It is time for jai, gau, jin dui and other traditional Chinese New Year treats, as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce will mark the impending arrival of the Year of the Rooster at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.

The plaza has hosted the annual celebration since it was built in the late 1970s, said Leonard Kam, event chairman.

The celebration starts Friday at 5 p.m. at the plaza and extends through 10 p.m. with the Choy Cheng New Year’s blessing at Chinatown-area stores, featuring lion dance groups and 2017 Narcissus Queen Lesly Lan Yin Goo and her court.

There will be street closures for the firecrackers and related activities, Kam said.

The celebration continues all day Saturday at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

There will be live entertainment all day, cultural performances, and lion and dragon dances, including lion dances atop poles in which participants must be athletic, agile and precise.

“We’ll have almost 30 vendors selling food, crafts, calligraphy, T-shirts” and other goods, Kam said. The calligraphy artist will offer for sale greetings for the new year and will personalize them upon request.

Among the food vendors, many will offer traditional Chinese New Year food including gau, a steamed pudding of mochi flour, brown sugar and other ingredients; jin dui, fried and sesame seed-coated spheres of mochi rice dough with sweet filling; and jai, a vegetarian stew sometimes called monk’s food or Buddha’s delight, as it is favored by Buddhist monks.

For the first time in four or five years, Yummy Land will be on hand serving an intriguing-sounding dish called dragon whiskers candy, Kam said.

“It’s yummy, oh my gosh,” he said. The closest comparison he could think of was cotton candy, but it is different. Sugar is pulled and pulled until thin strands “almost looking like whiskers” are formed, which are used to wrap nuts and other fillings, he said.

“When it’s fresh and you put it in your mouth, it just melts,” said Kam.

Also on Saturday, Maunakea Street will be closed for the Night in Chinatown street fair and parade.

There is parking in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza, “though it fills up pretty fast,” Kam said, suggesting that visitors check additional parking lots in the surrounding area and metered parking on neighboring streets.

“This is the biggest celebration of the year for the Chinese community,” said Kam. “We go all out.”