年夜饭

• Pinyin: nián yè fàn
• Hanzi breakdown: 年 = year; 夜 = 亦(also/person) + 夕(evening/moon) — nighttime; 饭 = 饣(food radical) + 反(reverse, phonetic) — cooked food

Meaning

New Year's Eve dinner; the family reunion dinner eaten on Chinese New Year's Eve (除夕), one of the most important meals in Chinese culture.

A deeply cherished family tradition during the Spring Festival. The meal typically features auspicious dishes: 鱼 (fish — symbolising surplus), 饺子 (dumplings — symbolising wealth), 年糕 (New Year cake — symbolising advancement). The Spring Festival travel rush (春运) is driven largely by the desire to return home for this meal.

Examples

1. 每逢除夕，无论身在何处，人们都会千方百计赶回家中，与家人共享年夜饭。 Every Lunar New Year’s Eve, no matter where they are, people do everything they can to get home and share a New Year’s Eve reunion dinner with their families.
2. 今年家里准备了满满一桌年夜饭，有鱼有肉有饺子，一家人围坐在一起，欢声笑语不断。 This year the family prepared a full table for the New Year’s Eve dinner—fish, meat, and dumplings—and everyone sat together laughing and chatting.
3. 春运期间数以亿计的人口大迁徙，折射出年夜饭在中国文化中无可替代的情感分量。 The massive Spring Festival travel rush, involving hundreds of millions of people, reflects the irreplaceable emotional weight of the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner in Chinese culture.

Usage Guide

Context: family, tradition, Spring Festival, culture

Tone: warm

Do Say

• 年夜饭不仅是一顿丰盛的晚餐，更是凝聚家庭情感、传承文化记忆的重要仪式，承载着中国人对家的最深切眷恋。(The New Year's Eve dinner is not merely a sumptuous meal but an important ritual that binds family bonds and passes down cultural memory — it carries the deepest longing for home in Chinese people's hearts.)
• 随着生活节奏的加快，越来越多的城市家庭开始选择在餐厅预订年夜饭，但无论形式如何变化，团圆的内涵始终是这顿饭的核心所在。(As the pace of life accelerates, more and more urban families are choosing to book their New Year's Eve dinner at restaurants — but regardless of how the format changes, the essence of reunion remains the core of this meal.)

Don't Say

• 将'年夜饭'仅理解为一顿普通的除夕晚饭 — 年夜饭 carries profound cultural and emotional significance as a family reunion ritual; reducing it to just a 'dinner' misses its central importance in Chinese cultural life

Origin & History

年 (year/New Year) + 夜 (night/eve) + 饭 (meal). The meal of New Year's Eve.

Cultural Context

Era: Traditional (centuries old)

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal