The green color of Qingming Food Qingtuan is the juice of green plants.

The original Qingtuan is a green cake made with grass juice. The method is to first put young mugwort, young wormwood, etc. into a large pot, add lime, steam them, and then rinse them. Remove the lime water and knead it into glutinous rice flour to make a green dumpling.

To make green dumplings nowadays, some use wheat straw, some use mugwort juice, and some use other green leafy vegetable juices and glutinous rice flour, and are filled with bean paste. The function of Qingtuan as a sacrifice is increasingly weakened, and more people use it as a snack for spring outings.

There is a common saying that "eating mugwort before and after Qingming will keep you from getting sick all year round." mugwort is a must-have traditional food for Hakka people during the Qingming Festival. The main raw materials of mugwort are glutinous rice and mugwort, and its preparation is not very complicated. Because food made from mugwort has a unique taste, many people like to eat mugwort.

Origin of Qingming Festival:

Qingming is one of the twenty-four solar terms and the fifth solar term in spring. Douzhiyi, when the sun reaches 15° of ecliptic longitude, it is Qingming. The Qingming Festival is named after the "qi is clear and the scenery is bright, and everything appears" during the festival. Qingming is a solar term that reflects the phenological changes in nature. At this time, the sun shines brightly, vegetation sprouts, flowers bloom, and nature presents a vibrant scene. In southern China, the air is clear and the scenery is bright at this time, and the mood of spring is harmonious.

The Qingming Festival generally varies between April 4th and 6th in the Gregorian calendar. It is not fixed on a certain day, but April 5th is the most common day. Qingming Festival is both a solar term and a festival. The Qingming Festival provides important conditions for the formation of Qingming Festival customs in terms of time and weather and phenological characteristics. The Qingming solar term is related to the phenological climate of the year, and is often used to guide agricultural work. It means that the sky is clear and the weather is good for spring plowing. The Qingming Festival is a day when people visit their tombs, pay homage to their ancestors, and be cautious about the future.