What's the custom of eating qingtuan for a long time in China?
Qingming Festival to eat the Youth League
Qingming Festival to eat the Youth League. It is mainly for the purpose of founding ancestors and offering sacrifices. Every year, April 5 is one of the traditional festivals in China. One of the popular customs of Qingming Festival is to eat the Youth League. This custom can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. According to the book of rites of the Zhou Dynasty, at that time, there was a law that "in the middle of spring, Muduo was forbidden to follow the fire in the middle of the country." so the people put out their cooking and "cold food for three days.". During the cold food period, i.e. one or two days before Weiming, it is also designated as "cold day festival".
Around Qingming, it is the best season to pick Qingming grass. People at this time, in the way of eating Qingming fruit to commemorate their ancestors. In ancient times, the traditional food of cold food festival includes glutinous rice cheese, wheat cheese and almond cheese. These foods can be prepared in advance to satisfy the hunger on the cold day, and there is no need to raise a fire for cooking. At present, some of the Youth League are made of wormwood, some are made of Bromus grass juice and glutinous rice flour, and then filled with bean paste. They have been around for more than 100 years and are still an old face. People use it to sweep tombs to worship ancestors, but more is to make new, the function of the Youth League as a sacrifice is increasingly weakened. Eating Youth League popular areas: Zhejiang Province, a small part of Fujian Province, Jiangxi, Anhui part of the region.
Meaning of eating Youth League on Qingming Festival
Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms. Qingming folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Beating the Youth League is one of the most distinctive seasonal food making activities in Qingming.
It is said that on Tomb Sweeping day one year, Li Xiucheng, a general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was hunted down by the Qing army. A farmer nearby came to help him disguise himself as a farmer and cultivated the land with himself. When Li Xiucheng was not caught, the Qing soldiers did not give up, so they set up posts in the village. Every person leaving the village had to be checked to prevent them from bringing food to Li Xiucheng.
After returning home, when the farmer was thinking about what to bring to Li Xiucheng, he stepped on a clump of wormwood and slipped. When he got up, he saw that his hands and knees were stained with green. He immediately picked up some wormwood to wash, boil, squeeze juice, knead into glutinous rice flour to make a rice dumpling. Then he put the green ball in the grass and passed the sentinel at the entrance of the village. After eating the green ball, Li Xiucheng felt that it was fragrant, glutinous and did not stick to his teeth. After dark, he bypassed the sentry post and returned to the base camp safely. Later, Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping army to learn to be a Youth League to defend itself against the enemy. The custom of eating the Youth League spread.
What kind of food is the Youth League
Qingtuanzi is a kind of wild plant called 'pulping wheat straw', which is mashed and squeezed into juice. Then the juice is mixed with the dried pure glutinous rice flour and kneaded, and then the dough is made. The filling heart of the dumpling is made of fine sugar bean paste, and a small piece of sugar lard is put into the stuffing. After the dough is finished, steam them in the cage, and brush the cooked vegetable oil evenly on the surface of the dumpling with a brush when it is out of the cage, which is a success. Green dumplings are as green as jade, waxy and soft, fragrant, sweet but not greasy, fat but not plump. Qingtuanzi is also a necessary food for people in Jiangnan area to sacrifice their ancestors. Because of this, qingtuanzi is particularly important in the folk food customs in Jiangnan area.