Xiaonian is a very important festival. People usually have a good meal at the beginning of the festival. What do they eat for Xiaonian? The most traditional food is dumplings, as well as killing pigs, eating rice cakes and so on. Nowadays, people eat very well in their childhood, and no longer only eat some traditional food.
1、 Eat dumplings
During the festival, people pay attention to eating dumplings, which means "sending dumplings off to face the wind". There are more cakes and buckwheat noodles in the mountains. In the southeast of Shanxi Province, it is a popular custom to eat fried corn. There is a saying in the folk proverb, "23, do not eat fried corn, but pour it in one pot at the beginning of the new year". People like to stir fry corn with maltose, frozen into large pieces, eat crisp and sweet. In the old days, no matter the rich or the poor, as long as they lived at the top of their families, they would worship the statue of the kitchen Lord on the wall above the pot platform, and paste a couplet on both sides of the statue: "Heaven says good things, and the lower boundary will keep the peace." Each family regards the kitchen Lord as a God, who will dominate the ups and downs of the family. Because the kitchen is always lived in the four seasons and the activities of the family are inspected, it naturally becomes the "head of the family".
2、 Eat sweet melon
There are two kinds of sweet melons: sesame and non sesame. They are made into melon shape or northern melon shape with sugar. The center is empty and the skin thickness is less than five points. Although the sizes are different, the transaction is still calculated by the weight. The large sweet melon weighs one or two Jin, but it is used as a cover and few people buy it. The reason for offering kitchen candy is to stick the kitchen god's mouth. It is said that Zaoye is the God sent by the Jade Emperor to supervise the good and evil in the world. It has the duty to communicate the feelings of heaven and earth, and to transmit the information of fairyland and mortal. When it went to heaven, people provided it with cooking sugar, hoping that it had eaten sweets and made more good words in front of the Jade Emperor. It is also said that the kitchen candy used for cooking is not the mouth of the kitchen god, but the mouth of the kitchen god's grandmother who is greedy and gossipy.
3、 Sticky cake
There are folk songs of "23, sticky cakes and sticky sticks" in Luxi area of Shandong Province. Every year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it is a day for every family to steam and eat sticky cakes, which means to stick the mouth of the kitchen king and let him say good things, not bad things. Sticky cake with yellow rice, red dates and other raw materials, sweet and strong way, soft entrance, take "high year by year" auspicious meaning. In addition, Hainan people use coconuts as ingredients to make coconut cakes for eating and praying, taking the auspicious meaning of "annual high".
4、 Kill pig
In the Langdong of Lianhua, Xinhe of Xiling, shuibin mountain village of Guanyin and other places in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County, there is a custom of killing pigs for the Spring Festival. After the new year's Eve (the 23rd of December in the lunar calendar), the lively play of killing New Year's pigs will be opened. Select the best meat, stir fry or stew, cook carefully, and fill up with a glass of wine. Invite relatives and friends to share the first fresh meat after the slaughter of the pig - soup.
5、 New year dumplings
Nanning people have the custom of eating "Nian Zong" in the new year. Nian Zong is a symbol of the auspiciousness of the new year. As the saying goes, "Nian Zong Nian Zong, yearly high school (Zong)". It has filling, big and small, long and short, round and flat. After peeling off the leaves, the skin is glutinous rice, and the stuffing is mung beans and pork. Some people also put their favorite food as stuffing.
The date of Xiaonian is different in different regions of China. In the north, it is usually on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month. In the south, it is usually on the 24th of the 24th lunar month. In some areas, it is on the 15th and 16th of the 1st lunar month. People will clean their homes and prepare their new year's products at this time.