The spring roll, also called chun juan in Chinese, is a kind of traditional Chinese food and as its name suggests, it is always eaten during the Spring Festival. In ancient times, it was also one of the imperial court snacks.
It has a long history in China which can date back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). During that time, it was a custom to make cakes with flour and eat them with vegetables on a certain day in spring. Those cakes were called spring dish. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it was given another name, namely the five-spice dish, as people added five hot and spicy ingredients into its fillings, like onion, garlic, etc.
Later, it was called spring cakes and in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, it was a custom to eat spring cakes to welcome spring. It was said that such practice could ward off evil and disaster. Spring rolls we eat today evolve from this kind of cake.
There are different types of spring rolls in China. Shanghai Spring Rolls and Fuzhou Spring Rolls are among the most famous ones.
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