One of the most popular courses is JiaoZi, dumplings boiled in water. In Chinese Jiaozi literally mean "sleep together and have sons", a long-lost good wish for a family.

For the New Year's feast, one of the dumplings is deliberately wrapped with a coin embedded in the filling; another is wrapped with a date embedded in the filling. Whoever gets the dumpling with a coin supposedly will get good fortune for the year. A female who gets the dumpling with a date will be supposedly be blessed with giving birth to a child for that year.

JiaoZi symbolize luck because of how they're made - the finely minced meat and vegetable filling wrapped in dough is believed to package luck in a bite-size morsel. Beside that this JiaoZi also look similar to ancient Chinese money. These delicious Jiaozi dumplings are considered lucky because of their resemblance to ancient Chinese currency. In ancient times, Chinese currency consisted of dumpling-shaped silver and gold ingots called Yuan Bao. The dumplings symbolize wealth and hopes for a profitable future.

In addition to Chinese New Year, many families prepare Jiaozi for other special occasions such as birthdays, sending a family member away, or even for western holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving.

New Year dumplings are similar to their smaller Cantonese-style cousins that are staple fare at Dim Sum. New Year-style dumplings are "common food in northern China, where people eat them all year round". Popular dumpling meat fillings include mutton, pork, beef, fish, and shrimp, which are usually mixed with minced vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion, and Chinese chives. Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include garlic, ginger, wine, hot chili sauce, and vinegar.

Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping.