Uncovering the different Qingming Festival food and drink customs around the world

The Qingming Festival is a traditional festival in China, but also the most important festival of sacrifice. China has 25 nationalities over the Qingming Festival, tomb-sweeping and ancestor worship, trekking is the basic theme, but in the form of cleaning and Qingming diet customs vary from place to place, with distinctive regional characteristics ...

Qingming Festival in our country's traditions is the ancestor and tomb-sweeping days. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as tomb-sweeping, an activity to honor the dead. Most of the Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival was also called the March Festival in ancient times and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Around April 5 on the Gregorian calendar is the Qingming Festival, one of the twenty-four solar terms. Among the twenty-four solar terms, the only one that is both a solar term and a festival is Qingming.

According to the old custom, when sweeping graves, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the cemetery, offer the food in front of their loved ones' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few young green twigs and stick them on the graves, and then kowtow and worship, and then eat the wine and food and go home. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Qingming": "The rain falls one after another during the Qingming Festival, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Where can I find a tavern? The shepherd boy points to the apricot blossom village." It writes the special atmosphere of Qingming Festival.

Qingming Festival, also known as the festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the time of the spring bright and beautiful grass and trees spit green, but also is the people spring tour (ancient called trekking) good time, so the ancients have Qingming trekking, and a series of sports activities of the custom.

Until today, the Qingming Festival to worship ancestors, mourning the deceased relatives of the custom is still very prevalent.

The customs of Qingming Festival are rich and interesting, in addition to the fire ban, tomb sweeping, and a series of customary sports activities such as trekking, swinging, cuju, playing polo, willow and so on. Legend has it that this is because the Qingming Festival to cold food and fire ban, in order to prevent cold food and cold food injury, so people come to participate in a number of sports activities, in order to exercise the body. Therefore, this festival is a festival rich in characteristics of both sweeping the new graves of the sorrowful tears of life and death, but also the laughter of trekking and playing.

Qingming Festival outdoor programs colorful

Swinging

This is China's ancient Qingming Festival customs. Swinging, that is, holding the leather rope and migration. Its history is very old, the earliest called the thousand autumn, after in order to avoid taboos, changed to swing. Ancient swing with tree branches for the frame, and then bolted on the ribbon made. Later gradually developed into a swing with two ropes and pedals. Playing swing not only can improve health, but also can cultivate the spirit of bravery, so far for people, especially children love.

Cuju

Cuju is a kind of leather ball, the ball skin made of leather, the ball with hair stuffed tight. Cuju is to kick the ball with the foot. It is a favorite game during the ancient Qingming Festival. It is said to have been invented by the Yellow Emperor, and its original purpose was to train warriors.

Treading Green

It is also called spring tour. In ancient times, it was called exploring spring, searching for spring and so on. March clearing, spring back to the earth, the natural world everywhere presents a vibrant scene, it is a great time for excursions. China's folk have long maintained the habit of Qingming trekking.

Tree planting

Before and after the Qingming Festival, the spring sun shines, the spring sun shines, the spring rain sprinkles, planting saplings with a high survival rate, fast growth. Therefore, since ancient times, our country has Qingming tree planting habit. Some people also call the Qingming Festival "Tree Planting Day". Tree-planting custom has been handed down to the present day. 1979, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress stipulated that every year on March 12 for China's Tree Planting Day. This is to mobilize the people of all ethnic groups to actively carry out activities to green the motherland, has a very important significance.

Kite flying

is also a favorite activity during the Qingming Festival. Every Qingming Festival, people not only fly during the day, but also at night. At night, a string of small colorful lanterns are hung under the kite or on the wind steady pulling line, like the flickering star, which is called "God's lantern". In the past, some people put the kite on the blue sky, they cut the line, let the wind send them to the end of the world, it is said that this can eliminate diseases and bring good luck to themselves.

Sacrificial habits around the Qingming Festival

Hainan Qingming Festival folk ancestor recitation of ancestral training

Hainanese Qingming Festival ancestor, there is also the folk tradition of reciting ancestral rules. Hainan Intangible Culture Research Association, said Fu Cechao, Hainan Han people for the mainland immigrants, before the Tang Han people migrated to Hainan about 20,000 people, about 100,000 people moved into the Song Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty surge to more than 2 million people. Joan's surname about more than 100, into the ancestors of more than 300 people. In order to commemorate the ancestors, descendants have built 'ancestral temples' in various places, mostly in the Qingming Festival will be held on the occasion of the sacrificial activities. These rituals, often accompanied by eight music, chanting and singing rituals, to praise the merits of the ancestors into the Qiong.

"Folk rituals, but also to recite ancestral training clan rules maxims, and these rituals, ancestral training, clan rules are a piece of wonderful song." Fu Cechao recited to the reporter a small part of the Fu clan training three-word sutra, "love the motherland, filial piety parents, friends and brothers, and couples, Duchess relatives, speak unity, good neighbors, careful dating ...... "Today, listening to these ancestor training ballads are still of educational significance.

Hainanese people sweep the tomb, to pigs, geese, fish, cakes and fruit snacks offerings, burning incense and treasure. There are also residents of the same family name who catch pigs and pull sheep to the graves of their ancestors to pray for the prosperity of future generations. The ancestors of the Qingming Festival are divided into two kinds, the first for the sacrifice of "their ancestors", to a household or a few households as a unit, in front of the ancestral tablets at home to put a good "three animals", dry rice and other offerings, everyone kneeling. Later, for the sacrifice of "many ancestors", dozens or hundreds of households as a unit, the same family name of the clan to participate. The offerings will be brought to the graves of the ancestors to worship, remove weeds, add new soil.

Shanxi:

In Shanxi, there is an old folk song "Qingming rain is sad, desert (Tufan) head of wildflowers bloom, hand-held offerings shoulder spade, all for the first grave on the soil," which vividly sums up the mood of the people and the characteristics of the grave sweeping.

In the spring, the folk more repair houses, in order to prevent the summer rain leakage. Associated with the dead by the living, the field graves after the wind and rain, often collapsed low. Qingming season on the graves, the most important feature is to shovel out the grave weeds, with new soil will be the mound heightened and reinforced, customarily known as the refurbishment of the netherworld, showing the children and grandchildren of the ancestors of the mourning.

In the southwestern region of Shanxi, people, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, both men and women are present at the gravesite, indicating that all the descendants are remembering their ancestors. In the northern part of the country, the graves are mostly men's affairs, and women generally do not go to the graves. Datong, Pingyao and other places, is the evening of the day, the old custom of women to cry loudly outside the gate, "the whole village even a piece of grief, into the ears are sad.

Qingming Festival graves, most places in southwestern Shanxi do not burn incense, do not melt paper, money and other things to hang the graves, there is a "Qingming grave a piece of white" said. The reason is that the cold food festival customary fire ban, and the Qingming Festival in the cold food festival period. Most places in northwestern Shanxi, however, to burn all the money and other things, the reason is that not burned to the end of the transfer of the hands of the ancestors. Dazhong and other places are accustomed to the day to the grave, the night in the home burning meditation money meditation silk.

The northwestern Jinhequ and other places, the old custom of going to the grave with wine and food, sacrificed after the ancestors, they will be in the graveyard food and drink, meaning that with the ancestors *** drink *** food. Jinnan Wenxi and other places, the graves should be embedded with jujube cake rolled around on the mound, the legend is that the dead old man scratching. Jinzhong Jiexiu and other places, the grave offerings for the cake, shaped like a coiled snake. After returning home, the cake will be placed in the yard, blow dry before eating. Old people talk about can cure, its source cover out of the cold food ban on fire.

Jinnan region after the grave, go home to pull some wheat seedlings, and inserted in the door of pine branches and cypress leaves or willow to ward off evil spirits. Jinbei region more inserted willow. There are places, also inserted some willow on the grave.

Qingming Festival, southern Jin folk to steam a big bun, walnuts, jujubes, beans and so on, known as Zifu. Taking the meaning of children and grandchildren, all depending on the blessing of the ancestors. Family also do black bean cold noodles, cut thin pieces of soup and eat. Shoveling lemon grass, rubbing and pulling on the bed mat, known as the scorpion. In Southeast China, everyone puts willow branches and leaves on their heads. Women have to use gold coloring (headdress) to stick on their temples. In the north of Jin, it is customary to produce black bean sprouts and eat them with cornbread stuffed with black bean sprouts. Northwestern Jinbei region is concerned about the use of millet grinding surface for cake, commonly known as "show yellow child", Lvliang area in the day after the Qingming Festival, to pick up the son-in-law, commonly known as "fresh fire".

Taiwan:

Taiwan people's grave sweeping customs, generally can be divided into two kinds: one is a general sweeping, the ceremony and sacrifices are relatively simple, mostly only for some rice cakes, kuey teow and cakes; the second is the repair of the ancestral tomb, the sacrifice is quite grand, for the offering of sacrifices generally include a variety of offerings gifts twelve kinds of vegetables and kuey teow, cakes and so on. When sweeping the graves, it is necessary to dedicate "tomb paper" (five-color paper cut into rectangles) around the graves, each piece of paper is pressed with a small stone, and a pile of it must be placed on the tombstone. This ceremony is commonly known as "hanging paper," and it is an offering of money to the ancestors. If the tomb is being repaired, the whole family will gather around the grave to eat red eggs, the shells of which will be scattered on the grave, containing the auspicious meaning of metabolism and continuity of life. While sweeping the graves, the family also pays homage to the land lord (a small stone tablet), who has stood by for a long time to guard the graves and the spirits of the ancestors, as a gesture of sympathy on the one hand, and as a sign of gratitude and retribution on the other. There is also a special custom in Taiwan that if there is a happy event at home during the year, the grave should be refurbished when sweeping the grave, and a small red lamp (oil lamp) should be prepared to be lit in front of the grave, and then brought back home when returning home, which is said to attract more joy and good fortune.

Zhoushan:

Sweeping the graves of Zhoushan people commonly known as the graveyard, to the graves to pay tribute to the ancestors. When the sacrifice, out of respect for the ancestors of the nostalgic feelings, people are the first cut weeds, repair mausoleum wood, move the soil cultivation grave, so it is called sweeping the tomb. After that, they light incense and burn candles, set up offerings such as snails, green cakes, cakes, dishes, etc. The old-fashioned parents lead the whole family to kneel down and kowtow, while the new-fashioned ones perform a bowing ceremony. After the ceremony, the top of the grave inserted bamboo streamers, burning paper money and money, to the children onlookers on the grave to share "mochi money" (mochi that is, the green cake, the shape of which has a round, there are also diamond-shaped). After visiting the graves, you have to go home and make "Ching Ming soup and rice".

You do not know the food customs of the Qingming Festival

Every year on April 5 of the solar calendar is one of China's traditional festivals Qingming Festival, which has a history of more than 2500 years. In addition to sweeping tombs and paying homage to ancestors, the food customs of Qingming Festival are also colorful.

Green dumplings

During the Qingming Festival, there is a custom of eating green dumplings in the southern part of the country. The green dumplings are made from a wild plant called "wheatgrass", which is pounded and squeezed to produce juice, which is then mixed and kneaded with dried, water-ground glutinous rice flour, and then the dumplings are made. The filling of the dumplings is made of fine sweetened bean paste, and a small piece of sweetened lard is added to the filling. After the dumplings are made, they are steamed in a cage and when they are taken out of the cage, the cooked vegetable oil is brushed evenly over the surface of the dumplings, which is the end of the process. Green dumplings green as jade, glutinous and soft, fragrant, sweet but not greasy to eat, fat but not fat. The green dumplings are also used to worship ancestors in the south of the country, because of this, the green dumplings in the south of the country in the folk food customs appear to be particularly important.

Deep-fried noodle cake

There is a custom of eating deep-fried noodle cake at Qingming Festival in the north and south of China. "Deep-fried noodle cakes, which are crispy and exquisite, were called "cold utensils" in ancient times. The custom of forbidding fire and cold food on the cold food festival is no longer popular in most parts of China, but deep-fried noodle cakes related to this festival are y loved by the world. Nowadays, the deep-fried noodle cakes popular in Han areas have differences between the north and the south: the northern deep-fried cakes are generous and free, with wheat flour as the main material; the southern deep-fried cakes are delicate and detailed, with rice flour as the main material. In the minority areas, there are many varieties of deep-fried noodle cakes with different flavors, especially those of Uygur, Dongxiang and Naxi, as well as those of Ningxia Hui, which are the most famous.

Ching Ming Fruit

In the southern part of Zhejiang, the cotton grass (also known as rat's-tongue grass) is picked from the fields, which is known as "Buddha's Ear Grass" in Chinese herbal medicine books, and has the function of relieving cough and resolving phlegm, and then it is mixed with glutinous rice flour and pounded, and then stuffed with sweetened bean paste, or shredded white radish and bamboo shoots, and then made into Ching Ming Fruit to be steamed, which is greenish-blue and very tasty to be eaten.

Every Qingming, every family has to do a kind of food called Qingming fruit, which is used to pay tribute to the ancestors when sweeping the tomb. In my impression, the arrival of Qingming Festival means that you can enjoy the green and fragrant Qingming fruit.

Qingming fruit is shaped like dumplings, but the flavor is very different. Qingming fruit skin is a kind of plant called Ai leaves made of Ai, perennial herbs, yellow flowers, small leaves shaped like chrysanthemum plants, born a tent, a cluster. Every year before the Qingming Festival, women hand-held bamboo blue, groups of three or five to the fields joyfully picking mugwort leaves, green fresh mugwort leaves full of piles in the blue, very nice and attractive. Ai leaf picking home, will begin the complicated production of Qingming fruit process, women and like the Mojutsu division, green Ai grass in a flash into a delicious and delicious Qingming fruit.

Joyful Dumplings

The area around Chengdu, Sichuan, has fried rice for the dough, threaded with thread, or big or small, each color dotted and dyed, the name is "joyful dumplings". In the old days, in Chengdu, outside the North Gate to the "Huanxian" all the way to sell. Qing Dynasty "Miancheng Bamboo Branch Lyrics" has a poem: "'Huanxian' before the joyful dough, spring outskirts to buy food 100 worry wide. The village mash play is more beautiful than Jin Sheng Li, and there are many people who are drunk in the foot basin."

Painted eggs

In some places, the first night of the Qingming Festival, the chicken and duck eggs fried, dyed blue and yellow mixed colors, in the egg shells to be carved into paintings, as a gift of cold food. It is said to eat painted eggs, in the Sui and Tang dynasties prevailed throughout the country.

Date cake

Date cake, also known as "Zi push cake", some places in the north with the fermented bad flour, sandwiched jujube steamed. They are also accustomed to the date cake made of swallow-shaped, with willow string hung on the door, can be eaten cold, in order to commemorate the noble qualities of Jie Zi push not to seek fame and fortune.

Qingming snail

Qingming Festival, it is the best time to harvest snails, because this time of year the snail has not yet reproduced, the most plump, fat, so there is a "Qingming snail, against only the goose" said. Snail eating method is quite a lot, can be fried with onion, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar; can also be boiled and picked out of the snail meat, can be mixed, can be drunk, can be bad, can be choked, all appropriate. If the food method is appropriate, it can be called "a flavor of snail a thousand interesting, delicious wine are not as good as".

In addition, China's north and south of the festival in the Qingming Festival, there are food eggs, cakes, cakes, sandwich cake, Qingming dumplings, steamed bread patties, Qingming poi, dry porridge, and other varied and nutritious food customs.

Steamed rice cake and seed kuey teow

The Ching Ming Festival of the Chaoshan people has a strong local color. Eating Pancake: Eating pancake at Ching Ming is very popular in Chaoshan, and almost every family is not an exception. Pancakes are divided into two parts. Filling two parts, the skin is made of flour mixed with water and stirred into a sticky paste, in the heat of the soil into a round sheet of cooked skin, which is as thin as paper. Filling is divided into two kinds of salty and sweet, from eggs, meat, liver, preserved flavor. Shiitake mushrooms, as well as bean sprouts, chives and other cooked ingredients mixed into the filling is called savory filling; with sugar and maltose after special processing to become "sugar onion" for the sweet filling. When eating with a thin cake crust rolled into a cylinder on the food.

Steamed Pork Seed Kuey Teow. In Chaoshan, there is a kind of tree called Park Seed Tree (also called Park Ding Tree, belonging to the family of elm), with oval leaves and fruits as big as green beans, with a sweet taste. Legend has it that our ancestors used to pick the leaves of this tree to feed themselves during famine years. At the time of the Qingming Festival, the climate turns warm, grass and trees shade, Park seed tree leaves full of bush tender green. In order not to forget the past, the descendants picked the leaves of this tree during the Ching Ming Festival, pounded and pounded the rice into powder, fermented it and mixed it with sugar, and then steamed it in a ceramic mold to make Park Seed Kuey Teow, which is available in plum blossom and peach shapes, and is also known as Peach Bowl Leafy Peach. The kuey teow is light green in color and sweet in taste, and it is said that eating it can relieve accumulated heat and remove diseases.

Fujian She Chingming Wu Nim Rice

Fujian and Taiwan Provinces, the period of ancestor sweeping, from Chingming to the rain, the counties (cities) are different. The eastern Fujian Ningde, Zhouning, Shouning and other places to sacrifice ancestral graves, more than the whole clan, near the clan set up banquets ancestral halls, gather the clan to drink and feast. A time to raise the family, men and women, young and old to, is also a unique reunion in eastern Fujian.

Qingming Festival, eastern Fujian, both urban and rural areas, most have eaten mustard food custom. It is said that on February 2 every year, ate mustard and rice mixed cooking "mustard rice" can not grow scabies all year round. There are also in March 3, boiled loach noodles ancestor worship custom. And during this time, in many cities and towns in eastern Fujian can also eat a rich eastern Fujian characteristics of food, that is, spring chrysanthemums and golden cherry blossoms mixed into the ground rice, branded for seasonal snacks, this snack is quite rich in countryside flavor.

In addition, on the Qingming food customs, can not help but mention the She's "Wu Nim rice", because the eastern Fujian is a She settlement. Every year on the third day of the third month, the She people cook "Wu Nim rice" in every household and give it to their Han relatives and friends, and over time, the local Han people have also developed the custom of eating "Wu Nim rice" during the Qingming Festival. Especially in Kurong County folk, every year must use "Wu Nim rice" sacrifice.

According to She folklore, in the second year of the Tang Dynasty, Lei Wanxing, a She hero, led the She army to fight against the soldiers and was besieged in the mountains, and the food was cut off in the winter. The She army had to pick Wu Nim fruit to feed their hunger, so Lei Wanxing led the people down the mountain on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar and broke out of the siege. From then on, every March 3rd, Lei Wanxing always called his soldiers and generals to hold a banquet to celebrate the victory of breaking through the siege. And he ordered the soldiers of She Army to pick up the leaves of Wu Nim and let the military cooks make "Wu Nim Rice", so that the whole army could have a full meal to commemorate the victory. This "Wu Nim rice" production method is not complicated, will pick down the Wu Nim tree leaves, wash, put into the water to boil, fishing off the leaves, and then, the glutinous rice soaked in Wu Nim soup, soaked for 9 hours after the fish out, put in the steamer cage to steam, cooked when you can eat. Made "Wu Nim rice", from the appearance alone, not very beautiful, black color, but the aroma of rice and general glutinous rice, compared with a different flavor. The She people to commemorate the national hero, and since then every year on "March 3" to steam "Wu Nim rice" to eat, over time, it has become a She custom. And because of the East Fujian area, She Han mixed, the people have been friendly, frequent marriages, so the food "Wu Nim rice" has also become the East Fujian various nationalities *** with the possession of the Qingming food customs.

Quanzhou Runcake dishes

Every Qingming Festival, people in Quanzhou have eaten "Runcake dishes" food custom. It is said that this is the legacy of the ancient cold food festival food customs.

"Run cake dishes" should be the proper name of the spring cake. Qingming to eat cakes, not only unique to Quanzhou, Xiamen people also prefer. Legend has it that the pioneer of this way of eating, is the Ming Dynasty, the governor of Yunnan-Guizhou-Huzhou-Guangzhou military affairs of the Tongan people Cai Fuyi. At that time, Tong'an was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture, so this way of eating has spread, and in southern Fujian has become a family favorite. However, spring cake form the same across southern Fujian, the content is very different.

Quanzhou's "Runcible dishes" is to flour as raw material rubbed and baked into a thin crust, commonly known as "Runcible" or "rub cake", when eating spread the crust, and then rolled shredded carrots, shredded meat, Oyster omelette, turnip, coriander and other mixed pot dishes, the system is simple to eat, eat sweet and savory. Jinjiang's "Rum Cake dishes" is much more complex, that package of "Rum Cake dishes" is certainly a variety of main ingredients, set up a table full of. There are some main dishes: peas, bean sprouts, dried beans, sliced fishballs, shrimp, diced meat, oyster omelette, turnip greens. There are also some ingredients: crispy seaweed, fried egg, peanut dressing, turnip, garlic. When you eat it, you must have two "moist cake skins" to ensure that it is not burst by the rich content. This crunchy, sweet, mellow and delicious flavor, the average person 2 rolls enough.

However, Jinjiang's "moist cake dish" is not the most complex; on the complexity, it should be Xiamen for the most. Jinjiang with the main ingredients of Xiamen have, in addition to bamboo shoots, fish, crispy dried flatfish, fried leeks, and then dipped in mustard, hot sauce, sweet sauce, which is called the authentic Xiamen "pancake".

Sweet cheese and ring cake

"Jing Chu chronicles" recorded: "to the winter festival one hundred and five days, that is, there is a strong wind and rain, called the cold food. The fire was banned for three days, and molasses and barley porridge were made'. Yechengji also said: 'three days of cold food for sweet cheese' sweet cheese is a kind of almond wheat porridge prepared with maltose. It was still the main food for the Cold Food Festival until the Sui and Tang dynasties. In addition, Jia Si Fo's "Qi Min Yao Jie" also recorded another cold food festival food - ring cake. 'ring cake, a cold utensil, with honey mixed with water ulcerated noodles'. Deep-fried to golden brown can be eaten, the flavor is extremely crispy, quite similar to the current dim sum.

Zaozhixi Feiyan

During the Qingming Festival in the Song Dynasty, in addition to the ready-made food such as thick molasses, wheat cake, cheese, and milk cake sold in the market, people also made a kind of swallow-shaped noodle called 'Zaozhixi Feiyan', which is said to be an offering used to worship Jie Zitui in the old days. The Ming Dynasty people would also leave part of the jujube confinement Feiyan, to the beginning of summer, fried in oil for the children at home to eat, it is said that after eating, you can not moth summer.

Green rice

Chen Yuanliang (about 1225 - - 1264) of the "time and age" volume 15, cited the "General Records of Zuoling" recorded another cold food 'green rice': 'Yang Tong leaves, fine holly, the waterfront is particularly lush. Residents of the cold food to pick its leaves dyed rice, color green and light, eat the capital Yang Qi. It is called Yangtong rice, and Taoists call it Green Essence Rice and Stone Hunger Rice.' It seems that the custom of dyeing green rice for cold food and clearing the sky was more popular in the south. Lang Ying's (1487-~1566, Hangzhou, China) 'Seven Revised Class Drafts', Volume 4.3, mentions 'green and white dumplings' eaten during the cold food festival. This kind of green dumplings is made by pounding glutinous rice with the juice of sparrow grass, and the filling is mostly jujube paste or bean paste. It is a popular food for the Ching Ming Festival because of its lovely green color after steaming and the fragrance of the leaves before putting it into the steamer.