Most Bai people like drinking, and brewing is the main sideline of Bai families. Because of the different raw materials and methods used, there are many kinds of home-brewed wines. When making wine, more than 40 kinds of medicinal materials are often used to make koji and make various kinds of liquor, among which kiln wine and dry wine are traditional wines. There is also a glutinous rice liqueur, which is specially brewed for women and pregnant women. It is said that it has nourishing and prolactin effects. Drinking tea is another hobby of Bai people. Bai people pay great attention to drinking tea twice every morning and noon. Morning tea is called "morning tea" or "hangover tea". Bake it as soon as you get up, and adults drink it. There is "rest tea" or "thirst-quenching tea" in afternoon tea, and rice flowers are put in it like a milk fan, including children.
The daily cooking stoves of Bai people in mountainous areas are also unique. Generally, it is a platform supported by four 70cm high wooden columns with a hole in the middle. The desktop 1.5m is square, covered with blue bricks or slates, covered with a layer of soil, supported by an iron tripod, and the pot can be hung. The fire burns under the stage, and the flame passes through the hole to heat the food hanging on the tripod. There is a row of bamboo sticks hanging above the stove.
Festivals, Etiquette, Sacrifice Food Custom Every festival, in addition to the necessary holiday food, there are also sacrificial activities such as worshipping Buddha, offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors. This festival is the biggest. Starting from the twelfth lunar month, every household should buy new year's goods, such as killing pigs, grinding bean curd, bait pieces and glutinous rice flour. On New Year's Eve, every host should bring food, tea and wine, and use trays to worship along the eight roads of heaven and earth, gates, wells, kitchen gods and ancestral tablets. Then the whole family has a reunion dinner. Grand reunion dinner, a big copper hot pot is placed in the center of the dining table, and pig's head meat must be served, surrounded by eight bowls of profound Japanese cuisine. For example, the lotus root has eyes, which means enlightenment and patency; The white meaning of garlic seedling "shun" is that everything goes well; Cooking fish means having money, having money and so on. On the morning of New Year's Day, jiaozi was cooked, and some people made noodles, all of which implied good wishes such as reunion, harmony and longevity. From the first day to the fifth day, there are certain norms for what to eat every day. The Bai people living in Bijiang celebrate the New Year in a different way from other areas. Bijiang Bai people divide a year into thirteen months, and the annual festival is the end of June in 65438+ March, which belongs to pigs or snakes. On New Year's Eve, the whole family will worship the tree god first, and then the whole village will have dinner together. In other festivals, besides slaughtering pigs or sheep, there should be timely food. For example, there should be all kinds of steamed cakes and bean jelly in March Street; Tomb-Sweeping Day wants mixed salad; Dragon Boat Festival dumplings, drink realgar wine; Seedlings will eat planted meat and fried broad beans; Eat sweets and all kinds of sweets on the Torch Festival on June 25th. Eat white cakes and shortcakes in Mid-Autumn Festival; Taste new year's goods, eat mixed new rice, etc.
Mid-Autumn Festival and worship to heaven are special festivals, especially the Mid-Autumn Festival in July of the lunar calendar every year, which is a festival to worship ancestors and the dead. If it is a new funeral home, it will be even more grand. At that time, eight bowls of delicious dishes should be prepared, including thousands of pieces of meat, ribs, crispy meat, stuffed eggplant, lily, morel and stuffed fish. Every dish is not only exquisite in materials but also exquisite in workmanship. In case of immediate family members or in-laws, a banquet called "three drops of water" will be made before the funeral to express condolences. The so-called "three drops of water" banquet refers to fruits, sacrificial ceremonies (similar to dishes made by phoenix fish and lions) and eight bowls. In particular, the images of the four dishes of the phoenix fish and lion elephant are vivid, in which the elephant uses cooked pork belly and a section of fat intestines as the elephant head and trunk, which is vivid and valuable. In addition, there are sacrificial activities such as offering sacrifices to heaven and worshipping Buddha. However, the food of the Buddha worship meeting is different from that of other sacrificial activities, which requires fasting and vegetarianism. All the dishes are made of tofu, bean jelly, taro and lotus root.
When a young Bai man woos a girl, the girl will give Baba to the man if she agrees. At the wedding, the bride will go to the kitchen to make "fish soup"; On the first Mid-Autumn Festival after marriage, the bride will make a big cake to show off her cooking skills. During the wedding, tea is served first, and then four or four seats are set (that is, four dishes, four plates, four pots and four bowls). The way to treat guests for nothing, whether at ordinary times or on holidays, is to give Shen Feng tea first, and pour it three times in a row, which is the so-called three teas. Can't pour tea for guests. There is a folk saying that "wine is full of respect, tea is full of deceit." Bai nationality festival
Typical food Bai people have excellent cooking skills and many unique foods. For example, raw skin, a traditional dish of Bai nationality, is one of the necessary dishes for Bai people to celebrate the holidays, and it is a cold meat dish mixed with a variety of spicy dishes. Donkey soup pot is a traditional dish of Yunnan Bai nationality, which is made of donkey meat. Bread cake is a special kind of cake made by Bai people in Mid-Autumn Festival, which is steamed with fermented dough and seasoning. Steamed pig's head with willow is a traditional dish of Bai nationality. It is put on a wicker rack and steamed in a pot.
Marriage custom is a popular marriage custom in the Bai area of Eryuan County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. At every intersection, fork in the road or crowded place, the guests who accompany him will stop and code the dowry into two piles, so that the groom can wrap the "8" around the dowry with the bride on his back.