Why do we eat glutinous rice balls during the Lantern Festival?

Eating Yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a common custom across the country.

According to experts, glutinous rice balls are also called "rice dumplings" or "yuanzi" and "tuanzi", and southerners also call them "water balls" and "floating balls".

Every fifteenth day of the first lunar month, almost every household eats Yuanxiao.

Folklore experts said that when boiling glutinous rice balls, they float on the water after boiling, which is very beautiful and reminds people of a bright moon hanging in the sky.

The bright moon in the sky, glutinous rice balls in the bowl, and the reunion of every household symbolize reunion and good luck.

Therefore, eating glutinous rice balls expresses people's love for family reunion.

The survey also shows that Chinese people’s inheritance and love for traditional festivals is also a love for Chinese culture.

Eating Yuanxiao has a different taste.

In addition, the name of glutinous rice balls has a similar pronunciation to the word "tuanyuan", which means reunion, symbolizing the reunion, harmony and happiness of the whole family. People also use this to remember their departed relatives and express their best wishes for future life.

Extended information: Historical value The formation of the Lantern Festival customs has a long process. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month has been taken seriously in the Western Han Dynasty. However, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month really became a folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties.

The introduction of Buddhist culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty played an important role in forming the custom of celebrating the Lantern Festival.

During the Yongping period (AD 58--75), Emperor Ming promoted Buddhism, which coincided with Cai Min's return from India to seek Buddhism. He said that in the Mohetuo Kingdom in India, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, monks gathered to pay homage to the Buddha's relics. This was the time to visit the Buddha.

auspicious day.

In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty ordered that on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, lanterns should be lit in palaces and temples to represent the Buddha.

Therefore, the custom of lighting lanterns on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month gradually expanded in China with the expansion of the influence of Buddhist culture and the addition of Taoist culture.

Now, with the development of the times, today's Lantern Festival is moving from family to society.

No matter how the Lantern Festival, lanterns, and fireworks change, these ancient traditional customs that continue during the Lantern Festival remain unchanged.

These elements of traditional culture have always been part of people's hearts.