For Chinese, eating dumplings on lunar New Year's Eve is the heart of their families' reunions.  At midnight-sharp-and accompanied by the sound of firecrackers, virtually every family begins to cook dumplings. Shandong  residents intentionally stew some dumplings too long, and say 'zheng (to earn money)" or 'zhang (to rise)" for luck. In some areas of Gansu Province, the people cook little noodles with their dumplings, and they call it by the fine-sounding name "silver threads twining about ingots" to pray for a long, affluent life.
According to folk customs, the first pot of cooked dumplings should be offered to the gods and ancestors. In Hebei Province, every rural family offers three bowls, each with three dumplings, to a god; and to their ancestors, four bowls, each with four dumplings. When offering dumplings, some old  people pray these words: "Cooking numerous dumplings in a big pot, we ladle them out with a golden spoon and offer them to Heaven in silver bowls. The gods will be pleased by the delicacies, and bring peace and happiness to us." The second pot should be given to draught animals, the farmers' main source of production. The family cannot enjoy the delicious food until the third pot of dumplings is cooked. After dinner, several dumplings, which  must be an even number, should be left in the dishes, bowls, pot and on the round vat lid, along with some stuffing and dough, as a symbol of a "surplus each year."

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