Jiaozi is also called "Zongzi" or "glutinous rice Zongzi". People take the meaning of reunion, so they call it "jiaozi".
In Mianyang, Hubei Province, which is now Xiantao City, there has been a saying that "a year is smaller than half a month". They regard the Lantern Festival as more important than the Spring Festival, because in their minds, the Lantern Festival is the last reunion at the beginning of a hard year, so it is highly valued. On this day, they don't eat Yuanxiao like other places, but eat "jiaozi".
Jiaozi is mainly made of rice flour, radish, red beans, bacon and vermicelli. They taste crispy and delicious, which is a rare delicacy.
The Legend of jiaozi
According to legend, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, in one year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, General Li Xiucheng was chased by Qing soldiers, and a nearby farmer came forward to help, disguised Li Xiucheng as a farmer and cultivated land with him. Li Xiucheng didn't get caught, and the Qing soldiers didn't stop there, so they sent more soldiers to set up posts in the village. Anyone who left the village had to be inspected to prevent them from bringing food to Li Xiucheng.
After returning home, the farmers got a plan because they were slipped by wormwood. They quickly picked some wormwood to go home, washed it, cooked it, squeezed it into glutinous rice flour and made it into zongzi. Then put the green jiaozi in the grass and mix with the sentry at the village entrance. Li Xiucheng ate the green ball, and felt that the fragrant glutinous rice was not sticky. After dark, he bypassed the Qing army post and returned to the base camp safely. Later, Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping Army to learn to be a youth league to defend itself against the enemy. The custom of eating dumplings spread.