Dumplings in Hometown Customs

Wrapping dumplings signifies joy and good fortune, happiness and good fortune.

The custom of wrapping dumplings is to pack gold ruyi, brown sugar, peanuts, jujubes and chestnuts into the filling. The person who eats it will have a good meaning.

Dumplings are a traditional Chinese food. Originally known as "Jiao Er", dumplings were first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of medicine, more than 1,800 years ago. Dumplings are the staple food and local snack of Chinese folklore, as well as the food for New Year's festivals. There is a folk song that says, "Eat dumplings to celebrate the New Year." Every year, every family will make dumplings and eat them.

People often put gold ruyi, brown sugar, peanuts, jujube and chestnuts into the filling. Those who eat ruyi and brown sugar will have sweeter days in the coming year, those who eat peanuts will live a long and healthy life, those who eat jujubes and chestnuts will have precious children early, and those who eat coins will have a continuous source of wealth. It expresses people's beautiful longing for the coming year.

The Shape of Dumplings:

The shape of dumplings wrapped on the 30th day of the new year also has its own peculiarities, and most regions are accustomed to keeping the traditional curved moon shape. When wrapping in this shape, the dough is folded in half and then pinched along the edge of the semicircle with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, which is called "pinching the blessing".

Some farmers pinch the two corners of a curved moon-shaped dumpling and pinch them together in the shape of a "Yuanbao", which is placed on the cover curtain to symbolize wealth, gold and silver all over the house. Some farmers, the dumplings will be pinched on the wheat pattern, like a full grain, large ears of wheat, symbolizing the new year will be a bumper crop. But more often than not, the dumplings are wrapped into several shapes, signaling that the coming year will bring wealth to the house.