Origin of Green Dumplings

The green dumplings are eaten during the Qingming Festival.?

The custom of eating green dumplings on the Qingming Festival dates back to the Zhou Dynasty, when people made food that could be preserved for 3-5 days to satisfy the need to eat without cooking for rituals, and it has been passed down to the present day.

Eating green dumplings is mainly prevalent in the Qingming Festival around Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Green dumplings are a traditional specialty of the southern region of China, made by adding the juice of mugwort to glutinous rice flour and then adding various fillings with a long grassy aroma.

In ancient times, the Qingming Festival was preceded by the Cold Food Festival, in which people in the south of the Yangtze River did not make fires to cook, but only ate pre-prepared green dumplings to express their remembrance of their ancestors. The shape of the green dumpling has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Nowadays, its function as a ritual has become increasingly diluted, and it has become a spring seasonal snack that has become popular all over the country.

The green dumplings are a traditional specialty of the southern part of the Yangtze River. They are green as oil, soft and pliable, and have a special fragrance, making them a natural and healthy delicacy.

The custom of eating green dumplings at the Qingming Festival should be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, the "Zhouli" on the record, "mid-spring to the Wooden Duo fire ban in the country" regulations, the people have to extinguish the cooking, the cold food for three days, people will be made beforehand to save some of the food can be preserved for 3-5 days in order to meet the demand for sacrificial offerings and food without cooking, passed on to the modern era, the green dumplings sacrificial function has been diluted, but also has more of a natural and healthy food. In modern times, the ritual function of green dumplings has been diluted, and they are more often used as snacks for spring excursions.

The green dumplings are usually made of mugwort or wheatgrass, and are mainly made by mixing the juice of mugwort with glutinous rice flour and wrapping it with bean paste or lotus seed paste, which is not too sweet and not too greasy, and has a light but long-lasting aroma of grass. There is no special contraindication to the consumption of green dumplings, the general public can eat, but because the production of green dumplings in the material of glutinous rice, and glutinous rice flour is too viscous, excessive use is not conducive to digestion, for the elderly and children, their gastrointestinal digestive function is relatively fragile, consumption of too much is easy to give the stomach to cause a burden. Secondly, green dumplings contain more sugar and starch, diabetics should also eat less or not eat.

In the Jiangnan region of China, it is customary to eat green dumplings on Qingming Festival. The juice of mugwort is usually mixed into glutinous rice flour and then wrapped into a delicate bean paste filling or lotus seed paste, which is not too sweet and not too greasy, and carries a light but long-lasting grassy aroma.

The Qingming Festival, also known as the Green Festival and the Ancestors' Festival, is celebrated in mid-spring and late spring. Originating from the ancient belief in ancestors and the rituals of the spring festival, the Qingming Festival has both natural and humanistic connotations, and is both a natural festival and a traditional festival.

Precautions when eating green dumplings

1, be sure to heat them up before eating.

2. It is best eaten with bamboo shoots or marrows.

3. Never mix with fatty meat.

4, it is best to consume some foods that help digestion, such as hawthorn.

What does eating green dumplings on Qingming Festival symbolize

Mainly, it has the symbolism of sacrifice and reunion.

Generally in the southern region of China, before and after the Qingming Festival will have the custom of eating green dumplings, the beginning of the green dumplings are mainly used as sacrificial food, in order to commemorate the ancestors, expressed their feelings of remembrance; but with the development of the times, the green dumplings are beginning to be eaten as snacks, and then there is a new symbolism, eating green dumplings at the Qingming Festival is also symbolic of the reunion.

Can you give it away

It's best not to.

Although now the green dumplings can be eaten as snacks, many people like to eat, but after all, the green dumplings are mainly used for ceremonial use, mainly to commemorate the ancestors, may be young people are not taboo, but for some of the old man, the green dumplings is a bad symbol, so the green dumplings recommended that it is best not to give away is better, you can use other food instead.

Originality

The Qingming folklore was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Playing green dumplings is one of the most distinctive festive food-making activities of Qingming.

Making process

The rice (glutinous rice, stalked rice, indica rice), wheat seedling juice (powder), wormwood juice (powder), sugar and other main raw materials, through the filling, steaming and other processes made of directly edible rice flour products.