What traditional food does beginning of spring eat?

Spring Festival is one of the dietary customs in beginning of spring. Lettuce, melon, fruit, cakes and sugar are mainly used as vegetables, which are put on plates to feed relatives and friends or eat during the New Year. There are five kinds of dishes: fruit, vegetables, candy, cake and bait. Vegetables mainly include: bean sprouts, radishes, leeks, spinach, lettuce, beans, eggs and shredded potatoes. Du Fu's beginning of spring: "In spring, the lettuce in the spring vegetables is fine, and I suddenly think of the time when Beijing plum blossoms."

2. Spring pancake

Spring pancake is a pancake baked with flour and usually eaten with rolled vegetables. At first, spring cakes and vegetables were put on a plate, which became "spring vegetables". In the Song Dynasty, Guangji quoted the Four Seasons Baojing in the Tang Dynasty: "beginning of spring eats radishes, spring cakes and lettuce, but there is nothing in spring."

3. Tian Ai _

Tian Ai is a common seasonal food in spring. Everything recovers in spring, and the grass grows and the warblers fly, which is the heyday of Ai Shangtian's growth in the field of spring ploughing. Tian Ai is also a festival to pay tribute to God and pray for good weather.

What is the beginning of spring?

Beginning of spring is the first of the 24 solar terms. Standing means "start"; Spring represents warmth and growth. Twenty-four solar terms were originally formulated on the basis of "variable stars". When the bucket handle of the Big Dipper points to the shade, it is beginning of spring. At present, solar terms are determined according to the longitude of the sun. When the sun reaches longitude 3 15, it will be the beginning of spring, and the festival will be held from February 3 to 5 of the Gregorian calendar every year. In the era of cadres and branches, silver moon is spring, beginning of spring is the beginning of a year, and beginning of spring is the beginning of everything, which means all self-renewal, which means the beginning of a new cycle. In the traditional concept, beginning of spring has auspicious meaning.

Meteorological changes in early spring

In early spring, westerly jet, the southern branch of East Asia, began to weaken, while the strength and location of westerly jet, the northern branch of East Asia, remained basically unchanged. The Mongolian cold high and Aleutian low are relatively strong, but in the interval affected by strong cold air, the frequency of southerly wind increases, accompanied by obvious warming process. Since the solar terms in beginning of spring, the time series has entered the spring. In nature and people's minds, "spring" means warm weather and the revival of everything. Spring has begun. In nature, the most striking feature is that everything is beginning to show signs of recovery.

In beginning of spring, the dividing line between winter and spring in China was from Guilin, Guangxi to Ganzhou, Jiangxi. In the area south of this line, beginning of spring sometimes smells like spring, but 93% of the land in China is still winter, while in Heilongjiang, it often welcomes spring in the long summer, Grain Rain. The so-called beginning of spring is just a "conception". In spring, the temperature began to rise, and sunshine and rainfall began to increase. But for most parts of the country, this is just a prelude to spring.

The custom of beginning of spring

Hu Chunniu

The custom of sticking spring cattle began before the beginning of spring. According to the traditional practice, the county government hired experts and craftsmen in paper binding to gather in the county town before the spring to carefully make images of spring cattle. Generally, bamboo sticks are tied into the skeleton of a cow, spring wood is used as legs, paper is pasted and paint is applied, and the image of a cow is successfully made. It is said that a lot of red and yellow papers were posted on it, and that year was a "bumper harvest"; Paste on black paper, the harvest was not good that year. So the magistrate arranged to win people's hearts with red and yellow paper. After the spring cattle were pasted, a ceremony was held to make the finishing point, that is, an incense table was set up and a bow was made to worship.

Beat spring cattle

Whipping spring means beating spring cattle, also known as "whipping spring cattle" and "whipping local cattle". Beginning of spring smashed the mud spring cattle, which is the heritage of farming civilization. Through the custom of beating spring cattle, remind farmers that spring is coming, sow in time, pray for a bumper harvest in one year, make the country prosperous and the people safe. The custom of whipping spring is related to praying for a bumper harvest, which is an ancient holiday custom. There is a kind of spring cattle made of Sang Mu as the skeleton, which is a "cow" specially used for the custom of "beating spring cattle". In order to welcome the spring, we first choose a piece of land with good feng shui in the suburbs of the county and set up a "spring shed" to prepare for the Spring Festival. Spring sheds are generally set on major traffic routes to facilitate the gathering of people. Put colorful flags around.

Beating spring cattle, also known as whipping spring cattle and whipping local cattle, originated earlier and has been preserved to this day, but changing to spring prevailed in Tang and Song Dynasties. Especially after Song Renzong promulgated the Classic of Local Cattle, the custom of whipping local cattle spread more widely and became an important part of folk culture. The significance of whipping spring cattle is not limited to sending air conditioning and promoting spring ploughing, but also has certain witchcraft significance. Spring cattle in different regions have their own characteristics. When welcoming the spring cows, kowtow to the spring cows in turn. After the worship, everyone swarmed, smashed the spring cattle, snatched the soil from them and scattered it in the cowshed. It can be seen that whipping spring cattle is still a kind of breeding witchcraft, that is, spring cattle soil after the Spring Festival can promote cattle reproduction by being scattered in the cowshed.

Yao Chun

The beginning of seasonal diet in spring is the custom of making spring cakes, sending spring plates and eating spring vegetables to welcome and celebrate spring. Spring cake is a typical seasonal food at the beginning of spring. Since Wei, Jin and Southern Dynasties, people have eaten spring cakes in spring. "Jingchu Chunqiu" records: "On the day of beginning of spring, relatives and friends gave a banquet, _ Qin cake lettuce, and posted the word' Yichun'." Spring pancake is a kind of pancake. Lettuce, fruit, cake and sugar are put on a plate to welcome the New Year, which is called "spring plate" and can also be given to friends and relatives for tasting.