Sweet Rice Balls — Family Togetherness

汤圆——阖家团圆

Sweet rice ball (汤圆 Tāngyuán /tung-ywen/) is the main food for China's Lantern Festival, however, in south China, people eat them throughout the Spring Festival. The pronunciation and round shape of tangyuan are associated with reunion and being together. That’s why they are favored by the Chinese during the New Year celebrations.

汤圆是中国元宵节的主要食物，但在中国南方，人们春节期间也会吃汤圆。汤圆的发音和形状与团圆有关。这也是为什么中国人喜欢在庆祝新年时吃汤圆的原因。

Good Fortune Fruit — Fullness and Wealth

吉利的水果——丰盈和富裕

Certain fruits are eaten during the Chinese New Year period, such as tangerines and oranges, and pomeloes. They are selected as they are particularly round and "golden" in color, symbolizing² fullness and wealth, but more obviously for the lucky sound they bring when spoken.

春节期间会吃特定的水果，比如桔子、橙子和柚子。它们被选为吉利的水果是因为它们都特别圆，而且颜色金灿灿的，象征着丰盈和富裕，但更多的是因为它们的发音。

Eating and displaying tangerines and oranges is believed to bring good luck and fortune due to their pronunciation, and even writing. The Chinese for orange (and tangerine¹) is 橙 (chéng /chnng/), which sounds the same as the Chinese for 'success' (成). One of the ways of writing tangerine (桔 jú /jyoo/) contains the Chinese character for luck (吉 jí /jee/).

食用、展示桔子和橙子被认为可以带来好运和财富，因为它们的发音和文字都很吉利。中文里，“橙”和“成”发音相同。“桔”字中含有吉利的“吉”字。

Eating pomeloes/shaddocks is thought to bring continuous prosperity. The more you eat, the more wealth it will bring, as the traditional saying goes. The Chinese for pomelo (柚 yòu /yo/) sounds like 'to have' (有 yǒu), except for the tone, and exactly like 'again' (又 yòu).

吃柚子据说能带来持久的繁荣。老话说，你吃的柚子越多，柚子给你带来的财富就会越多。中文里的“柚”和“有”谐音，和“又”的发音也相同。