What are the four seasons and diet?

Chinese seasonal dietary traditions are an important part of our outstanding cultural heritage, demonstrating that traditional seasonal dietary activities are beneficial to both body and mind, and are worth carrying forward. In ancient times, China attached great importance to the customs of the year, and did not treat them casually in times of prosperity or chaos. Many ancient literati wrote about the customs of the year and contributed to organizing and preserving this tradition. For example, Cui Shi of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote "The Monthly Order of the Four Peoples", in which he described the agricultural activities and at the same time gave a detailed account of the customs of the scholars at that time. In the Southern Dynasties, Zong Secured Hours was the first specialized document on seasons and customs in ancient China, which systematically described the festivals and diets in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River during the Southern Dynasties. The book is a detailed account of the customs of the time and place of the year.

The annual festival, the customs of each generation change, the center of attention is not exactly the same. According to the Tang dynasty Li Zhao's "Hanlin Zhi", we by the Tang dynasty court on the Hanlin scholars of the year on the care of the festival, it can be known that the selected festival is mainly cold food, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Chongyang, the winter solstice, in these festivals by the Ministry of the supply of special festivals, the cold food is the apricot cheese, congee crumbs, Qingming is the steaming of the ring cake, the Dragon Boat Festival is the corner of the millet, the sun is the cake, the winter solstice is a year of wine, pheasants, and so on.

In the Song Dynasty, the emperor in the annual festival of the ministers have a reward, known as the "seasonal gift", according to the "Song Shi - Ritual Zhi twenty-two," recorded, the Song Dynasty, the selected national season has the first day of the first day, to the day of the first spring, the cold food, the Dragon Boat Festival, the day of the ambrosia, the sun, and so on, with the Tang Dynasty is slightly different. In these festivals given food, the spring for spring plate, cold food for porridge, the Dragon Boat Festival for dumplings, Chongyang for cakes.

According to the record of the "Ming Council Code", the Ming Dynasty, "where the spring, Lantern Festival, April 8, Duanyang, Chongyang, Lunar New Year's Day, Yongle between the club in the Fengtianmen pass to give the hundred officials to feast. This shows that the weight of the annual festival, the court is a choice, and some differences with the previous generation. These festivals and festivals in the Ming Dynasty special food, according to the "Ming Huidian" is recorded as follows:

Spring rolls on the first day of the festival - tea, oil cake, steamed bread, etc.;

Li Spring Festival - spring cakes, etc.;

Lunar New Year's Lantern Festival - steamed buns, dumplings, etc.

April 8 Festival - do not fall pods, cold cake, etc.

Duanwu Festival - steamed buns, zongzi, etc.;

Chongyang Festival -cakes, dim sum;

Winter Solstice Festival - steamed buns, horse and mutton.

There were seven national festivals in the Ming Dynasty***, and the food categories were not complex and more traditional.

By the Qing Dynasty, national festivals mainly include New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chung Yeung Festival, and Winter Solstice Festival, which are slightly changed compared with the previous generation. The annual festivals and food categories are roughly as follows:

New Year's Day - dumplings, Lantern Festival;

Lichun - spring pancakes, spring plates;

Duanwu- Dumplings;

Mid-Autumn Festival - mooncakes, melons and fruits:

Chrysanthemum wine, flowers; cakes:

Winter Solstice - wontons.

History has developed to the present day, there is no count of annual festivals of national significance preserved in folklore, except for the Spring Festival. Only the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chung Yeung, only in some areas or range of more importance, some of them in addition to retaining the traditional festival food, basically does not reflect the festive atmosphere. As for the winter solstice, an extremely important festival in ancient times, we seem to have forgotten about it.

The cohesion of a nation can be gained in many ways, and we believe that national festivals are one of the most important ways. Festivals and festive traditional food and drink activities are an important way of embodying the national spirit, spreading the national culture and maintaining the national sentiment, and they deserve to be carried forward. Of course it is impossible to restore all the yearly festival traditions of the past. In our opinion, the Chinese yearly festival food culture tradition is worth reorganizing, and while maintaining regional styles, we can also consider establishing a national norm that regulates festival diets relatively on the basis of regulating festivals, in order to reflect a kind of national traditional culture with special characteristics. For example, the Chinese festival norms can be issued through the civil affairs department, and it is suggested that at least five annual festivals can be set up in a year, namely the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chung Yeung Festival and Winter Solstice Festival, and the corresponding festive food categories are as follows:

1. Spring Festival (New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, New Year's Lantern Festival) - New Year's Day 30th family reunion dinner; first day of the year dumplings, Baiji box; Lantern Festival soup dumplings.

2. Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar) - dumplings, glutinous rice porridge.

3. Mid-Autumn Festival (15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar) - moon cakes, osmanthus wine.

4. Chung Yeung (the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar) - flower cakes and chrysanthemum wine.

5. Winter Solstice (December 21-23 on the lunar calendar) - wontons and hot pot.

If this is standardized, as far as the seasons are concerned, it's almost a seasonal festival, with Spring Festival in Spring, Dragon Boat Festival in Summer, Mid-Autumn Festival in Autumn, Winter Solstice Festival in Winter, plus a big year, there are five annual festivals **** a year. Ming and Qing dynasties had five or six big year festival, roughly spring for Qingming, summer for Dragon Boat Festival, autumn for the middle yuan (mid-autumn), winter for the winter solstice, plus New Year's Eve. With reference to the Ming and Qing traditions, it should be said that it is appropriate to stipulate the national annual festivals as Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chung Yeung Festival and Winter Solstice. Considering that Qingming is also a very meaningful festival for the Chinese nation, we can add it and combine it into six festivals, or replace Chongyang with it and still set five festivals.

The Spring Festival is a major national festival, which has always been valued by the Chinese people. Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient times is also extremely valued, to the contemporary, Mid-Autumn Festival in the folk are still more important, but the Dragon Boat Festival is to become dispensable, although the dumplings as the Dragon Boat Festival before and after the characteristics of the food is still welcome, but the concept of the Dragon Boat Festival has gradually faded. When it comes to the winter solstice is even worse than in the past, the average urban youth do not even have the concept of this festival. Many people may be baffled by the mention of the festival now.

In addition to the festivals of the four seasons, we have also listed an additional Chongyang Festival as a special honor for the elderly and a special care for the modern aging society. Of course, Chung Yeung is not limited to honoring the elderly, but also the meaning of climbing high to think of home and friends; it is also a sad festival for travelers to express their feelings for their hometowns. In contemporary times, when many people are leaving their hometowns in search of development, the setting of the Chung Yeung Festival will be more realistic.

These festive food items, in accordance with the popular customary design, is generally a little heart with a first-class food or wine. Of course, as a festival food, east and west, north and south can retain some regional characteristics, do not have to force a uniform, but on the above list of items, the general can still be unified.

We eat on weekdays, mostly for the needs of the mouth and stomach. And the enjoyment of the year, it is mainly manifested in the spiritual needs. Chinese traditional dietary activities, cultural activities, but also social activities, people in this activity, enjoy the gifts of nature, happy to taste the fruits of the harvest, contact each other's feelings, express the beautiful feelings, and strengthen their physique. As one of the important connotations of China's fine cultural traditions, the food and drink customs of the year have long formed a perfect system after a long history of change. For such a healthy and upward spirit of the national culture system, it is still necessary to retain a certain position in the modern social life. Of course, this kind of retention is not set in stone, but needs to be sorted out and go through a process of promotion and abandonment. History is moving forward, although it is not wise to stick to tradition, but it may not be feasible to completely cut off tradition.