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Next: about 7 to 21 Feb 2027

Lunar New Year

The great spring festival, with five-spice braised dishes, ginger and scallion fish and tangerine peel soups.

An altar in the street during Lunar New Year 2015 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, France
Photo: Myrabella, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spices for Lunar New Year

The new year feast brings together dishes that carry lucky meanings: a whole fish (surplus), long noodles (long life) and dumplings (wealth). Red-braised pork or duck (hong shao) uses star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel, and soups and sweets use dried tangerine peel and ginger. The five-spice powder is an echo of the elements, and Cantonese cooks use ginger and spring onion with steamed fish. In Singapore and Malaysia, the yu sheng salad is dressed with plum sauce and sprinkled with five-spice powder and pepper before the whole table tosses it together.

The spices

GingerPaired with spring onion on steamed fish.Sichuan pepperUsed in Sichuan banquets and braises.

Also part of it, and being written: Chinese five-spice powder (The classic blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel.), Star anise (A key spice in red braises.).

About this page

Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Chinese New Year" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven spices you may not know, what is cooking this week, and one blend explained step by step.