An old custom during the Spring Festival in Baoding, Hebei: Going to the market is the prelude to the New Year.

At that time, when the Spring Festival was approaching, parents would always discuss going to the market to buy new brooms, door curtains and other old items for the home, but the main thing was to buy back melon seeds, peanuts, sugar, meat, vegetables and other delicacies.

food.

What most mothers are struggling with most at this time is buying new clothes for their children. Especially families with financial constraints, most of them will choose to pull back a few feet of cloth and entrust relatives and friends with tailoring skills to help sew it for their children who have been looking forward to it for a year.

Come with some surprises. In an era when food and clothing were not abundant, not having new clothes during the Chinese New Year was a very shameful thing for both adults and children.

As soon as the Little New Year is over, the food preparations for the New Year have officially begun.

Steamed rice cakes, steamed buns, many staple foods were prepared in advance. At that time, refrigerators were still a myth, and the cold weather in the north could play a very good role in preserving freshness.

Prepare staple food - adults don't have to worry too much during the Chinese New Year.

Thirty or forty years ago, each household did not have cooking tools such as pressure cookers and rice cookers. Stewing meat and cooking fish were done in advance, and each household arranged different specific times.

Often when a strong aroma wafts from the eaves of someone's house, a neighbor will ask loudly when he passes by: "The stew has started?" The housewife will respond loudly with a smile on her face.

The naughty children at home circle around the pot like kittens. The mothers, who are in a good mood due to the New Year atmosphere, often scold them, but then open the lid of the pot, pick out two pieces with chopsticks, and serve them to the family.

The children should satisfy their craving first.

Talking about food, like most northern urban and rural areas, the food festival in the eyes of Baoding children decades ago started from an early age.

Most people know the tradition of "On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, sugar melons are offered to the Kitchen God". Although many families do not feel the ceremony of sending "Kitchen God" to the Kitchen God, most housewives will buy sugar melons and other little things from this day on.

The snacks attracted the children to look eagerly at the sugar melons that were supposed to be enjoyed by the Kitchen God. They were a little salivating, funny and cute.

In northern my country, it has always been a tradition to "go home in time to eat dumplings on the 30th night" even if you are home to celebrate the New Year.

Therefore, old Baoding people attach great importance to these two meals, the evening of the 30th and the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. In the past, most families ate dumplings at home for these two meals.

The family sits around the table, young and old working together to make dumplings, and then wait for the steaming dumplings to be served. The male elders sometimes drink a little wine and happily exchange experiences and feelings over the past year.

The scene and atmosphere, compared with today's Chinese New Year style where people often eat in hotels or even have young people singing and reveling, there is something different in my heart.

According to the old rules, this dumpling meal on the first day of the Lunar New Year is the first meal for the whole family in the new year, with special emphasis on the meaning of "reunion". This dumpling meal has a special meaning of "bringing in wealth and keeping good fortune from flowing out".

In the past, conservative customs not only excluded outsiders, but even married daughters were not allowed to return to their parents' homes to eat. Today, this seems to be a bad habit.

Thirty and the first day of the Lunar New Year have passed, and the sound of firecrackers is still going on. The theme of eating during the Spring Festival is far from over.

Throughout the first month, relatives and friends walk around each other, and there are lion dances and stilt performances in villages and towns. Children's eyes will always find those fun and delicious things.

Although the food in various parts of the north is largely similar, the delicacies of Baoding candied haws, candied noodles and roasted sweet potatoes are not something that people in other places can enjoy.

As for Dingxing’s cornmeal pancakes, Anxin’s mango seeds, chicken heads, old water chestnuts and other county delicacies, these are beyond the short space of this article.