the next 14 days, there will be plenty of enthusiastic wishes for continued good health, happiness, and prosperity. To ensure the continuation of good luck and prosperity, the dishes served during the celebrations will be appropriately auspicious.

Many Lunar New Year dishes are served whole - whole chicken, whole roast suckling pig, whole fish and whole duck - because of the negative connotations associated with cutting and slicing, likened to severing family ties. Fish is a very important dish as it symbolizes prosperity. There is a saying in Chinese - nian nian you yu - that translates to "Abundance year after year." The word for "fish" in Chinese is similar to the word for "abundance."