On the first day of the fifth lunar month, my mother woke me up and said, "Get up and cut the wormwood and calamus. If you go late, you can't cut it! "
Oh, the Dragon Boat Festival is here again. I happily went to the field where I cut wormwood and calamus every year, and cut a bundle back. Almost every gate and door hung a pair. Early in the morning, the whole village smelled of wormwood and calamus.
After breakfast, I didn't have my mother's orders, so I invited some guys to pick bamboo leaves and make zongzi.
At that time, in Jiashan, Hsinchu became a forest with cicadas singing. There are also mang flowers all over the mountains, which are in full swing. "Or clusters, or pieces, at first glance like a girl's smile, like a rosy cloud on the horizon."
Indocalamus leaves generally grow in shady valleys. Its stems are thin and its leaves are big. The mountain wind blew and the leaves rustled. To pick a new leaf, hold the leaf with your thumb and forefinger, and a petiole in the middle finger will fall with a bang.
We children, in the embrace of our hometown, ran from one mountain to another, dancing high, leaving us laughing all the way. Let's have a competition. Whoever picks more Indocalamus leaves will pick more Indocalamus leaves.
After picking the leaves home, my mother took them to the pot, then went to the clear stream, washed them one by one and began to make zongzi. Mother rolled bamboo leaves into a cone, then used a rice spoon to fill glutinous rice, stuffed it with chopsticks, wrapped it, tied a bunch of tender bamboo, and made angular zongzi.
Glutinous rice needs to be washed, dried and mixed with a little alkali. Sometimes some red beans, red dates, peanuts and bacon are wrapped in zongzi, which tastes better.
It's evening when the zongzi is tied. After dinner, my father put the zongzi into the pot, cooked it with the prepared dry wood for three or four hours, and then let it stew until the next day. After eating, the zongzi is still warm and has a strong fragrance of Indocalamus leaves.
Eat zongzi from the second day to the fifth day. On the fifth day, my mother will make steamed buns, boil salted eggs and simmer garlic seeds. By the way, my mother dyed the eggshells red, wrapped them in colorful net bags and hung them around my neck. This means wishing children "good luck and safety". Of course, the bigger the egg, the better. It would be magnificent if you could hang a big goose egg around your neck. Beat eggs when you are tired of playing. Whoever breaks the egg will eat it. The winner is the last person left.
In the evening, my mother put away wormwood and calamus, dipped them in realgar wine and scattered them in every corner of the house to disinfect and prevent insects. We also put some realgar on our foreheads, backs of hands and instep.
The Dragon Boat Festival in my hometown is full of nostalgia and affection.