Chinese New Year in Malaysia: The Meaning Behind Reunion Dinners, Ang Pow and Lion Dances

On New Year’s Eve, many shops close early and the highways fill with cars heading toward hometowns. By evening, the family gathers around one table — fish on it (for “surplus every year”), a whole chicken, meatballs symbolising reunion, and a cold tossed yee sang dish meant to be lifted high with chopsticks. This New Year’s Eve reunion dinner is regarded by many Malaysian Chinese families as more important than the first day of the new year itself.

Chinese New Year is the most important annual festival for Malaysia’s Chinese community. The Chinese make up about a fifth of the country’s citizen population (DOSM data puts it at 22.2% in 2025), and the first two days of Chinese New Year are a nationwide public holiday. It is, first and foremost, a seasonal and cultural festival based on the lunar calendar — this article only describes its customs and how they are presented locally, and does not pass judgment on any religious belief.

A Meal Built Around Reunion

The centre of gravity of Chinese New Year is not the first day itself, but the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve. Family members working or studying away rush to get back to their parents on this day, which is also the source of the north-south homebound traffic surge on the eve of Chinese New Year in Malaysia.

The dishes on the table often carry homophonic meanings: fish symbolises “surplus every year” (年年有余), so it is often served whole with some left over; a whole chicken symbolises completeness; ingredients such as black moss (发菜) and lettuce (生菜) are chosen for their auspicious wordplay on “prosperity” and “wealth”. What this meal is about is “completeness” — everyone present, every dish present — which is why many families regard the reunion dinner as the single most important moment of the whole festival.

Ang Pow: Who Gives to Whom

The ang pow (also called 压岁钱, “money to suppress the age demon”) is one of the most emblematic customs of the new year. Its basic rule is about status rather than age: it is usually given by married people to unmarried younger relatives and children in the family, and sometimes also to elders as a mark of filial respect; unmarried people generally do not give ang pow.

The amount given favours auspicious numbers, prefers even numbers, and generally avoids figures containing the number four — because “four” is a homophone for “death”. Ang pow does not only move within the family: relatives and friends visiting for New Year, employers giving to staff, and elders giving to visiting children are all common occasions. Exactly who gives to whom, and how much, is not standardised across families or communities.

Lion Dances and Drums

Once the festive period begins, lion dances often appear in front of shopping malls, residential areas and shops. Two performers, one at the front and one at the back, hold up the lion’s body, leaping, blinking and rolling to the sound of gongs, drums and cymbals as they go door to door to bring New Year greetings.

The most anticipated part of the lion dance is called “cai qing” (采青, “plucking the greens”): the lion “eats” a head of lettuce (生菜, a homophone for “generating wealth”) hung up high, often with an ang pow attached, and then “spits” the leaves out toward the crowd, symbolising the scattering of fortune and good luck to the host. For many shopkeepers, inviting a lion dance troupe to visit when business resumes for the new year is a way of seeking a good omen.

Lo Hei: A Nanyang New Year Dish

In Malaysia, Singapore and the wider Nanyang (Southeast Asian Chinese) region, a special dish often appears at reunion dinners or New Year gatherings — lo hei (yee sang, or 捞鱼生). It is a large plate of shredded radish, carrot, assorted vegetables and fruit, and crackers, topped with raw fish slices and sauces.

Once it’s on the table, everyone seated around it uses chopsticks to toss the ingredients up together, higher and higher, calling out auspicious phrases such as “may your fortunes rise like wind and water”, “the higher you toss, the more prosperous you become” and “step by step to greater heights” as they do so — the higher the toss, the greater the fortune it is said to bring. Lo hei is widely popular locally, but it is generally regarded as a New Year custom developed by the Chinese community of the Nanyang region, rather than a tradition originating in ancient China.

From New Year’s Eve to the Fifteenth Day: The Rhythm of the Festival

Chinese New Year is traditionally not just one or two days, but a festive period lasting a full fifteen days.

Point in the festival	Common practice
New Year’s Eve	Reunion dinner, staying up through the night, giving out ang pow
Day 1	Wearing new clothes, New Year visits, calling on close relatives; many families keep vegetarian or avoid using knives on Day 1
Day 2	Married-out daughters return to their maiden family home with their husbands
Day 7	”Everyone’s birthday” (人日); some families eat lo hei again
Day 15	Yuan Xiao (the Lantern Festival), commonly known in Malaysia as “Chap Goh Meh”, which closes out the festive period

Malaysia’s Lantern Festival has its own local flavour: in places like Penang, unmarried women throw mandarin oranges inscribed with wishes or contact details into the sea or a river, praying for a good match — a custom developed by the local Chinese community with a distinctly Nanyang character, which is also why “Chap Goh Meh” is often called “Chinese Valentine’s Day” in Malaysia.

A Festival That Reaches Beyond the Chinese Community

In Malaysia, Chinese New Year is not confined to Chinese households alone. The practice of the open house (rumah terbuka) — opening the front door and laying out festive snacks and dishes to welcome friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours of every ethnicity — turns Chinese New Year into a festival shared across ethnic lines, just as it does for other communities’ major celebrations such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Deepavali.

This tradition of visiting one another’s homes, combined with the nationwide public holiday on the first two days, makes Chinese New Year both a family occasion for the Chinese community and part of the everyday interaction of Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society. The way it is celebrated varies from household to household; what this article describes is the most common and widespread practice.

Common Misconceptions

Equating Chinese New Year with a particular religion. It is, first and foremost, a seasonal and cultural festival based on the lunar calendar. Some families do ancestor worship, burn incense or carry out other faith-based practices during the New Year period, but these practices vary from family to family; many Malaysian Chinese celebrate it as a cultural tradition regardless of their personal religious beliefs.

Assuming lo hei was passed down from ancient China. Lo hei is a New Year custom popular in Malaysia, Singapore and the wider Nanyang region, and is generally regarded as something developed by the local Chinese community, rather than an ancient Chinese tradition.

Assuming ang pow is given out by age. What matters is marital status, not age — it is usually given by married people to unmarried younger relatives and elders, and unmarried people generally do not give it.

Assuming the way it is celebrated is the same nationwide. From the dishes served to the dialects spoken and local customs (such as Penang’s Chap Goh Meh orange-tossing), practices differ across Chinese communities in different parts of the country.

What’s Next

To learn about the Chinese community’s share of Malaysia’s population and the official ethnic classifications, see Malaysia’s population composition.

To learn about the overall picture of Malaysia’s diverse religions, see Malaysia’s religion statistics; to learn about the many languages and dialects that coexist locally, see the languages spoken in Malaysia.

To learn about another Malaysian cultural tradition, see Batik: The Craft That Draws With Wax Instead of Dye.

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This article is classified as sensitive (religion) under NegaraKu.md’s editorial policy. It presents the cultural customs of Chinese New Year and their common practice in Malaysia in a strictly descriptive way, without passing judgment on any religious belief or making any political argument. Population figures and public holiday status are based on the official DOSM and statutory sources listed above; the article remains in draft status pending human review.