Yueyang, commonly known as "Chinese New Year", has the same customs as other parts of the motherland. Besides killing chickens and ducks, setting off firecrackers and pasting Spring Festival couplets, it is very rich to have a "reunion dinner" on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. There must be a dish of fish in twelve bowls, which shows more than good luck. Before liberation, there were almost no fish in some areas. In order to have the dish of "Hundred Miles Fish", a "Hundred Miles Fish" was carved out of wood, put in a basin and sprinkled with chopped green onion, just like a real fish. People attach great importance to the reunion dinner. People who go out are rushing home, and their families wait and wait. When having a reunion dinner, the door should be closed to prevent the treasure from running away. Setting off a firecracker after a meal means that people have finished their New Year's Eve dinner and can walk around.
"Knocking on the tin can on the first day of the first month" is a new year custom in Xiaogan.
Xiaogan is located in Jianghan Plain, but the festival customs are basically the same as those in most parts of northeast Hubei, but the taste is also very unique.
On the first day of New Year's Day, people first worship heaven and earth, family gods and elders, and then go out to pay New Year's greetings. Don't ask your relatives and friends to pay a New Year call. This is called "Pay a New Year call regardless of size". When a New Year visitor comes to our house, we must keep him here again and again and treat him with Ciba. As the saying goes, "My tongue is broken during the Chinese New Year." New Year's greetings generally last until the third and fourth day.
People here also have the custom of judging the new year's output by the birdsong they hear on the first day of junior high school. Even birds sing first, and ducks should be raised; Magpie singing for the first time is suitable for raising chickens; At dawn, sparrows fly around noisily, which is a good year; People also think that hearing dogs barking on the first day is not a good sign.
On New Year's Eve 12, every household will send a finished gold ingot model to their door, which means making a fortune in the New Year.
On the first and second days of the Lunar New Year, people don't sweep the floor, draw water, or even do thermal work. All meals are prepared in advance, which is called "lucky money". It was not until the third day that I began to carry water and burn paper money by the well pool, saying that it was "buying water". The doorman will also be taken down and burned in the second day of junior high school. As the saying goes, "the doorman's paper should be burned in the third day, and everyone should look for physiology." At the beginning of the new year, when we picked up a pen to write, we used to write a picture of "Everything is fine" on red paper and stick it on the wall.
The fifteenth day of the first month is the climax of the Spring Festival. When there are no gongs or drums, people regard iron cans as gongs and drums. So there is a saying in Xiaogan that "knock on the tin can in the first half of the month".
The fifteenth day of the first month is the center of Xiaogan folk festivals. People usually tie dragons from the eighth day, and also tie lions, floats, bamboo horses, stilts, platforms and other styles. On the fifteenth day of the first month, men, women and children go out to have fun and sing all kinds of colorful words. Lotus-picking boats go from village to village and sing whatever words they see, such as the auspicious words of "Old people live longer, few people are safe, family affairs are happy, the four seasons are safe, the grain is abundant, the deer and crane are in the same spring, the seven stars turn to fight, the Eight Immortals are at home, the dragons are rich, and the ten blessings are complete".
On Lantern Festival night, Xiaogan also has the customs of inviting seven sisters, seeking success in the new year and begging for cleverness. Seven sisters, whose local name is Zhang, are said to be the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor. She is the cleverest and kindest. One day, Qi Jie learned that there was a young man named Dong Mingyong in Danyang (now Xiaogan). Because his family was poor and he had no money to bury his dead father, he had to sell himself into slavery. Seven sisters were deeply moved. Privately, Tiandao and Yong Dong got married for a hundred years and got married under the big pagoda tree. Unfortunately, the matchmaker, Sophora japonica, was happy for a while, and described "a hundred years of harmony" as "a hundred days of harmony", which led to the fate that Yong Dong's seven sisters only had a hundred days of harmony. Seventh Sister skillfully weaves 10 brocade, redeems Yong Dong, prepares to renovate her home, and loves their old leader. Unexpectedly, the jade emperor was very angry when he learned about it, and called Qimei back to the palace, so Qimei had to fly away reluctantly. Her knitting became a flying stone, and the loom remained on earth. People can still hear the sound of the loom "click, click" in the dead of night. On the fifteenth night of the first month of every year, girls dressed in costumes gather by the flying shuttle stone, holding sewing boxes to please Qi Mei and singing begging songs. After singing Qiao Qi's songs, you should also ask about your quality of life, good luck, whether you can get married and so on. In addition, some people use glutinous rice flour to make the shape of goose eggs and let pregnant women burn "goose eggs" to occupy boys and girls. Cleavage gives birth to a girl and wart gives birth to a boy.
The local people also said that the fifteenth night of the first month is the day when mice marry women, and people can't make noise at home. A woman wants to light a sesame oil lamp under the bed and say, "Look at the lamp, matchmaker." It is said that there will be no bedbug harassment for a year like this. People also throw bamboo baskets from the house to show the richness of cotton. Looking up, you will have a good harvest, but your servant will have a bad harvest.
In addition, there is an interesting custom in Xiaogan area. During the fifth watch, people shine fire on chestnuts, pears and other fruit trees, and beat the trunk with knives and axes as they shine. A man knocked and asked, "Is it knotted?" A man next to him replied, "knot!" It is said that if you do this, the branches will be covered with fruits in the new year.
The custom of eating "jiaozi" and "Weihai" in New Year.
The whole family got together from all directions, giving the meaning of New Year's Day reunion. Since ancient times, regardless of the distance, Chinese New Year is for reunion. You should go back to your hometown for reunion before the 30 th anniversary. If you really can't go back, you should also send a letter to report peace. This is what old people call "year-on-year". Qi means qi and reunion. After the reunion, eating is the most important thing. Therefore, "New Year's Eve" plays a very important role in China culture. "New Year's Eve" refers to "jiaozi" at midnight on New Year's Eve. This jiaozi is different in peacetime. It means "making friends" at midnight. At that time, no one slept, waiting for the arrival of the new year, in order to "live in old age", commonly known as "endure the year." Eating jiaozi will make you one year older. Therefore, this meal is also called "New Year's Eve". Pay attention to going to jiaozi. At this time, we can't call it "leftover" as usual, because the word "leftover" is unlucky, and people who can talk call it "boiled gold and silver". When cooking jiaozi, in order to get lucky, sometimes a man will suddenly ask a woman, "Do you earn?" , reflecting the quick say "earned, earned, earned the old nose". Earning means breaking. However, this refers to making money. In order to make money, people also use copper wallets, jiaozi, and some wrap red dates, which is called "Big Money jiaozi". Jiaozi only won a dozen big money and won the first prize, which marked a great year and a windfall.
New Year's Eve in a broad sense refers to people eating and drinking before the 15th of each month. In addition to steamed cakes, pasta is mainly made into cakes, representing more and more people, and some people make rice cakes, representing a higher area every year. During the Spring Festival, people pay attention to auspiciousness everywhere. Food, drink and use all had another name at that time. For example, garlic is called "Yihe cuisine" and vinegar is called "taboo". It is unlucky to be jealous. Change to downstream, smooth, smooth.
The Custom of Visiting Temple Fair and Factory in Old Beijing
"Old Beijing", who has lived in Beijing for a long time, knows such a saying: Laba porridge for messengers. This means that whenever it comes to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month (also called Laba among the people), it will be the New Year.
"Laba porridge" of "emissary"
On Laba Day, every family has to cook a big pot of Laba porridge. In addition to offering sacrifices according to the legendary commemorative significance, gifts will be given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and then enjoyed at home (mourning others for not cooking porridge). Add miscellaneous beans, miscellaneous rice and various dried fruits to porridge, which means a bumper harvest in a year. On this day, the old Beijingers not only drink porridge, but also soak garlic in rice vinegar, seal it in a jar and put it in a warm room to eat jiaozi on New Year's Day. It is said that eating it can prevent plague.
After the "Laba", families began to be busy buying new year's goods. Besides preparing food, I just want to buy some new clothes. Some people want to steam rice cakes and make fried food for the New Year.
"Twenty-three honeydew melons are sticky."
On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every household began to get busy. Every day, there is a saying about people who have entered 23 years: 23 honeydew melons are sticky; 24 House Tomb-Sweeping Day; 25 Paste the window; Twenty-six stews; Twenty-seven killing cocks; Twenty-eight sides; Twenty-nine steamed buns; Stay up all night; On the first day of the new year.
"Melon stick" means that on 23rd, I asked Wang Mai to make some candied fruits and maltose, which was intended to ask him to put in a good word when he ascended the throne of the Jade Emperor, and stick the candy on the kitchen god's mouth to prevent him from saying more. There is such a two-part allegorical saying in Beijing: "The kitchen god ascended to heaven-speak well".
"Twenty-four House Cleaning Days"
"House cleaning day" actually refers to cleaning. Wipe the furniture, sweep the gray net on the top of the wall, tear up the old New Year pictures, paint and paste, paste new pictures and so on.
"Twenty-five paste windows"
"Paste the window" means buying some Korean paper during the Chinese New Year, pasting all the windows, and then pasting Spring Festival couplets, blessings, window grilles and hanging tags (paper-cuts) engraved with auspicious patterns, so that the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year is particularly strong.
In addition, I cooked all the big dishes I ate in the New Year, and I didn't cook for a few days in the New Year.
"Stay up all night."
On New Year's Eve (New Year's Eve), the whole family will enjoy the whole night after eating the New Year's Eve. At twelve o'clock sharp, the "Eating jiaozi on New Year's Day" began. "jiaozi on New Year's Day" is not eaten during the day on New Year's Day, but after 0: 001minute on the 30th.
"New Year's Day"
Until dawn, the younger generation in the family should pay New Year greetings and wishes to their elders. From the first day to the fifth day, it is a day for visiting relatives and friends to celebrate the New Year, get together, or go out to visit temple fairs. At that time, the streets were full of girls wearing red flowers, boys with windmills and children with large bunches of hawthorn and diabolo. During the Chinese New Year, there was a scene of peace and prosperity.
During the New Year in China, all the shops in the street are closed for rest, except the shop selling firecrackers.
"Breaking the Five Crosses"
The fifth day of the first month is called "breaking the fifth day", and you can't cook with raw rice until it breaks the fifth day. That night, all the guys who went home for the Spring Festival came back. The shopkeeper had to eat a bag of new jiaozi with the guys to show the unity in the coming year. On the morning of the sixth day, every shop will open. Before opening, every household should hang a couplet at the door, saying "All the best, all the best", and the ringing abacus sounds at the counter, which is intended to make business prosperous in the coming year. At this point, the "year-end" has passed and everything has resumed its usual life.
man-day
On the seventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar, it is called "People's Day", "People's Victory Day" or "Seven Yuan". This ancient festival has a history of at least two thousand years.
Taoism believes that "Mr. Heaven and Earth, chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep and horses are the ancestors." Dong Fangshuo, a Han Chinese, wrote in the gauntlet: "On the first day of the first lunar month, chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows, horses, people and valleys are occupied." . It is considered that the sunny weather on the seventh day of the first month is auspicious, the main year is smooth and the population is safe. If it is cloudy, it will be a disaster. In the Qing Dynasty, Beijingers began to measure the weather on the seventh day of the first month. On People's Day, they will eat spring cakes (a kind of double-layer lotus leaf cakes), roll "box dishes" (cooked meat dishes such as sauced elbows and stomachs) and cut cakes in Yuan Geng, which is called "smoked days". However, the spread of this custom is getting smaller and smaller, and it is rare in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.
Shunxing
Shunxing is also called sacrificial star. On the eighth night of the first month, no matter whether people go to the temple to burn incense to worship the star king (Shunxing), every household will hold a ceremony to worship Shunxing after the stars appear in the sky. When offering sacrifices to the stars, you should put a "golden lamp" (yellow snuff) on the desk, stove, threshold, pot and so on, and light it, which is called "dispersing snuff", which means avoiding evil. After the sacrifice of the stars, the whole family got together for the Lantern Festival.
recreational activities
Dazhong Temple rings the bell, Baiyun Temple touches the stone monkey Liulichang and walks on stilts. The first thing for old Beijingers to do in the New Year is to go shopping. Visit temple fairs and factories.
During the Spring Festival, there are many temple fairs in old Beijing, and each temple fair has its own unique place. At the Dazhong Temple Temple Fair in the western suburbs, people beat Yongle Bell to greet the New Year with bells. At Baiyunguan Temple Fair, you can touch the stone monkey to make money, and use entertainment activities to pin your hopes and longings for a better life in the coming year.
Among many places, Liulichang Diandian is the easiest place for old Beijingers to go. The factory shop is outside the Peace Gate. The Ming Dynasty was the place where glazed tiles were fired for the imperial palace, hence the name Liulichang. Later, there were more and more stalls selling antique calligraphy and painting and Four Treasures of the Study, and the cultural color of the factory gradually became strong.
Liulichang is usually deserted, but it is particularly lively in the first month. From the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, there are long things, such as Liulichang Street and Hepingmenwai Street. Tourists are like a cloud, and the booths in each year are lined up, one next to the other, as far as the eye can see. People love to visit factories because in the first month, there are many stalls in antique, calligraphy and painting, picture book bookstores in Beijing. Calligraphy and painting, copybooks, jewelry, jade ... are all dazzling. These rare antique jewels have opened the eyes of ordinary people. Changdian's unique entertainment atmosphere is also very attractive. Every spring festival, stilts, Taiping drum, car party, five tiger sticks ... all kinds of flowers will compete to perform, and the onlookers will be crowded with laughter and laughter.
Delicious new year's goods can be bought in the factory, and all kinds of snacks make children jump with joy. One-meter-long Sugar-Coated Berry is made of selected hawthorn, coated with syrup, and decorated with colorful flags, which set off the festive atmosphere with the hum of windmills and diabolos.
Yangzhou's New Year custom "lanterns hang round and lights fall on the surface"
Eat dumplings on New Year's Day.
People in Yangzhou attach great importance to breakfast in the New Year. Although Yangzhou people have the habit of drinking morning tea in teahouses, the morning of the first day of junior high school is an exception. People usually don't go out, but eat a bowl of steaming glutinous rice balls with the whole family at home.
There are many ways to package jiaozi in Yangzhou. There is a kind of jiaozi called Sixi Tangyuan, which people like to eat on New Year's morning. This jiaozi is made of four kinds of stuffing, including vegetables, bean paste, sesame candy and minced meat. It's delicious, but people pay more attention to the name of glutinous rice balls, because the meaning of this kind of "four happiness glutinous rice balls" is "all the best" and "family reunion"
Similar to "Sixi Tangyuan", Yangzhou people had the custom of eating "lucky eggs" on the morning of the first day in the old days. Yangzhou Pinghua's "Piwu Pepper" has such a narrative in the 27th chapter:
Fourth, the cold is heavier. At this time, someone shouted in the distance: "sell-lucky eggs!" " What is an auspicious egg? That is, after the eggs are cooked, people's scenery is painted on the eggshell, with red and green colors; Or write some words, such as "good luck" and "good luck every year" ... this egg is called good luck egg. In the past, during the Spring Festival, lucky eggs were sold everywhere and every household had to buy them. Buyers come to bring good luck to the family. The head of the family, lying in bed with his face facing the sky, the woman put the auspicious egg on the man's heart and said something auspicious! How satisfying it is to become rich! All the best! ..... and so on, and then invite the man to eat eggs, which goes well every year. ……
Vendors selling "lucky eggs" have long since disappeared. Unfortunately, most people in Yangzhou today don't know what "lucky eggs" are. According to the description in Yangzhou Pinghua, this eggshell is painted with mountains and rivers, so it is not so much a lost seasonal food as a lost folk handicraft.
Upper lamp circle and lower lamp surface
On the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival, there is a saying in Yangzhou that "put lanterns on the bottom", which means that lanterns are put on the thirteenth night of the first month, and lanterns are put on to eat jiaozi. On the eighteenth night of the first month, lanterns are turned off and noodles are eaten. Why is there such a custom The popular explanation is that eating jiaozi symbolizes "satiety" and eating noodles symbolizes "smoothness".
The "sweet dumplings" here are also called "Yuanxiao". Now people in Yangzhou call solid dumplings "Yuanxiao" and stuffed dumplings "Tangyuan". In the past, this was not the case. Those with stuffing are also called "Yuanxiao". "Introduction to Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci" said: "Yuanxiao people, rubbing glutinous rice flour, wrapped in osmanthus in the middle, like a full moon." It seems that because of the "full moon", Yangzhou people call "Yuanxiao" "Tangyuan". The meaning of eating glutinous rice balls "round and full" also comes from this.
Eating noodles is on the night when the lights are turned off on the eighteenth day of the first month. Introduction to Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci also said: "Lights out on the 18th, people spit, commonly known as" putting lanterns, putting lanterns ". Let's hold a party for ourselves to celebrate. On the 19th, worshipping Tibetan statues washed away the joy, and happy common names hung music. As the saying goes, every family tore the music score and everyone searched it. Scholars attack books, workers return to their hometowns, and the years are over. " This passage doesn't directly explain why we should eat noodles on the 18th day of the first month, but the answer has been implied: the 18th day of the first month will be the end of the New Year, and from then on, "everyone will find his place", "scholars will attack books and work will return to his place". Eating a bowl of noodles is to wish people that everything will be as smooth as eating noodles in their coming life.
Eating jiaozi or noodles is the self-design and self-arrangement of Yangzhou people for their daily life. It is also the uniqueness of Yangzhou people to find out the meaning of auspiciousness and auspiciousness from simple food images.
New year wine
In the first month, Yangzhou people also have the custom of "inviting the Spring Festival" and "being a god of wealth". There is a poem "Please Make Spring Wine" in Volume 5 of "Three Hundred Poisons in Hanjiang River", which says: "Spring is coming, it is prosperous for a while, and spring dishes are full of strange fragrance. I won the beauty of spring, and I am at home this spring. " The quotation of this poem is more clear: "Yangcheng banquet is full, and it is called spring moths to feast relatives and friends around the Lantern Festival." There is also a record in "An Introduction to Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci": "A certain gentleman feasts and says' please spring'; The store hosted a banquet and said,' Be the God of Wealth'. " Well, this is an ancient wine container. In modern Chinese, "inviting spring wine" means inviting people to dinner during the Spring Festival. Only in "Introduction to Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci", people who gather for a banquet are divided into two categories, one is a gentleman and the other is a shopkeeper. The purpose of the party banquet is different and the form is the same. Nowadays, people no longer make such subtle distinctions. "Please celebrate the New Year" and "Being the God of Wealth" are all called "Please celebrate the New Year".
In fact, the "Wine Festival to celebrate the New Year" is an ancient custom in the Tang Dynasty. In Fa Zhu Yuan Lin, a monk and Taoist priest in the Song Dynasty said: "Chang 'an custom in the Tang Dynasty, after New Year's Day, people were invited to meet and pass the number to sit in the wine. Today, more than a thousand years later, the custom of "Please celebrate New Year's Day" is still prevalent, especially in rural areas. People begin to invite friends, relatives and neighbors on the second day of the first month. If you invite me, I will invite you again until the eighteenth day of the first month.
"Invite everyone to celebrate the Spring Festival" is a kind of etiquette in the Spring Festival, and it is also the need of people's real life. There are three meanings. First, it is a special respect for guests to treat them in the New Year, which is at the beginning of the year. Second, during the Spring Festival, there are more dishes at home, and there are more guests at this time. Thirdly, Yangzhou has been a commercially developed city since ancient times. Yangzhou people have many contacts with other places and work in other places. Villagers seldom meet each other. It is convenient for everyone to get together. Of course, nowadays people are more about buying wine, exchanging business information and discussing ways to make money. In this sense, it is quite reasonable to say that Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci "Silver Wine for the Year" is the "God of Wealth".
Winter wax wind curing
There is a record in "An Introduction to Zhou Zhen Zhi Zhu's Ci": "After a light snow, people pickled vegetables and called them' cold dishes' ... and stored them for the winter." After Yangzhou people enter winter, almost every household will pickle all kinds of vegetables and fish, the most common ones are pickled cabbage, pickled radish, bacon and salted fish. In addition to "pickling", there is also "wind". Can wind vegetables, chicken, meat and so on. All of them are collectively referred to as "winter wax wind curing" by Yangzhou people. In the old society, people salted wax in winter in order to "save it for the winter". Now that the food supply is sufficient, there is no need to "keep it for the winter". Today's winter wax wind curing is a food processing method, because the food cured by winter wax wind has a special "wax fragrance", which is deeply loved by Yangzhou people and is called "cold dish" or "pickles". This kind of vegetable grown by suburban vegetable farmers seems to be specially used for pickling. Its head is fat, its stems are thin, its leaves are wide, its stems are white and tender, and it is green in Ye Er, one or two feet high. This dish is delicious only when it is cooked tender. Because it is tender, the soup overflows when it is cooked, so it is also called "soup dish".
Wang Zengqi is a writer, but he can also pickle. In his essay "Gourmet in Hometown", he specially introduced the pickling method and eating method of pickles, which was quite interesting to read:
As soon as it snows, our family drinks pickles soup. I don't know why. Is it because you can't buy food on snowy days? That's not necessarily true. Vegetable sellers can't go out, otherwise they will always go to the government to sell vegetables. This is probably just a habit. When I got up early in the morning and saw the snowflake, I knew it was pickle soup at noon today!
Pickles are pickled vegetables. ..... green vegetables are like rape, but much taller. Pickled vegetables in winter, when vegetables are fat. Buy vegetables in bundles, wash them, dry them and put them in jars. A layer of vegetables, a layer of salt, solid code. You can eat whatever you want until the next spring.
The new pickles preserved for four or five days are delicious, not salty or thin, tender, crisp and sweet, and unparalleled.
Wang also talked about mustard tuber in another essay "My grandparents":
In winter, ... pickled mustard. Pickled "spicy dishes"-dried cabbage, pickled with mustard, opened the altar during the Chinese New Year, with a light color like gold, spicy and pungent, and extremely fragrant. I have never eaten such delicious pickles since I left my hometown.
Besides pickles, Wang Lao probably knows chicken. In My Grandparents, he also talked about how to blow a rooster:
Wind chicken-big cock does not shed its hair, rubs it with coarse salt, wraps it with lotus leaves, and hangs it in a ventilated place for about 20 days, the longer the better.
Wang Lao is from Gaoyou, Yangzhou. In his novels and essays, he wrote about home cooking in his hometown Gaoyou. Bachelor knows not only how to eat, but also how to eat, so it is ok to call bachelor a gourmet. In recent years, someone compiled Gaoyou's "Wang's Recipe" based on various dishes and foods mentioned in Wang Lao's articles. This is really a wonderful idea, very novel. It is said that this "secret recipe of Wang" is still very influential in Gaoyou.
There is a poem in Lin Pu's "Xiaozhi of Western Hills in Yangzhou" in Qing Dynasty, which also talks about pickles in Yangzhou.
The shoulder vegetables are weathered and taste longer than the fermented grains in autumn.
Every family in the column is boasting, and it smells like dung.
At the end of the poem, there is a note saying, "Before and after the heavy snow, all the pickles are collected and sent by the gardener. On weekdays, when people collect manure to irrigate the garden, they even use vegetables to pay for it. " This poem records another custom in Yangzhou-pockmarked dishes when the wind blows bacon.
Ma Zi, Yangzhou dialect, is also called "toilet". In the past, in Yangzhou, every morning you could see farmers pushing dung carts to collect dung in toilets and transport it to farmland as fertilizer. This is called "emptying the toilet" in Yangzhou. There is a fixed area for farmers to "empty toilets" in cities, and they are not allowed to rob them indiscriminately. This fixed area is called "dung nest". As the saying goes, fertilizer is a farm treasure, and farming is indispensable. Therefore, farmers attach great importance to this "dung nest". Few people give up, even if they transfer others, they are paid. Farmers get fertilizer in the "dung nest" and think of giving back. What should they give back? Naturally, I grow my own vegetables. So every kimchi season, I choose a car full of "big dishes" for my family to eat. This is the so-called "pockmarked vegetable".
When did Yangzhou school "pockmarked dishes" originate? Due to the lack of records, it is still difficult to determine, but at least it is the custom of the Qing Dynasty. Recently, I have seen some folk information from other places, and it is also common for foreign farmers to "pour girls" into the city. However, the "girl dumping" in other places is not a return of the "girl dishes" given by farmers to their host families, but a monthly cleaning fee called "monthly money". For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China in Beijing, every household charged 10 cents to 50 cents, adding "saving money" on Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, and extorting "drinking money" on cold and hot days and rainy days. Every family has a girl who urinates every day, but how to do it? I have to put up with a little blackmail. In contrast, Yangzhou's "Ma Zi Cai" is very human, and the meaning of "all manure" can be understood.
-Steamed food and dishes of the year
Before the Spring Festival comes, Yangzhou people have a lot of things to do, but they are all marked with the word "Year". An Introduction to Zhou Zhen and Zhi Zhu's Ci pointed out this characteristic of Yangzhou people, including:
Pickled products from winter to around are cooked at that time, which is called "cooking New Year's dishes". Everyone invited help and said "Help the Year". After the sacrifice, the development of age is called "annual account". Those who belong to the same clan are given charcoal rafts, which are called "Nianjing", and those who give each other gifts are called "Nianli". ..... Although the rice is also called "Nianchai" and "Nianmi", the word "Nian" is crowned to indicate the meaning of the festival.
Among all kinds of "annual events" in Yangzhou, the most important one is "annual steaming". Mindfulness is a steamed snack, which is steamed before the festival and stored at home for people to enjoy during the festival. Steamed snacks in Yangzhou are mainly steamed buns, similar to jiaozi in the north.
Scholars in the north have studied jiaozi and pointed out that jiaozi was called Wonton in ancient times, and said that Wonton was also connected with chaos, implying that the world was in a state of chaos at the beginning of its formation. Because Pangu created the world, there is a world on earth, so eating wonton in the New Year means opening a new year. By analogy, the steamed buns of Yangzhou people seem to be more vivid than those of jiaozi. The skin of steamed stuffed bun symbolizes the sky, and the stuffing inside symbolizes the earth. Isn't it more breakthrough? In fact, another practice of Yangzhou people is more practical. Some people air steamed bread, steamed buns and cakes a little, and then put them neatly in a conspicuous place at home like a pyramid, so we must wait until the New Year. The people explained that this is called "stacking ingots", which symbolizes the new year and making money into treasure in the new year.
No matter whether Yangzhou people are rich or simple in New Year, there are several vegetarian dishes that are essential. One is pea seedlings, peas, also called Ando in Yangzhou. Stir-fry a plate of Ando seedlings, which means "nothing is wrong." Secondly, there should be water celery, the stem is tubular, and the career in the second year can be "Passepartout". The third is tofu. With tofu, you can be "steep and rich" in the coming year. These all come from homophonic and image understanding in dialects. After the reasonable imagination of the people, they sent good wishes.
There are also some dishes that are not expected, and some dishes have practical significance and local characteristics, namely "Ten Coriander" and "Happy Dishes".
"Ten Coriander" is a simple and easy-to-cook home-cooked dish, mainly pickles, with shredded carrots, shredded bamboo shoots, shredded dried beans, peanuts and soybeans. Every household should be fired. During the Spring Festival, people eat a lot of meat dishes, which are too greasy. Eating this mixed fried vegetarian dish feels fragrant and delicious, hence the name "Ten Coriander".
The raw material of "Anle cuisine" is purslane, also called purslane. Wang Zengqi has also studied this dish. He said: "Amaranth is divided into human amaranth and horse amaranth. Amaranth is today's amaranth, and amaranth is purslane. My grandmother picked full purslane in summer and dried it, and made buns in the New Year. " "Xiaozhi of Xishan in Yangzhou" also confirmed Wang Lao's statement, saying: "In April and May, the horsetooth vegetables were pickled and named Anle vegetables, and steamed buns with stuffing were made at the end of the year." Ardisia japonica is an annual succulent herb, which can be used as medicine to treat dysentery. There are many dishes in the New Year, and it is inevitable that there will be negligence. Housewives in Yangzhou use horsetooth vegetables to wrap buns, which is not only a kind of flavor food, but also can ensure the well-being of their families. This is a veritable "happy dish".
Mutual respect for the Tibetan custom of "cutting a horse with three mouthfuls and one cup"
The Tibetan New Year is sometimes a few days apart from the Spring Festival in the Mainland, and sometimes a month apart. It is the biggest festival of the Tibetan people in a year and is highly valued by the Tibetan people. In December of the Tibetan calendar, the Tibetan people in Lhasa began to create a new year atmosphere and made a series of preparations for the New Year: every household should soak green seeds in pots, and let the green seedlings that grow to one or two inches be enshrined on the coffee table of the Buddhist shrine on the first day of the Tibetan New Year in order to have a good harvest and good luck in the new year; Prepare ghee and white flour, and fry offerings one by one, such as "Kasai" (fruit). However, now more and more city people go directly to the streets to buy ready-made green naked seedlings and Gexi. However, every household must finish sewing and clean the house yard as soon as possible. In the old city and rural areas, people also paint auspicious patterns with lime, white paint or Ciba powder, and some people paint scorpions on the main entrance wall to ward off evil spirits.
Not only that, on the evening of February 29th in Tibetan calendar1,every household will eat "ancient tu" to exorcise ghosts. The so-called "ancient process" is a knot in one's heart. But the Tibetan people have eaten many tricks of "ancient slaughter". In the process of making "ancient pictures", housewives will wrap some things in some of them to test their family's temperament and luck in the New Year. If you eat the sun and moon made of flour, it means that this person can enjoy supreme dignity; Eating porcelain will make you lazy; Eating Chili, the mouth is like a knife; Eat wool, be gentle and patient; Eating carbon is black; Respect the old and love the young when eating meat; Eating cow dung always brings good luck, and so on. In fact, the real purpose of doing this is only to increase the interest of the "ancient sudden night".
The Tibetan people seem to have no tradition of observing the age, so there are no special activities on New Year's Eve, and everything is waiting for the arrival of the New Year's Day. People greet the Tibetan New Year with the sound of "Zhaga" (now mostly played on the radio). In this sound, the elderly say good wishes. On this day, all households put on green naked seedlings, "Kasai", "Guo Long" (sheep's head) and "cut horse" (grain harvest bucket), and all kinds of sweets prepared in the past to pray for good luck. The whole family put on new clothes, sat on brand-new card mats and ate ginseng fruit, ghee and sugar. After dinner, the elders brought a bucket of whole grains, each of them took turns to grab a few grains, sprinkled them in the sky as sacrifices, and then stuffed some into their mouths. At this time, the elders wished everyone "Tashildler", and the younger generation replied, "I wish everyone health and happiness forever." On this day, families basically get together behind closed doors and neighbors don't visit each other. On the second day of the second year, relatives and friends began to visit each other and pay New Year greetings, which lasted for half a month.
However, now in Lhasa and other cities, people also go out to pay New Year greetings on the first day of the Tibetan New Year. Some government agencies and factories also hold collective worship activities. During the group worship activities, everyone said "Happy Tashi" (good luck) to each other, and toasted "chariots and horses" and Qingke wine. Those who accept "chariots and horses" should first sprinkle some rice cakes or wheat into the sky for three times. To show respect for heaven, earth and people, and then eat some in your mouth and say "Tashildler" to each other. You can't taste anything about green naked wine. Drink three cups during the Chinese New Year, that is, when making a toast, you should dip your ring finger in wine and play it three times to show respect for the people of heaven and earth, and then take a sip. The toaster fills the cup, the respected person drinks it for another day, and so on for three times, and finally "get off the bus" (cheers). After the toast, the cheerful song and dance performance will last until the sun goes down.
Tibetan New Year in Lhasa is the most distinctive, while Tibetan New Year in Xigaze, Linzhi and Amdo in northern Tibet also has strong regional characteristics, and the dates of festivals are also different.