Two or three days before the Dragon Boat Festival, every household should prepare all kinds of festive items for the festival: rice dumplings for worshipping the gods, paper money for incense (the old Foshan people never saved such money, and it is most important for their ancestors to eat, drink and have fun), wormwood, calamus grass, and sugar cane hanging at the door.
First of all, the rice dumplings for worshipping God, because it takes a lot of time and is well prepared. There are two kinds of zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival: sweet zongzi and salty zongzi. Sweet zongzi is actually tasteless. Glutinous rice, bean paste, edible alkaline water. After wrapping it, steam it, open it and cut it into several pieces, then put a little sugar on it, and worship God first and ancestors first. After the ceremony, it is your turn to eat.
Bacon dumplings, as the name implies, are dumplings made of meat, beans and even seafood and fungi (this is more popular with children than sweet dumplings). Pork here is generally pork belly, with special Cantonese seasoning "south milk"-a kind of fermented bean curd with different colors and tastes-pork belly is marinated in south milk with a little sugar and white wine, then soaked in other glutinous rice and mung beans (with shells) for 24 hours in advance, and then served with mushrooms, shrimps, zongzi leaves and bundled straw mushrooms. Buy zongzi leaves and tied straw ropes in advance, wash them and wrap them skillfully one by one. Finally, cook in a large pot for about 8 hours, adding water continuously during the period to ensure thorough cooking.
In the process of cooking zongzi, I will not be idle-I will fold the paper money I bought into "gold" and "silver" pieces, or fold it into ingots, which will be burned to the "ancestors" during the worship. -wormwood and calamus are tied into a bundle and hung on the side of the lintel, and the worship ceremony can begin. -besides zongzi, there must be a cup of roast pork, a cup of soju and a cup of tea.
People in Foshan will also organize dragon boat races-the dragon boat races will start half a month before the Dragon Boat Festival and end about half a month after the Dragon Boat Festival. Some people take part in the dragon boat race outside, and they can't hide the dragon boat until autumn. During the Dragon Boat Festival, there will always be free dragon boat meals-this is the collective welfare of each village. The quality of dragon boat rice can be the same as that of a banquet: nine dishes and one soup are standard. Every family can participate with the help of the elderly and young people. Remember to pack up and eat slowly when you can't finish eating. No one laughs at your habit-not wasting is the style of Foshan people.
This is the Dragon Boat Festival for Foshan people. Not only the activities on the Dragon Boat Festival, but also the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. As for the Dragon Boat Festival of Hakka people in Hezhou, Guangxi, a chicken, firecrackers, wine and paper money should be prepared. Zongzi is for ourselves. Similarly, wormwood and calamus are tied together and hung on one side of the lintel. Then, in order to celebrate the festival, Hakkas will cook two or three more Hakka dishes-stuffed tofu and braised pork, plus the big chicken that worships God, which is the complete three treasures of Hakka: stuffed tofu, braised pork with taro and boiled chicken. This Dragon Boat Festival will be a lively festival!