Prancing with Fire
The Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) is the most significant holiday among the Chinese community, representing family reunion, gratitude, and a fresh, prosperous start. It signifies the end of winter, fostering renewal, honouring ancestors, and strengthening intergenerational bonds through traditions like “reunion dinners,” red envelopes, and symbolic decorations. It is an opportunity to leave bad luck behind and invite in good fortune, health, and wealth for the family.
Core Meanings and Significance
- Family Reunion: It is a time for people to return home, resulting in the world’s largest human migration (Chunyun) to share in the “reunion dinner” on New Year’s Eve.
- Prosperity and Good Luck: The festival focuses on leaving behind bad luck from the previous year and inviting in good fortune, wealth, and health.
- Cultural Heritage: It serves as a vital link to tradition, allowing families to honour ancestors and pass on customs to younger generations.
- Renewal: It marks the beginning of spring and a new year on the lunisolar calendar.
Key Traditions and Symbols
- Red Decorations & Clothes: Red symbolizes joy and luck, used to scare off bad spirits.
- Red Envelopes (Hongbao): Elders give money in red envelopes to children and unmarried adults to pass on fortune.
- Symbolic Foods: Dishes like fish (representing surplus), dumplings (representing wealth), and tangerines are eaten for prosperity.
- Lion/Dragon Dances: Performed to bring good luck and drive away evil.
The celebration typically lasts from New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day, serving as a pause in daily routines for celebration, relaxation, and visiting friends and family.
丙午 Bǐng Wǔ
Chinese New Year 2026 welcomes the Year of the Fire Horse (Bǐng Wǔ), beginning on February 17. It is a time when homes are cleaned to sweep away bad luck, and families gather to share symbolic foods, which represent wealth and abundance.
The Horse in Chinese culture is associated with energy, independence, and forward momentum. It symbolizes people who are hardworking, optimistic, and driven by a desire for freedom and achievement. Horse years are often linked with progress, travel, and bold decision-making.
The Fire element adds intensity to these traits. Fire stands for passion, transformation, and vitality. When combined with the Horse, it suggests a year of strong ambition, creative force, and decisive action. However, Fire also warns against impatience and impulsiveness, encouraging balance between courage and wisdom.
In Chinese mythology and philosophy (Wu Xing), the Fire element (火, huǒ) embodies transformation, passion, dynamism, and maximum Yang energy. Associated with summer, the colour red, the south, and the Vermilion Bird, it stands for heat, light, and, in medicine, the heart and joy. Fire symbolizes creativity and ambition, but it can also signify impatience or aggression.
The Fire Horse, in the Chinese lunisolar calendar, occurs every 60 years in the sexagenary cycle, blending the Horse zodiac with the fire element. The last Fire Horse year was 1966 (specifically, from January 21, 1966, to February 8, 1967). It was a time known for intense, transformative, and often chaotic energy.
Significant events associated with the Year of the Fire Horse 1966 included:
The ‘Cultural Revolution’ begins in China: a chaotic, decade-long sociopolitical movement launched by Mao Zedong to reassert his authority, purge “bourgeois” elements, and revive revolutionary fervour. It caused massive social, economic, and cultural upheaval and the destruction of countless cultural, historical, and religious sites.
Escalation of the Vietnam War: The conflict intensified significantly, leading to increased global protests and Cold War tensions.
Due to a persistent superstition that women born in the Year of the Fire Horse are strong-willed, hot-tempered, and “eat their husbands alive,” the birth rate in Japan dropped by roughly 25% in 1966, as couples avoided having children.
Luna 9 and Surveyor 1 achieved the first successful soft landing on the moon.
Civil rights unrest in the United States gained significantly greater momentum as people demanded equality.
Star Trek premiered, and The Beatles released Revolver, marking major shifts in pop culture.
It was a time marked by revolutionary movements across the globe calling for freedom, human rights, equality and world peace.
By understanding that Fire signifies both “heat” and “light,” we can approach it not as a year to fear, but as a “blazing” opportunity for growth and unbridled ambition.
When the horse is paired with the element of fire, this zodiac sign becomes a powerhouse of passion and transformation. The ‘Fire Horse of 2026’ is seen as a powerful symbol of movement and renewal, inspiring people worldwide to embrace change, pursue their goals with confidence, and step boldly into a new cycle of opportunity. Prepare for a year of blazing energy and unbridled ambition!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Special Chinese New Year Dishes
Lobster & Salmon Lo Sang
The Prosperity Toss: elevate your reunion feast with this opulent celebratory masterpiece, the ultimate symbol of good fortune. Succulent, ocean-fresh lobster and silky salmon sashimi majestically crown a vibrant, crunchy mound of finely shredded radish and carrot. It bursts with colour and texture. Presented with time-honoured ritual, each exquisite ingredient—from shimmering golden crackers to a luscious, house-crafted Plum Sauce—delivers a tantalizing blend of sweet, tangy, and savoury notes, while carrying an auspicious promise for the new year. Gather together and toss it high into the air, unleashing a cascade of abundance, pure joy, and limitless prosperity in every delectable bite. Available at Sevensea Seafood Restaurant, Phnom Penh
Imperial Abalone Pen Cai
A majestic, layered feast in a single pot, symbolizing unity and boundless abundance. Crowned with a whole, succulent braised abalone, tenderly glazed in a velvety master-stock for an irresistible sheen and depth of flavour. Beneath awaits a luxurious treasure trove of plump prawns, savoury dried scallops, auspicious fa cai, and earthy shiitake mushrooms, all melding harmoniously in a profoundly rich, unified sauce crafted from hours of meticulous braising. Every spoonful delivers a symphony of umami, textures, and exquisite tastes that promise well-being, success and delight. Available at Sevensea Seafood Restaurant, Phnom Penh
Of course, classic festive favourites, such as suckling pig, Honey pork char siu, pork belly, roast duck and Pin Shui Jing Ji (a delicious, shimmering, almost translucent, cold chicken dish) will be heartily enjoyed by families and friends during this time.
Prosperity Dim Sum
During Chinese New Year, dim sum transcends its role as a “light snack” to become a table full of symbolic wishes for the coming year. Every bite is carefully chosen to invite prosperity, longevity, and joy.
Signature Festive Bites
Crispy Har Gow with Scallops & Shrimp
How do you enhance an all-time classic like Har Gow? You add rich, sweet, delicious scallops to the tender, classic flavours of shrimp to create a masterpiece in yum cha bites.
Abalone Siu Mai: While regular pork dumplings are a staple, the New Year version is often topped with baby abalone. Because abalone resembles ancient gold ingots, eating them is a direct nod to amassing wealth.
Crispy Deep-Fried Taro Dumplings: Their lacy, golden exterior represents a “nest” of luck. The earthy taro filling symbolizes a solid foundation for the family.
Radish Cake (Lo Bak Go): This is perhaps the most essential dish. In Cantonese, the word for radish sounds like “good fortune,” and the cake’s steamed-then-pan-fried texture represents rising higher in status and success year after year.
Baked BBQ Pork Buns: The golden crust represents “gold” covering one’s life, while the red pork filling signifies happiness and vitality.
There are also pork-and-shrimp-filled Golden Dumplings and ‘Long Live’ Crispy Noodle Balls of bliss to further enrich your Lunar New Year dining.
All available at Yi Sang restaurants throughout Phnom Penh.
Nian Nian You Yu
No festive dim sum meal is complete without Nian Gao (sticky rice cake). Whether steamed with red dates or dipped in egg and pan-fried, its sticky texture symbolizes family togetherness, ensuring that the bonds between loved ones remain unbreakable throughout the seasons.
Fish Nian Gao is a modern New Year classic. Fish Nian Gao refers to Chinese New Year sticky rice cakes, moulded into koi fish shapes, symbolizing surplus and prosperity.
Cultural Significance: The Power of the Pun
In Chinese culture, the significance of Fish Nian Gao is rooted in homophones—words that sound the same but have different meanings.
Nian Gao (年糕): These characters literally mean “Year Cake.” However, they sound exactly like 年高, which translates to “Year Higher.” Eating it symbolizes the hope that each year will be better than the last—higher salaries, better grades, or increased personal growth.
Yu (鱼): The word for fish is a homophone for 余 (yú), which means “surplus” or “extra.”
When you combine these, the Fish Nian Gao becomes a physical representation of the idiom Nian Nian You Yu (年年有余): “May there be a surplus every year.” In an agrarian history often defined by scarcity, the idea of having “extra” at the end of the year was the ultimate blessing. The dish is available during the lunar New Year at all Yi Sang restaurants throughout Phnom Penh.
茶 Chá
Drinking Chinese tea during Chinese New Year is both a ritual of respect and a moment of quiet reflection amid the celebrations. Families prepare pots of fragrant tea, often jasmine, oolong, or pu’er, to welcome guests and symbolise harmony and purity for the year ahead. The act of pouring tea for elders expresses gratitude and filial piety, reinforcing family bonds and shared heritage. Tea is also believed to cleanse the palate after rich festive foods and to encourage balance between body and spirit. As cups are raised, wishes for health, prosperity, and longevity are exchanged, turning a simple drink into a meaningful gesture of renewal. In this way, tea connects past and present, blending tradition with togetherness at the heart of the New Year.
May the Year of the Fire Horse make you brave, decisive and bold enough to pursue your dreams, embrace change and live your best life with peace, passion, and intent.
Darren Gall
