What do Northeasters eat on the Double Ninth Festival?

Dietary customs of Double Ninth Festival

★ Eat Chongyang cake

Eat flower cakes. Respect the elderly on the Double Ninth Festival and climb high to avoid disasters. "Cake" and "Gao" are homophonic, meaning "step by step", which is more auspicious.

Two days before the Double Ninth Festival, people steamed cakes with flour, and colored flags were inserted on the cakes, dotted with pomegranate seeds, chestnut color, ginkgo, pine nuts and other fruits. Or make it look like a lion and put it on the cake, which is called "lion chestnut cake" This is the custom of Lin 'an (now Hangzhou) in the Southern Song Dynasty. These chestnut cakes are just "better to carry when we climb the mountain together."

Chongyang cake in the north is the most famous steamed cake with flour, flowers and fruits (also called hair cake). Steamed flour cake is made by fermenting flour and putting it into small bowls. At the bottom of each bowl, various flowers and fruits, such as red dates, nuts, candied fruit, red silk and green silk, are placed. After steaming in the cage, the bread is poured out, just like all kinds of flowers and fruits are on the bread, which looks like steamed bread. The double ninth festival cake on the dough is sweet and soft, which is very delicious.

In some parts of our country, there is also a custom: on the Double Ninth Festival, married daughters will return to their parents' homes to send double ninth cakes, usually two big ones and nine small ones, which means to meet on February 9. The folk song "Just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Double Ninth Festival is busy, and I only miss my mother for women" circulating in rural areas in the north reflects this custom and people's feelings.

★ Crab eater

The Double Ninth Festival is in September. Autumn chrysanthemum is fragrant, crab paste is yellow and fresh, and the meat is fresh and tender. This is a good season to eat crabs. The ancients had a poem: "Don't eat crabs and live up to your eyes and stomach." Mei, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once praised crabs in a poem: "Grab the crab flavor in front of the bottle, and people waste the soup that day." So today, steamed hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake are well-known at home and abroad, and are listed as delicious in September in major restaurants in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, enjoying a high reputation. No wonder the famous scholar Zhang Taiyan and his wife Zeng Buju live in Wuzhong. After spitting crabs, Mrs. Tang Guoli once recited a poem: "Yangcheng Lake crabs are not good, why do you live in Suzhou?" . Throughout the ages, many literati spit, taste and draw crabs, leaving many anecdotes for future generations, adding a bit of charm to people's spitting crabs.

Today's Double Ninth Festival has a new meaning. 1989, China designated the Double Ninth Festival as the festival for the elderly. Nine is a big number, which means health and longevity. It combines tradition with modernity, giving the Double Ninth Festival a new content of respecting and loving the elderly. As a traditional festival, people have also carried out activities to respect the elderly and celebrate the summit.

★ Drink chrysanthemum wine

Chongyang wants to drink "chrysanthemum wine", which is homophonic with Jiujiu, and also homophonic with Jiujiu, so it is deduced that Jiujiu wants to drink chrysanthemum wine. The historical significance is that it is considered as a good name for prolonging life and not getting old. ? People also call September "Chrysanthemum Moon" or "Chrysanthemum Festival". Therefore, chrysanthemum appreciation is an essential activity in Chongyang.

Chrysanthemum wine, in ancient times, was regarded as the "auspicious wine" that Chongyang must drink to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. Chrysanthemum wine brewing in China was popular as early as the Han and Wei Dynasties. According to "Xijing Miscellanies", "Chrysanthemum is suitable, picking stems and leaves, and mixing millet. When cooking on September 9 next year, drink it, so it is called chrysanthemum wine. " The poet has a special liking for chrysanthemum wine, which is quite praised. Tao Yuanming in the Jin Dynasty said in a poem: "There is no shadow in the swallow, and the geese come with sound. Wine can cure all diseases, and chrysanthemum can cure aging. " The Chronicle of Jingchu also records: "On September 9th, eating dogwood, eating lotus and drinking chrysanthemum wine can prolong life."

After enjoying chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum wine is naturally the first choice.

★ Eat a rake

Raking is another food custom in the Double Ninth Festival in southwest China. Rakes are divided into soft and sweet, hard and salty. Its practice is to put the washed glutinous rice into a boiling pot, boil it, steam it in a cage, mash it in a mortar and knead it into a ball. When eating, stir-fry sesame seeds, pound them into fine powder, rake them into strips, pull them into small pieces, and mix them with sesame seeds and sugar. Its taste is sweet and palatable, and it is called "soft rake" (warm food is the best). Hard harrow, also called "oil harrow", is made by steaming glutinous rice without mashing it, rubbing it into a ball on the table, rolling it out, putting some salt and pepper powder as "stuffing", rolling it into strips and slicing it, and frying it in an oil pan. Golden and beautiful in color, salty and crisp, with endless aftertaste.

★ Eat persimmons

Eating persimmons is a custom, and there is a legend in our country. According to "Wonderland", one year, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, went out of the city incognito, which coincided with the Double Ninth Festival. He hasn't eaten for a day. He feels hungry and thirsty. When he arrived in Zuochai Village, he saw that every wall had fallen down and all the trees had withered, all of which were burned by soldiers and fire. Zhu Yuanzhang secretly lamented and looked around. Only one persimmon tree in the northeast corner was ripe, so he picked it and ate about 10. He was full and disappointed. Before the second summer, Taizu attacked quarrying (now Caishiji, Maanshan City, Anhui Province) and took Taiping (now Taiping County, Anhui Province). The Taoist scriptures are here, and the persimmon tree still exists. He told the courtiers about his previous private visit to eat persimmons here, and made a decree: "After naming persimmons, everyone in the world can eat persimmons as a souvenir on the Double Ninth Festival.

★ Eat beef

There is also the custom of eating beef on the Double Ninth Festival all over the country. As a kind of warm food, autumn is the right time for the elderly. Nutritionists tell you that fresh beef and mutton is a kind of warm food, which is easily absorbed by the human body in autumn and satisfies people's desire for winter.

★ Drink scented tea

Green tea. Eating too much requires a series of digestion and filtration, and only tea and healthy and green drinks are available.