A reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve of the Chinese New Year, during which family members get together to celebrate. The New Year's Eve dinner is very large and traditionally includes chicken and pork. Fish (魚, yú) is also included, but intentionally not finished, and the remaining fish is stored overnight. The reason for this stems from a pun, as the Chinese phrase 年年有魚/餘; (nián nián yǒu yú, or "every year there is fish/leftover") is a homophone for phrases which mean "be blessed every year" or "have profit every year". Similarly, a type of black hair-like algae, "fat choy"(髮菜, fǎ cài, literally "hair vegetable" in Cantonese), is also featured in many dishes since its name sounds similar to "prosperity"(發財, fā cái). Hakka will serve "kiu nyuk" 扣肉 and "ngiong tiu fu" 釀豆腐.
The belief is that having one will lead to the other, as the phrases sound similar to one another.
年夜飯，又稱圍爐。南方稱為團年飯、團圓飯，是農曆除夕（每年最後一天）的一餐，目的是在過年前一家團聚並共度新春，傳統上年夜飯多在除夕祭祖後食用。通常年廿九(農曆如果是小月)或年三十晚。
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