The first one: eat green balls (wormwood balls)
At first, the custom of eating Youth League in Tomb-Sweeping Day was only popular in Jiangnan area, but with the inheritance of food culture and the spread of food, it gradually made many places have the custom of eating Youth League. Some of the Youth League are called "Qingmingbing", others are called "Ai Zan", and here, I am called "Ai Tuan".
The overall color of Qingtuan is green and beautiful, with a soft and waxy taste, which is quite suitable for the green in spring. It is delicious and nutritious, and it is the most traditional snack that can't be missed before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day.
The second one: eat eggs
Tomb-Sweeping Day's custom of "eating eggs" comes from ancient allusions. As early as the pre-Qin period, there was a custom that Tomb-Sweeping Day banned fire. Faced with a temporary fire ban, the people ran out of cooked and hot food, so they had to prepare food that could be put away before the arrival of Tomb-Sweeping Day, and boiled eggs and some steamed buns were the best dry food.
Tomb-Sweeping Day eats eggs, which symbolizes a happy reunion, many children, and the offspring of the new generation. It also symbolizes the meaning of breaking out of the shell and getting ahead, and there is a beautiful meaning of the saying "Tomb-Sweeping Day eats an egg and has good health all year round".
Now, the custom of painting eggs has been passed down in some places, that is, before the eggs are cooked in the pot, they are painted with beautiful colors, also known as "colorful eggs".
The third one: snails or snails.
Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, the meat of snails and river snails was the most delicious, and there was a saying among the people that "a clear snail is better than a goose" to set off the nutrition and delicacy of snails.
After several months of hibernation, snails or snails didn't wake up in large numbers until the warm and humid spring and before and after the Qingming Festival, and they haven't started to breed yet. The meat is tender and tender, and a large number of them are cheap to market.
The only drawback may be that snails have just been unearthed and there is a lot of sediment, so they should be raised for 1~2 days before cooking, so that snails can spit out the sediment and impurities before cooking, which is delicious and delicious.
Fourth: eat mustard rice
In many places, it is not only the custom to eat mustard rice during the Qingming Festival, because mustard is the most prosperous time in spring. Compared with other daily vegetables, the leaf sales of mustard is more rough and plump, but the smell of the leaf is blunt, and the taste is a little bitter, just like the nature of bitter gourd. People who like to eat mustard will think it is delicious.
There is a folk saying that "cooking with mustard will not cause scabies this year."
Fifth: eat seeds.
Sazi, also called "Zanzi", is a fried snack, with a slender and tortuous external surface, crisp taste and golden appearance, with a strong oily fragrance. It is usually loved by children and adults as a snack and has a high popularity. Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the Cold Food Festival in ancient times, had the custom of "forbidding fire and cold food", so many places would start to prepare seeds in front of Tomb-Sweeping Day to prepare for the food after the fire was forbidden, and this traditional custom has been passed down to the present.
In fact, these traditional diets all contain our thoughts about our ancestors. Although they are only a small part of many traditional cultures, we may not have tasted them all, but we should all know them properly. After all, traditions cannot be forgotten, which means smooth and healthy, and will be passed down from generation to generation.
The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day
The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day, it is said, began with the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the tombs of the ancient emperors, and later the people followed suit, and it became a fixed custom of the Chinese nation to worship ancestors and sweep graves on this day.
Originally, the Cold Food Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day were two different festivals. In the Tang Dynasty, the day to worship the grave was designated as the Cold Food Festival. The correct date of the Cold Food Festival is 105 days after the Winter Solstice, around the Qingming Festival. Because the two dates are similar, Qingming Festival and cold food are merged into one day.
Stories and legends of Tomb-Sweeping Day
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of Jin Dynasty, was in exile. He was hungry and dizzy on the way, and the minister meson pushed the meat from his thigh to eat. Later, Zhong Er, the son, became Jin Wengong, and the loyal minister forgot to push the meson. When Zhong Er remembered it, Jiezitui refused to be an official again, and lived in seclusion behind his mother's back in Mianshan. Zhong Er let Yamakaji force him out of the mountain, but the fire burned for three days and no one came out. He went up the mountain to find that he and his mother had been burned to death. On the charred willow tree, there was a big fairy with a bloody poem, "I hope the Lord will always be clear when I cut my flesh and serve you." So Zhong Er designated the day when Yamakaji was released as the Cold Food Festival. The next day, Zhong Er climbed a mountain to pay homage, and found that the old willow tree was resurrected, so he named it "Qingming Willow" and named it Tomb-Sweeping Day, in order to pay homage to Jietui. This is also the story and legend of Tomb-Sweeping Day.
The above is an introduction to some food customs, sources and stories and legends in Tomb-Sweeping Day. I hope I can help you ~ ~