Qingtuan is a traditional snack eaten by Jiangnan people during the Qingming Festival.

Qingtuan is a traditional snack in the Jiangnan area. It is green in color. It is mixed with mugwort juice into glutinous rice flour, and then wrapped in bean paste filling or lotus paste. It is not sweet or greasy, but light but long. of fragrance.

Qingtuan is a traditional snack that people in Jiangnan eat during the Qingming Festival. According to research, the name Qingtuan began in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of more than 1,000 years. Qingtuan is almost always steamed during the Qingming Festival. At that time, people mainly made qingtuan for sacrifice. Although qingtuan has been passed down for thousands of years and its appearance has not changed, its function as a sacrificial object has gradually faded, and it has become a highly seasonal snack.

The names and eating methods of Qingtuan are different in different places. For example, Qingtuan is called Qingtuan in Shanghai and Ningbo, and Qingming dumpling is called Qingming dumpling in Hangzhou. In addition to bean paste filling, there are also salty ones with pickled food inside. Vegetables, tofu, marinated meat and other ingredients. Sichuan has Qingming vegetable cake, while in Guizhou the Youth League is called Qingming cake, and in the Hakka area, the Youth League is called Ai cake.

The historical origins of the Youth League:

According to research, the name "Qingtuan" began around the Tang Dynasty. Up to now, every Qingming Festival, almost every household in the south of the Yangtze River steams the Youth League. Although the Youth League The form has not changed for thousands of years, but now people tend to try new things according to orders, and the function of the Youth League as a sacrifice is increasingly weakened.

"It is said that in the 150th No-Smoking Kitchen, red lotus root and green dumplings were used to sacrifice each other." This poem "Wumen Bamboo Branch Ci" tells that people eat cold green dumplings during the Qingming Festival, and use red lotus roots and green dumplings to offer sacrifices. Ancestors, the "hundred and five" mentioned among them refers to the cold food for 105 days after the winter solstice.

The "Qing Jia Lu" of the Qing Dynasty has a clearer explanation of Qingtuan: "Qingtuan cooked lotus root is sold in the market as a sacrifice to ancestors and can be eaten cold." The Qing Dynasty literature and gourmet Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Food List" contains detailed records of the production of Qingtuan.