during the Chinese new year, apart from the traditional customs, food is the best way to reflect the festive atmosphere. As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. At first, food was only the basic guarantee for people's survival. However, with the development of productivity, food gradually got rid of the basic function of eating, became diverse and became a tradition and feature of a country or region. As the earliest festival in China to offer sacrifices to all things in nature and pray for a bumper harvest, Spring Festival foods are also paid the most attention. Therefore, there are many kinds of Spring Festival foods, and now people's living standards have improved. Chicken, duck, fish and delicacies have been put on the table, but the foods that can best reflect the taste of the year are jiaozi, wonton, flower cakes, jujube rolls, glutinous rice balls and rice cakes. They reflect the same wish: children and grandchildren will have a healthy and long life. This is also the common wish of people for the New Year.

The origin and implication of eating jiaozi

Among the foods in the Spring Festival, jiaozi in the north and rice cakes in the south can best reflect the Chinese New Year atmosphere. Although these two foods can be eaten at ordinary times, it is different during the Chinese New Year. If northerners don't eat jiaozi, they feel that the year has not passed. They eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve and jiaozi on the first morning of the first day. Many places eat jiaozi every day until the eighth day. Southerners can't understand northerners' love for jiaozi.

The origin and legend of eating jiaozi in the New Year

For more details about the origin and legend of eating jiaozi in the New Year, please continue reading. It will be more convenient to collect this webpage next time.

Why do northerners eat jiaozi during the Spring Festival? There are many different opinions. Some people think that "jiaozi" is the homonym of "jiaozi", which means the food eaten when two days meet. Indeed, many places in the north eat jiaozi at 12 o'clock in the morning during the New Year, but if it is explained by this, it will be retrogressive, and a custom food is defined by time, which may be difficult to explain the true meaning of eating jiaozi during the New Year. There is also a view that in ancient times, people wanted to eat jiaozi on New Year's Eve, which means "making friends at the age of two". Even Emperor Qianlong celebrated the New Year according to this custom, and he must eat jiaozi when he was a child. This is recorded in the Notes on Emperor Qianlong's Residence. This statement is reasonable, but jiaozi has a history of more than 2, years, and it is still a must-eat food for people during the Spring Festival, which should have a deeper significance.

The origin and implication of eating jiaozi

Speaking of it, jiaozi has something to do with wonton. jiaozi and wonton are two different foods today. In fact, jiaozi is a kind of wonton, which is developed from wonton. The legend about jiaozi can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, that is, Zhang Zhongjing. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, he was hungry. These people were homeless, and many people were sick. So Zhang Zhongjing made stuffing with medicinal materials and food, and made it into the shape of ears. After cooking, he gave soup and food to the people in a bowl. After taking it, the people were sweating all over, their blood vessels were smooth, and their ears were warm. Since then, people eat from the winter solstice to New Year's Eve and become folk food during the Spring Festival.

the origin and implication of eating jiaozi

Zhang Zhongjing's making of jiaozi is only a legend, but the food called "wonton" was recorded in Guangya in the Three Kingdoms period, but there was no record of what the wonton looked like. In the Northern Qi Dynasty, Yan Zhitui said: "Today's wonton is like a frozen moon, and the world is full of food." Two pieces of information can be obtained from this record: First, the shape of wonton at that time was like a full moon, which was quite similar to that of jiaozi today; Second, it was already a very common food at that time, because he said wonton was a universal food. "Zhengzitong" records more clearly: "Tun, today's wonton, that is, dumpling bait alias. The common crumb rice flour is the end, and the stuffing is wrapped in the air, which is like a projectile and varies in size. " Its shape and practice are the same as today's jiaozi. Jiaozi was called dumpling bait in ancient times, so it can be seen that ancient jiaozi was wonton. Regarding the name of wonton, it is recorded in Zi Shu Lu: "With its confusing shape." "Tongya, Diet" quoted Cheng Dachang as saying: "Wonton is from Hun Tun."

Wonton and "Chaos" have the same sound and similar shape. Is there any relationship between them? We don't look at the chaos of philosophical concepts, but look at other records. "Zhuangzi should be an emperor" contains: "The emperor of the South China Sea is happy, the emperor of the North China Sea is careless, and the emperor of the central government is chaotic. Pleasure and sudden phase meet in a chaotic place, and chaos is very good. Pleasure and sudden attempt to repay the virtue of chaos, saying:' Everyone has seven tricks to eat and listen, and this is unique. Try to chisel it. If you dig a hole in the day, you will die in chaos on the seventh day. "Chaos here is the great god of chaos, he has no eyes, nose, ears, mouth and eyes, and it is a closed unity, and the appearance of wonton is similar to that of the great god of chaos.

So far, we can speculate that jiaozi evolved from wonton, and wonton represents the chaotic state before the world was formed. The end of chaos is the beginning of the universe and the beginning of everything. People eat jiaozi in the Spring Festival in the hope that everything will be reborn, because only by breaking the chaos (wonton) can everything begin to be reborn. Eating wonton is not for delicious enjoyment, but for the etiquette of faith. The Chinese New Year is also the past of the old year, and the arrival of the new year is the beginning of the year.

The origin and implication of eating jiaozi

In the north, provinces and cities also have the custom of eating jiaozi when they get married, and its implication is very clear, praying for women to have children and grandchildren. "Jiao" means "Jiao", and jiaozi is a wonton with two horns, which symbolizes the intersection of men and women and the combination of yin and yang. Eating jiaozi on the morning of New Year's Day means that spring is coming, and "heaven and earth will merge and everything will come into being". ((Book of Rites, Suburban Characteristics) This is precisely because jiaozi is "chaos" and the mother of all things before their death. Eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival is essentially a symbol of rebirth. This consciousness has existed since human beings, and its ultimate goal is to pray for human fertility and reproduction. As you can imagine, without this realistic reason, even if jiaozi is "chaos" and represents the beginning of the universe, it will not have a strong vitality for survival among the people. It is these two reasons that make the custom of eating jiaozi in the Spring Festival flourish and become a ritualized custom.

Nowadays, although many people don't know the meaning of eating jiaozi, the powerful force of habit makes people think that eating jiaozi symbolizes a better next year. In addition, with abundant ingredients, jiaozi is becoming more and more beautiful and delicious, and jiaozi is gradually becoming a favorite food for people all over the country, thanks to the developed transportation and rapid logistics, as well as convenient preparation and storage.

The origin and implication of eating jiaozi

However, although people all over the country like to eat jiaozi, eating jiaozi is not the annual custom of the people all over the country, but it is still the annual custom of the people in the north, which is the powerful force of customs, and it also allows the whole country to retain more annual customs instead of the same ones, making the Chinese New Year customs in various places more interesting.