March 8 is Women's Day, the reporter came to Wuyishan Wutun Township, to visit the millennium-old tea customs here - tea.
Passed down for thousands of years: mother-in-law and daughter-in-law inherited
Driving north from the local urban areas, to the Wu Tunxiang red garden village of Xia Shanmiao bridge, hiking through the winding one kilometer of stone and cobblestone village road, only to see a head full of silver hair, she is warmly greeted at the door of the village sisters into the house into the seat, and the hall round table has been set up in order of the order of the ten pairs of bowls and chopsticks, refreshments are sweet chinkapin, dregs of cake, groundnuts, pumpkin seeds, etc. more than ten types of farm snacks. The first time I saw this, it was a very good time for me.
The old man said that this custom has a history of more than a thousand years, although the origin of the age can not be proved, but this custom in her mother-in-law's era is very common.
She said that in the past in the countryside, the men went to the mountains to do work in the fields, women busy with household chores, chatting with each other, leisure and prosperity, with tea and snacks, over time, the formation of a custom, a form of women's gatherings to talk about the family, so that this party by the mother with the daughter, mother-in-law with the daughter-in-law to the generation to be inherited.
Non-women do not enter: men are not allowed on the table
The old man introduced the tea is actually women drinking tea. This tea is different from the Kung Fu tea, choose a bowl without a cup, there is not a lot of complicated mattress, two or three people can be seated, and later join at any time. And there is a strange rule: only women on the table, men can not participate.
The tea served at the table is not locally famous oolong tea, black tea, the choice of green tea grown in the high mountains, after a slight stir-frying brewed in a large pot as a "tea lady", plus tea, each bowl first six points of water, then injected into the "tea lady", while the "tea lady" on the table, "tea". The "refreshments" on the table are all wild fruits, home-grown vegetables and handmade farm snacks.
Cup of tea to release the grudges: skillfully transformed neighborhood conflicts
This tea custom time is no specific agreement, the longest can continue for two or three hours, the short half an hour can be dispersed. Mainly based on the size of the topic of conversation. As a spontaneous form of social interaction, tea custom also has a special "effect", between women, what conflicts between neighbors entanglements, after the table, sisterly counseling, but also in the aroma of tea, dishes in the disappearance of invisible.
It is understood that the tea custom in many local villages are still retained, and the millennium custom of Jiangsu Zhouzhuang "granny tea" is very similar to the women's contact with a way of bonding, but also a specific expression of China's ancient reverence for harmony.
Ask for a bowl of "women's tea" to taste, with the fresh aroma from the tongue and throat into the abdomen, only to feel the body seems to dissolve in this light tea.