Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16: Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in all parts of China on August 15 of the lunar calendar, but it is celebrated in Ningbo on 16. There are two reasons for this: one is that Zuo Cheng and Qiu Fang Guozhen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces changed it on their birthdays at the end of Yuan Dynasty; Shi Hao was the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty and a native of Yinxian. After he was appointed prime minister, he would go home to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with his mother every year. One Mid-Autumn Festival, he was unable to return to China in time because of something in North Korea, and his family was sure that he would come back for the holiday. The day after his arrival, that is, August 16, Shi Hao did it. Since then, people have chosen to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16 to commemorate this filial piety. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, families get together, catch up with temple fairs, watch dragon boats, eat moon cakes and give them to each other.
Lion Dance: Popular in Ninghai County, Ningbo City. Usually, in the first month of the summer calendar or Buddhist festival, dozens of farmers form a team and go to the village to dance lions in turn to show respect for their ancestors and ward off evil spirits. Lion dance includes solo dance, duet dance and group dance, in which three lions dance together, one male and one female, beating gongs and drums while dancing. The most wonderful performance is "grabbing five lights", that is, putting lights in the middle and four corners of the venue, and the lions kick, bite and grab the lights in the middle, dancing wildly and watching by the surrounding people.
Dragon boat race: Dragon boat races in urban and rural areas are mainly held in ponds, rivers and lakes. Dragon boats are divided into Qinglong, Huanglong and Bailong. Dragon boat races are usually held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and the sixteenth of August every year. The former is said to be the day when Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet from Chu and a doctor from San Lv, jumped into the Miluo River and rowed a dragon boat, which shows that people are competing for rescue. The latter is the Mid-Autumn Festival in Ningbo. Besides holding temple fairs, dragon boat races can increase the entertainment atmosphere of festivals. At the beginning of the race, the rowers held their heads high and one stood in front of the dragon boat to knock gongs. The clothes are the same color as the dragon boat, firecrackers sound and the dragon boat ignites a raging fire. The gongs and drums are loud, and the shouts of people watching on the shore are endless. The scene was very lively, and the first person to reach the finish line won. The dragon boat in Dongqian Lake in Ningbo is the most famous.
Story: In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhu's daughter, a native of Shangyu, was an Yingtai woman who disguised herself as a man to study and stayed in Huiji for three years with her classmates. After returning to China first, I visited Zhujiajian the next year, only to know that she was a woman. Some people in the central government were looking for a job, but Zhu had promised Ma. Hou Shanbo was a county magistrate, diligent and loving the people, died in office and was buried in Chengxi Township. Zhu Yingtai wept bitterly when he passed Shan Bo's grave, and the grave was cracked. I want to jump into Liang's grave and be buried with him Now there are Liang Zhu's Tomb and Liangshanbo Temple in Xixiang, Ningbo. There is a proverb in Ningbo, "If a husband and wife want to grow old together, Liang Shanbo Temple will come". Now, Liang Zhu's story is circulated in various artistic forms, such as movies, plays and folk arts, covering a very wide range, involving and spreading to European and American countries, and is called Romeo and Juliet in the East.
Eat sweet potato soup on the solstice in winter: In the traditional customs of Ningbo, sweet potato soup is one of the foods that must be eaten on the solstice in winter. "Fan" and "Fan" are homophones. In Ningbo people's understanding, eating sweet potatoes in winter solstice means "turning over" all the bad luck in the past year.
Tang Guo is similar to jiaozi, much smaller and without stuffing. Tang Guo is also called jiaozi, which means "reunion" and "perfection". There is also a saying in old Ningbo that "drinking soup will make you one year older".
People in Ningbo are used to adding wine when making sweet potato soup. In Ningbo dialect, brewing is also called "pulp board", and "pulp" is homophonic with "rising" in Ningbo dialect, taking its beautiful colors of "high wealth" and "high happiness"
2. Ningbo specialty ① Ningbo Tangyuan?
Tangyuan, formerly known as Yuanxiao, is one of the famous Han snacks in Ningbo and one of the representative snacks in China. It is the custom of Spring Festival and Lantern Festival. It has a long history. According to research, Ningbo Tangtuan began in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and has a history of more than 700 years. It is made of fine and pure white sugar, black sesame seeds and high-quality pig fat by grinding local high-quality glutinous rice into powder. It is fragrant, sweet, fresh, smooth and waxy. When the skin is bitten open, it is fragrant, waxy but not sticky, fresh and delicious, making people famous at home and abroad.
In the past, jiaozi could only eat during the Spring Festival. Usually, people seldom make them. In Ningbo, there is a children's song called "Worship your mouth in the old year and burn your mouth with melon seed tea and lard dumplings". Different from most people in China, Ningbo people have the traditional custom of getting together to eat jiaozi on the morning of the Spring Festival, which symbolizes family reunion and happiness. Some overseas Chinese always like to eat bowls of jiaozi during festivals to express their homesickness.
Now, "Ningbo Tangyuan" has become a golden signboard with a good reputation.
② Cicheng rice cake?
Cicheng rice cake is also one of the representatives that can best reflect the pure white beauty of Ningbo. Cicheng's rice cakes have been preserved for thousands of years and are smooth and delicate. The handmade skills of Cicheng Shuimo rice cake have been listed in the intangible cultural heritage list of Zhejiang Province.
Cicheng rice cake is a cake made of high-quality japonica rice, which is a traditional famous specialty in Ningbo.
③ Three treasures of former children
The famous three treasures of Qiantong in Qiantong ancient town refer to old tofu, hollow tofu and dried fragrant bean curd, which can be meat and vegetables, each with its own delicacies, and have been used as tributes in history.