The Spring Festival holiday in Aizhen, Gaozhou, Maoming is over, and the end of the first year is not far away. The last day of the first month of the lunar calendar is also called the "Zhengqiu Festival", which means the end of the first month. In my hometown of Gaozhou, the "Zhengqiong Festival" has another meaning. Because the local words "Zheng" and "Zheng" have the same pronunciation, "Zhengqiong" means "Zhengqiong", which means that poor and sick people will "evaporate" from the world. Therefore, there is a folk song: "When I am poor in the first month, I step on moxa antler", which means to be a mugwort. On this day, every household in the countryside drinks mugwort tea, arranges mugwort flowers, and eats mugwort. Before that, children had to use holidays to pick mugwort in potato fields and winter fallow fields, take it home, wash it, dry it, and set it aside. Wait until the day of "Zhengqiong Festival" to start making moxa. Step 1: Boil an appropriate amount of water in a pot, add brown sugar and cook together (depending on family preference, if you like dessert, add a little more sugar), then pour a small amount of glutinous rice flour into the boiling water, and stir it with a shovel until it is cooked. Shape, then shovel it out and put it into the prepared flour pile; Step 2: Grind the mugwort into a velvety shape, put it into the pot and cook, dry the water, and add the mugwort into the cooked powder slurry in the first step. Knead evenly and keep kneading the glutinous rice flour into a dough (until there are no cracks in the dough), then separate out small dough balls that are larger than ping pong balls, knead the small dough balls into round slices, wrap them in thin slices and fry them beforehand Good filling. Step 3: Making stuffing. People in my hometown like to make Ai Zhen with sweet fillings, and some prefer salty fillings. Generally, there are mostly sweet fillings, which means the New Year is sweet and life is sweeter than honey. The salty filling is generally made of mung beans, peanuts, lean meat cubes, dried shrimps, and sesame seeds, stir-fried until fragrant; the sweet filling is made of shredded coconut or pickled crispy papaya shreds, plus fried peanuts and sesame seeds. Wait, the taste is absolutely superb. Step 4: Seal. Ai Zhen also needs to be printed with patterned words. That is to put the wrapped mugwort embryo into a wood-carved "Shou peach" shape or square seal (the seal is carved into the shape of a longevity peach with a wooden board, with the word "Shou" engraved in the middle), chrome it, and then use banana leaves to seal it. Or place the pineapple leaves in a steamer on a mat. After steaming, take it out and put a red dot in the middle to show good luck. Because moxa can remove dust and accumulate, which is good for health, people like to eat it very much. Regarding the "Zhengqiong Festival" as Ai Zhen, when the editor was very young, he listened to his grandma vividly telling such an interesting legend. It is said that in the past, on the day of "poverty", people closed the doors of their homes tightly. Because at that time, a bare-chested monster appeared out of nowhere, with a face covered in dirt, hair like tangled hair, and eyes as purple as the color of kudzu. People called him a "poor ghost." He will enter every door on this day, either begging for money or food. He is a greedy person, and the amount of things he begs for every time is quite alarming. If you don't get what you want or offend him, he will be in front of your house. It keeps making trouble, and even clings to you, making you unable to have peace. If you use this method, your five elements will be depressed in the coming year; those who have fertile land will have no income all year round; those who do business will have their money bankrupted and all their capital lost. For those who are too poor to take the blame, their wives and children will be separated, and they will leave their hometown and their well. No wonder there was a saying at that time: "Poor ghosts" enter the house, either begging for money or grain. In short, the "poor guy" is a bad guy that everyone hates. He comes and goes without a trace. Some people say that he is a "disaster star" from the sky and has come down to earth. They dare not mess with him, so they are helpless. Later, the villagers invited a Taoist priest from Longshan Village to try to conquer the "poor ghost". But the person who came here was actually a chef who cooked for Taoist priests in the village, and he only had a little knowledge of magic. Not to mention his ghost-catching skills. This so-called Taoist priest knows that his martial arts skills are not perfect yet, not to mention that this monster is a powerful guy that is difficult to deal with. However, if he does not conquer this monster, he will feel sorry for his fellow villagers. One night, he was thinking hard and fell asleep at his desk unknowingly. In his dream, he suddenly realized that his master had taught him how to use "wormwood" to drive away plague monsters. Early the next morning, the Taoist priests led people to the fields to pick "wormwood". After collecting the wormwood, they dried the branches and used them as fuel. The leaves and buds were washed, chopped and ground into paste, and then poured into rice flour. Mix well and put it in the pot until it is cooked thoroughly. Remove it and let it cool for a while, then make it into a ball, and then put it in a steamer to steam until it is cooked. This becomes the original "moi zhen". Before and after the "Zhengpo" period, the Taoist priests would pile up dried branches of mugwort in front of the door and burn them. At the same time, they would place mugwort in front of the door. After the "poor ghosts" had taken it and had enough to eat, they would stop making trouble. This method spread all over hundreds of miles and thousands of villages, and every household followed it. It was indeed effective, and this custom was passed down from generation to generation. Every year at the end of the first month, every household makes mugwort and uses this method to conquer the "poor ghosts". I think that legends are just legends after all. There are no ghosts in the world. They are not trustworthy. This is just a legend that people attach to Ai Zhen, giving it a mysterious color. What people want to conquer is the devil in their hearts, the "poor ghost". In the diligent work of picking "wormwood" and making mugwort, the "poor ghost" still dares to visit. In fact, any kind of folk delicacies that are produced and recognized by people and passed down from generation to generation all demonstrate the wisdom and exploration spirit of working people. Now you no longer have to wait until the first lunar month to eat Ai Zhen. You can get it at any hotel in Maoming if you want to eat it. Normally, all year round, there are also special stalls selling food in the vegetable market. You can buy as much as you want, which is extremely convenient. Usually, when the unit receives official receptions or private receptions for relatives and friends from out of town, they also like to order this special delicacy - Ai Zhen, for guests to taste, which not only reflects local characteristics, but also has therapeutic effects. As people's living standards improve and food becomes abundant, people become lazy.