Jiaozi are a major dish during Chinese New Year in northern China.
Families in northern China traditionally prepare and eat jiaozi during the New Year period, especially at the reunion meal and around New Year’s Eve. Making dumplings can be a communal activity, with relatives assembling wrappers, fillings, and pleats together. The dish is also eaten throughout the year, but its holiday meaning makes it especially prominent during the festival.
Their crescent-like shape is commonly associated with the silver and gold ingots, called sycee, used as money in imperial China. Because of that resemblance, jiaozi symbolize wealth, prosperity, and good fortune. Some families add symbolic ingredients or hide a coin in one dumpling, with the finder thought to receive extra luck.
The regional clue matters: jiaozi are particularly associated with northern China, while other areas emphasize different New Year foods. Qingming Festival is associated with tomb-sweeping traditions, Dragon Boat Festival with zongzi and dragon-boat racing, and Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes, so none is the canonical answer here.