Learn about a traditional custom during the New Year in Yangzhou

The New Year custom in Yangzhou is "Yuanzi when the lanterns are on and noodles when the lanterns are off". Eating glutinous rice dumplings on the first day of the Lunar New Year is a very important breakfast for Yangzhou people.

Although Yangzhou people have the habit of going to teahouses to have morning tea, the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year is an exception. People generally don't go out and eat a bowl of steaming glutinous rice balls with their whole family at home.

There are many ways to make Yangzhou glutinous rice balls. There is a kind of glutinous rice balls called "Sixi glutinous rice balls", which people like to eat on the morning of New Year's Day. This kind of glutinous rice balls is made with four kinds of fillings, including vegetables, bean paste, sesame candy and minced meat.

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Although the taste is good, people pay more attention to the name of the glutinous rice balls, because the meaning of this kind of "Sixi Tangyuan" is: "everything goes well" and "family reunion".

Similar to "Sixi Tangyuan", Yangzhou people in the old days also had the custom of eating "Auspicious Ruyi Eggs" on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year.

There is such a description in Chapter 27 of "Pi Wu La Zi" in Yangzhou Pinghua: At the fourth watch, the cold is getting worse.

At this time, someone in the distance shouted: "Sell-----auspicious and wishful eggs!" What are auspicious and wishful eggs?

The egg is boiled, and figures and landscapes are painted on the eggshell, with red and green colors; or some words are written, such as "good luck and good luck" and "good luck every year"... This egg is called a good luck egg.

In the past, during the Chinese New Year, auspicious eggs were sold everywhere, and every household wanted to buy them.

When a buyer comes, he will bring good luck to his family.

The head of the family lies on the bed with his face facing the sky. The woman puts an auspicious egg at the door of the man's heart and says something auspicious!

Getting rich is satisfying!

All the best!

...etc., and then ask the man to eat the eggs, and everything will go well for him every year.

... The vendors selling "Auspicious Ruyi Eggs" have long since disappeared, so most people in Yangzhou today don't know what "Auspicious Ruyi Eggs" are, which is really a pity.

According to the description in the Yangzhou Commentary, the eggshell is also painted with figures and landscapes. Therefore, it is not so much a lost seasonal food as it is a lost folk handicraft.

During the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, there is a saying of "Shang Deng Yuanzi and Falling Deng Noodles" in Yangzhou. This theory refers to the night of the 13th day of the first lunar month when the lanterns are lit, and glutinous rice balls are eaten when the lanterns are lit.

At night, the lights are turned off, and noodles are eaten when the lights are turned off.

Why does this food custom exist?

People's explanation is that eating glutinous rice balls symbolizes "perfection" and eating noodles symbolizes "smoothness and smoothness".

The "tangyuan" here is also called "Yuanxiao".

Today's Yangzhou people call the solid glutinous rice dumplings "Yuanxiao" and the stuffed glutinous rice dumplings "tangyuan".

This was not the case in the old days. Those with stuffing fillings were also called "Yuanxiao". "Zhenzhou Zhuzhi Ci Yin" said: "The Lantern Festival is made by rolling glutinous rice flour, wrapping osmanthus and braised in it to form a ball, so it looks like a full moon." It seems that.

, because it "resembles a full moon", Yangzhou people call "Yuanxiao" "Tangyuan".

This is where the meaning of eating glutinous rice balls comes from.

Noodles are eaten on the night of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month when the lanterns are turned off. "Zhenzhou Zhuzhici Yin" also says: "On the eighteenth day of the lunar month, when the lanterns are turned off, people eat noodles. It is commonly said that when the lanterns are put on, the noodles are made of balls and when the lanterns are turned off. Every family has a banquet to celebrate.

On the 19th day, worshiping and hiding images washes away joy, which is commonly known as hanging music. The proverb goes: Every family tears up hanging music, and everyone searches for their whereabouts. The scholars return to work, and the old age is over.

The words do not directly explain why noodles are eaten when the lanterns are off on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, but the answer is already implicit: on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, "years have passed", and from now on "everyone must search for his whereabouts", and "scholars will study books,

The workers will return to work." Eating a bowl of noodles is a wish that everything in people's upcoming lives will be as "smooth and smooth" as eating noodles.

Whether eating glutinous rice balls or noodles, these are Yangzhou people’s self-design and self-arrangement of their daily life.

Being able to find the meaning of auspiciousness and auspiciousness from simple food images is also unique to Yangzhou people.

In the first month of the New Year, Yangzhou people also have the custom of "inviting the Spring Festival" and "having a gathering with the God of Wealth".

Volume 5 of "Hanjiang Sanbailing" contains a poem "Invite spring wine", the poem goes: "As soon as the spring breeze arrives, it will be prosperous, and the spring dishes will be busy with the unique smell. Winning the blushing spring scenery, this year's spring will be in the farmer's house."

The introduction of this poem makes it more clear: "There is a grand banquet in Yangcheng. The banquet for relatives and friends before and after the New Year's Lantern Festival is called: Chun'e." "Zhenzhou Zhuzhi Ci Yin" also records: "The gentleman's banquet is called 'Invite Spring'

"卮"; when hosting a banquet, it's called a "God of Wealth Party". "卮" is a kind of wine container in ancient times.

"Invite spring wine" in modern language means treating guests to a banquet during the New Year.

It's just that "Zhenshu Zhuzhi Ci Yin" divides the people at the banquet into two categories, one is the gentleman and the other is the shopkeeper. The purpose of the banquet is different, but the form is the same.

Nowadays, people don’t distinguish it in such detail. “Inviting Spring Festival” and “Gathering for the God of Wealth” are both called “Inviting New Year’s Festival Wine”.

In fact, "inviting New Year's Eve wine" is an ancient custom that dates back to the Tang Dynasty.

The monk Daoshi of the Song Dynasty said in "Fayuan Zhulin": "It was a custom in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty that after New Year's Day, people would drink wine, invite each other to greet each other, and sit down to drink." (Volume 1 of "Qing Jia Lu") for more than a thousand years.

Today, the custom of "inviting New Year's Eve wine" is still prevalent, especially in rural areas. People start exchanging invitations with relatives, friends, relatives and neighbors on the second day of the first lunar month. You invite me, and I will invite you back.

They have to invite each other until the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.

"Inviting New Year's Eve wine" is a kind of etiquette during the New Year, and it is also a need of people's actual life.

It has three meanings. One is to treat guests during the Chinese New Year. It is the first time of the year and it is a special kind of respect for the guests.

Second, during the Spring Festival, there are more dishes at home, and the treats are more abundant at this time.

Third, Yangzhou has been a city with developed commerce since ancient times. People in Yangzhou have many contacts with other places and work in other places. It is rare for villagers to meet each other. Inviting them to "New Year's Day wine" is to facilitate everyone's gathering.