In China's tradition, traditional food is always indispensable for major days and festivals. After all, it is Chinese people's habit to celebrate festivals and major days with food. In a few days, the last of the 24 solar terms is the severe cold. The arrival of the severe cold indicates that the cold winter is about to pass. We are about to usher in a warm spring. Even if the severe cold is not a major festival, we really deserve to celebrate on this day when the East goes to spring. So what kind of food do we want in our traditional customs? This article introduces the traditional food customs of the great cold solar term. Let's take a look at what we should eat in our tradition.
Cold food custom: tail tooth sacrifice
According to China's customs, especially in rural areas, people are busy getting rid of the old and making new clothes, pickling New Year's dishes and preparing new year's goods every winter festival. From the cold to the beginning of spring, there are many important folk customs and festivals. Such as tail tooth sacrifice, kitchen stove sacrifice and new year's Eve, sometimes even China's largest festival, the Spring Festival, is also in this solar term. The great cold solar term is full of joy and joy. It is a cheerful and relaxed solar term. The tail teeth originated from the custom of worshipping the land to make 'teeth'.
The so-called second of February is the first tooth. In the future, we have to make 'teeth' every second and sixteenth day of the lunar calendar. It happens to be the tail tooth on December 16th of the lunar calendar. Like February 2, the tail teeth are eaten with spring cakes (called runcakes in the South). On this day, buyers and sellers will hold a banquet, and chopped chicken is an indispensable dish at the banquet. It is said that whoever the chicken heads at means that the boss will fire him next year. Therefore, now some bosses generally turn the chicken head towards themselves, so that employees can enjoy delicious food at ease and have a safe year when they go home.
Cold food customs: drinking chicken soup
In the cold winter season, the daily diet of Nanjing people is more stewed soup and soup. The great cold is around the fourth and ninth lunar calendar. The traditional 191 chicken food custom is still respected by many citizen families. Most of the people in Nanjing choose to stew the old hen alone, or add ginseng, medlar and black fungus. It's really a pleasure to drink chicken soup in cold winter.
In the twelfth lunar month, old Nanjing also likes to make soup. Soup dishes are available everywhere, and the methods are also different. For example, the soup in the north is thick and thick, the soup in the south is light and exquisite, while the soup in Nanjing takes the advantage of the North-South flavor, which is neither too thick or light, nor too salty or sweet. Another reason why Nanjing likes to eat soup in winter is that it is easy to obtain materials, which can be complex or simple, valuable or cheap. Minced meat, tofu, yam, agaric, yam, mustard and so on can be made into a pot of hot soup, accompanied by coriander and white pepper.
Cold food customs: eat cold cake
The custom of eating "Xiaohan cake" has a long history in Beijing. Xiaohan cake is a kind of New Year cake. Not only because its glutinous rice contains more sugar than rice, it makes the whole body feel warm after eating, which has the effects of warming and dispersing wind and cold, moistening the lungs and strengthening the spleen and stomach, but also people choose to eat new year cake on the day of "great cold", which also means "niangao", with a good color of good luck, peace and rising step by step. " Therefore, in the custom of old Beijing, on the cold day, the family eats New Year cakes separately, which not only has an auspicious taste, but also can dispel the cold, so it is called & lsquo; Xiaohan cake & rsquo;.
In addition, people often rushed to buy sesame straw in the streets in the old cold season. Because 'sesame blossoms higher and higher', on New Year's Eve, people sprinkle sesame straw on the road for children to crush, homophonic and auspicious, meaning 'stepping on the new year's Eve'; At the same time, it uses the homonym of "broken" and "year-old" to mean "peace of the year", so as to win a happy new year. This also makes the festival meaning of cold driving evil and auspicious more strong. With the arrival of the cold solar term, time-honored brands such as Daoxiang village, Daoxiang spring and Guixiang village have launched their own distinctive 'Xiaohan cake'. In Cuiwei store of Daoxiang village, 'Xiaohan cake' is placed in the most obvious position on the counter.
Cold food customs: eating glutinous rice
In the vast areas of southern China, there is the custom of eating glutinous rice in the cold. Although this custom sounds simple, it contains the life experience accumulated by predecessors. Because it is particularly cold in the cold weather, glutinous rice is a food with high calories and has a good role in keeping out the cold. There are many ways to make glutinous rice. Glutinous rice has the effect of Tonifying the middle and supplementing qi. It is most suitable to eat glutinous rice in cold seasons.
The origin of eating glutinous rice in the cold solar term
It is a custom to eat glutinous rice in the cold. The great cold is the last of the twenty-four integrity, and it is also the coldest day in the whole winter, so it is called 'great cold'. On this day, Cantonese not only wear the most, but also eat something warm to their stomach to keep out the cold, such as glutinous rice. Glutinous rice warms the stomach, nourishes the stomach and replenishes Qi and blood. It is most suitable for eating in cold winter. You feel warm all over you.
In the old days, poor people's houses leaked through the wall, the seats were thin, and the cold protection conditions were too simple. They had to face the suffering of cold every day. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that glutinous rice is sweet in taste and warm in nature. It can nourish the healthy qi of the human body. After eating, it will give off heat all over the body and play a role in keeping out the cold and nourishing. It is most suitable for eating in winter. So when the people tried, they really felt that their stomach was warm, just like a small heater. They were no longer afraid of the invasion of cold, so the custom of eating glutinous rice on a cold day began to spread.
There is a Cantonese saying: 'little cold, great cold, cold without wind.' Small cold, cold, generally every household has the habit of eating glutinous rice.
Health preservation effect of eating glutinous rice in the cold solar term
Glutinous rice is a mild tonic, which has the functions of tonifying deficiency, nourishing blood, strengthening spleen and warming stomach, stopping sweating and so on. It is suitable for nausea, loss of appetite, diarrhea and sweating deficiency, shortness of breath and weakness, pregnancy and abdominal distension caused by spleen and stomach deficiency and cold. Modern scientific research shows that glutinous rice contains protein, fat, sugar, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B and starch. It is a warm tonic and strong product.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cold is Yin evil, and the coldest solar term is also the peak period of Yin evil. From the perspective of diet and health preservation, we should eat more warm food to supplement the body and prevent the invasion of cold climate on the human body. Traditional Chinese medicine theory holds that glutinous rice has the effect of Tonifying the middle and Supplementing Qi, and it is most suitable to eat glutinous rice in cold seasons. There is a Cantonese saying: 'little cold, great cold, cold without wind.' Small cold, cold, generally every household has the habit of eating glutinous rice.
Various foods made of glutinous rice. There are steamed glutinous rice with red dates, colored flower glutinous rice, dumplings, Babao rice, Ciba and New Year cake for the Lantern Festival, pillow shaped and triangular zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, Qingming qingtuan and Qingming cake. Various flavors of glutinous rice are popular in Guizhou Province, and various sweet, salty, sour and spicy methods of glutinous rice emerge one after another. During the cold solar term, you might as well make more glutinous rice to keep out the cold.
Cold food customs: eat eight treasures rice
January 20 is the solar term of great cold. Like Xiaohan, great cold is also a solar term indicating the degree of cold. It is also the last solar term of the year, followed by the beginning of spring next year. Because it is close to spring, although it is not as cold as the period from heavy snow to winter solstice and light cold in the meteorological records, it is still in the cold period. The folk custom says' little cold, big cold, cold into ice '. At this time, people began to get rid of the old and make new clothes, pickle New Year's dishes and prepare new year's goods, and can vaguely feel the scene of spring return.
Babao rice, the custom food of the cold solar terms, is the food of the Han nationality. It is popular all over the country, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. Steam the glutinous rice, mix it with sugar, lard and osmanthus, pour it into the appliance containing red dates, job's tears, lotus seeds, longan meat and other fruit materials, and then pour sugar brine after steaming. It tastes sweet and is a good product for festivals and hospitality. On the occasion of severe cold, eating eight treasure rice can strengthen the spleen, replenish qi, nourish blood and calm the mind. It is suitable for people with deficiency of Qi and blood such as physical weakness, fatigue and fatigue. The implication of eight treasures rice in the cold solar terms
The arrival of the great cold solar term means that it is not far from the Spring Festival, so the eight treasures rice of the great cold solar term pays attention to the auspicious meaning to make a good start. First, the eight treasures rice is often later at the banquet, which is similar to the dessert in the West, while people in the south prefer sweets. Second, take its auspicious meaning, because whether it is the name of "eight treasures" or the "lily" (with the meaning of a hundred years of love), "red jujube" (with the meaning of early birth of a noble son) and lotus seed (even birth of a noble son). In addition, the shape and sweetness of the eight treasures rice also have the meaning of roundness and sweetness.
During the cold solar term, Ningbo, Shengzhou and Jiaxing also retain the custom of eating eight treasure rice for the new year.
Origin of eight treasures rice in the great cold
It is said that it originated from the celebration banquet of King Wu's attack on Zhou. Zhou was the Lord at the end of the Shang Dynasty. He was strong, quick and eloquent, addicted to wine and lust, and tyrannical. In 1123 BC, King Wu of Zhou led the princes to the East and defeated Zhou in the Muye in the south of Hong County, Henan Province. Zhou burned himself to death. King Wu and the world were settled, and the capital was established in Ho, which is now Shanglin garden in the west of Chang'an. Boda, Boshi, Zhongtu, Zhonghu, Shuye, Shuxia, jisui and Ji deceived eight scholars in King Wu's great cause of conquering Zhou and establishing the world. They made great contributions and were deeply praised by King Wu and the people. At the celebration banquet of King Wu's attack on Zhou, the world was jubilant, the officers and men jumped, and the servants made eight treasure rice to celebrate the occasion. The eight treasures symbolize the eight meritorious scholars, and the use of Hawthorn implies the cremation of King Zhou. However, there is a more reliable explanation that the eight treasure rice originated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and was spread to the north only after the master of Jiangnan came to Beijing as a royal chef. Nowadays, Ningbo, Shengzhou and Jiaxing also retain the custom of eating eight treasure rice for the new year.