The Reunion Dinner

A reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve where members of the family, near and far, get together for celebration. The venue will usually be in the home of the most senior member of the family. The New Year's Eve dinner is very sumptuous and traditionally includes chicken. Fish (榄? y煤) is included, but not eaten up completely (and the remainder is stored overnight), as the Chinese phrase 骞村勾鏈夐 (ni谩n ni谩n y菕u y煤), which means "may there be surpluses every year", sounds the same as "may there be fish every year."
Buddha's delight (Traditional Chinese: 缇呮饥榻? Simplified Chinese: 缃楁眽鏂? pinyin: lu贸h脿n zh膩i), an elaborate vegetarian dish traditionally comprising 18 ingredients, is often served by Chinese families on the first day of the New Year. A type of black hair-like algae, pronounced "fat choy" in Cantonese, is also featured in Buddha's delight and other dishes, since its name sounds similar to fat choy, the Cantonese word for "prosperity." Hakka will serve kiu nyuk (鎵ｈ倝) and ngiong tiu fu. Because certain things and/or food sound alike to certain Chinese well-wishes, the belief is that having one will lead to the other.

Most Northerners serve dumplings as the main dish in this festive season and many Chinese around the world do the same because it is believed that dumplings (椁冨瓙, ji菐o zi) are wrapped in the semblance of Chinese gold ingots (illustrated) used in ancient China. This gold nugget is called 閲戝厓瀵?(jin yu谩n b菐o). However, mandarin oranges are the most popular and most abundant fruit during Chinese New Year amongst Chinese simply because of, inter alia, how the name of the fruit is phonetically similar to gold -- jin ju (閲戞瀛? or kam (閲? in Cantonese.
Red packets for the immediate family is usually distributed during the reunion dinner.