First, the meaning of jiaozi Eating jiaozi has many beautiful meanings, especially on New Year's Eve. The jiaozi on New Year's Eve is unusual because from 23: 00 on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month to the first day of the first lunar month 1, it means "making friends at a young age", and the word Zi is homophonic with jiaozi, meaning "happy reunion" and "good luck". Secondly, people expect to eat the unpleasant troubles that happened in the past year like jiaozi and pray for good luck in the new year. The third is to eat jiaozi, and pray for the early birth of a son, the prosperity of the whole family and the promising children in the coming year. Besides, jiaozi has become the mascot of the Spring Festival, because it is shaped like a silver ingot. Eating jiaozi in the Spring Festival symbolizes the meaning of "making a fortune in the New Year, and the ingots are rolling in", which embodies people's good wish of "making a lot of money".
Second, the origin of jiaozi jiaozi, formerly known as "Joule", was first invented by Chinese medical sage Zhang Zhongjing. The story of his "Quhan Joule Decoction" has spread among the people to this day.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, disasters were serious everywhere, and many people fell ill. There is a famous doctor in Nanyang named Zhang Ji and Zhong Jing. He studied medical books hard since childhood, learned from others and became the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang Zhongjing is not only good at medical skills, but also noble in medical ethics. He took the poor and the rich seriously and saved countless lives.
When Zhang Zhongjing was an official in Changsha, he often treated the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he made a cauldron at the entrance of Yamen, giving up medicine to save people, which was deeply loved by Changsha people. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha and returned to his hometown, he walked to the shore of the Baihe River in his hometown and saw many poor people hungry and cold, and their ears were frozen. He was very upset and determined to treat them. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, many people sought medical treatment. He is as busy as a bee, but he always remembers those poor people with frozen ears. He followed Changsha's example and told his disciples to build a medical shed and cauldron in an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang, and open it on the day of winter solstice to send medicine to the poor to treat their injuries.
Zhang Zhongjing's medicine is called "Quhan Joule Decoction". Its practice is to put mutton, pepper and some herbs to remove cold into a pot and cook them. After cooking, take these things out and chop them up, and make them into ear-shaped "Joules" with leather bags. After cooking in the pot, it will be distributed to patients who ask for medicine. Everyone has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After eating Quhan decoction, people feel feverish all over, their qi and blood are smooth, and their ears are warm. After eating it for a while, the patient's rotten ears healed.
Zhang Zhongjing didn't give up taking medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of New Year's Day, people celebrate the New Year and the recovery of rotten ears. They cook food for the New Year like burnt ears and eat it on the first morning. People call this kind of food "jiaozi's Ear", "jiaozi" or partial eclipse, and eat it on the winter solstice and the first day of the New Year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed to give medicine and cure patients.
It has been nearly 1800 years since Zhang Zhongjing, but the story of "Quhan Joule Decoction" has been widely circulated among the people. On the solstice of winter and the first day of New Year's Day, people eat jiaozi, and they still remember Zhang Zhongjing's kindness in their hearts. Today, we don't need charming ears to cure frozen ears, but jiaozi has become the most common and favorite food for people.
Third, what else to eat during the Spring Festival? 1 During the Spring Festival, many areas pay attention to eating rice cakes, because it is also called "rice cakes", which is homophonic with "getting higher every year", which means that people's work and life are getting better every year. Therefore, the rice cake is not only a kind of holiday food, but also represents a beautiful meaning and hope.
2. Fish eating fish culture is an important part of China's food culture. No fish, no table. Eight Chinese cuisines are inseparable from the names of fish dishes. This is not only because "fresh" is indispensable in China's food culture, but also because the word "fresh" in Chinese characters is composed of fish and sheep. More importantly, because the words "fish" and "surplus" are homophonic, many meanings such as "more than one year" and "more wealth" are derived, which symbolize wealth and prosperity. So fish is also an essential dish in the Spring Festival.
Eating bacon in New Year is a traditional custom in China. Because curing bacon takes a long time, it is usually prepared after the annual heavy snow and solar terms. Bacon, sausage, preserved fish and pig's head are so delicious that people are salivating. In the old society, life was hard and material was scarce, so people put their good wishes on the food for the New Year, so eating sausages during the Spring Festival means "eating often".
This is my understanding of the significance and origin of eating jiaozi in the Spring Festival. Nowadays, during the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable delicacy.