Nanshan Zhuhai Folk Custom

In Liyang area, people eat black rice every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. Black rice is made by mashing wild Chinese tallow leaves on the mountain and soaking rice with its juice. After the black rice comes out of the pot, its color is dark, its fragrance is fragrant, its entrance is smooth and tender, and it is easy to digest.

The origin of Liyang black rice is very strange. According to legend, there is a family in Nanshan. The male host is sickly, the female host is Liu Mingqing Ti, and she has a son lotus under her knee. Liu Qingti blamed the Bodhisattva for her husband's sudden death. What she did angered the Buddha, who sent her to eighteen levels of hell to suffer. Manglietia delivers meals to her mother every day. One day, he dreamed that his mother was so hungry that she didn't even get the rice he sent. Manglietia went up the mountain to find hundreds of herbs, went home to mash and cook, and finally found that Chinese tallow tree could dye rice black, so she made black rice for her mother to eat. When the hungry ghost saw black rice, he didn't dare to grab food, so Liu Qingti could fill his stomach every day. The Buddha was moved by Manglietia's filial piety, and when he saw that he had served the Buddha wholeheartedly, he was named Bodhisattva, the king of earth treasure. October 30th of the lunar calendar was Manglietia's birthday.

On the eighth day of April every year, the leaves of Vaccinium bracteatum are green and dripping. In order to commemorate the salvation of Manglietia, people eat Vaccinium bracteatum in every household, which has been passed down from generation to generation and has gradually become a local custom.