Old Fuzhou people prepare New Year’s goods

The Chinese New Year is the most colorful event of the year for the Chinese. According to the tradition of old Fuzhou, the New Year is counted from the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month (Wei Ya) to the 29th day of the first lunar month (Aojiu Festival), which lasts for 45 days, which is relatively rare across the country. The most important thing during the New Year is to buy new year's goods. In old Fuzhou, doing new year's goods is called "collecting new year's materials". So, what are the must-have New Year’s goods in old Fuzhou? What are the vivid and interesting stories behind the New Year’s goods?

There are many kinds of New Year’s goods in Old Fuzhou, such as radish cards, taro paste, spring rolls, meat swallows, Buddha jumping over the wall, etc. But there are three things that matter most, and both the poor and the rich will prepare them: Zao Tang Zao Pancakes, Mi Zi (pronounced zie) and rice cakes.

Sacrifice to the Zao is to send the Kitchen God to heaven to report his duties, and to use New Year’s sugar and New Year cakes to fulfill the duties of the Kitchen God, so that he can say good things to the people. In the north, it is called celebrating the off-year, but people in Fuzhou regard it as a small New Year. An important activity during the Chinese New Year. Regarding offering sacrifices to the stove, an old saying in Fuzhou is: "Officials, three people, four bent hooves and five, there is a sequence for offering sacrifices to vegetables and meat. Cut a sugarcane whip and burn a paper horse, and send it to the king to ride to the sky." In other words, depending on the status, the time of offering sacrifices to the stove in the twelfth lunar month is also different. Differently, it is the twenty-third lunar month for the homes of Jin gentry (people with official positions), the twenty-fourth lunar month for Bianmeng (commoners), and the twenty-fifth lunar month for Danmin (water dwellers). Those who use livestock as sacrifices are called "meat sacrifice stoves", and those who use fruits and vegetables as sacrifices are called "vegetable sacrifice stoves". Commonly used foods include Zao Tang Zao Cake (New Year’s Sugar New Year Cake), sugar cane, water chestnuts, tofu, spinach, yuba, etc. After offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God and Kitchen God on the day of worshiping the Kitchen God, you can enjoy these foods.

In Fuzhou, sugarcane must be specially used for the sacrifice stove, and the sugarcane head must be kept intact. This is because it is said that in the Song Dynasty, there was a poor scholar named Zheng Xingzhi in Jibi Lane (today's Jipi Road). He could not afford to buy offerings on the day of the stove sacrifice, so he picked up the discarded sugar cane heads from other people's homes. After returning home, he lit incense and used the sugar cane head as an offering. He also cut a paper horse and wrote on the paper: "A black horse and a whip will send your Kitchen God to the sky; if the Jade Emperor asks the world That day, Zao Gong went to heaven and told the Jade Emperor about it. After hearing this, the Jade Emperor felt very sympathetic to Zheng Xingzhi. The next year, he won the first prize. Nowadays, Fuzhou people like to use sugar cane to worship the stove, which means good luck.

According to the old Fuzhou custom, grandpa and grandma should send stove sugar stove cakes and colorful noodle shells (masks) to their grandchildren and granddaughters on the day of stove sacrifice. This custom is rich in folk affection. Fang Binggui said: "It's a pity that now my grandparents don't know much about these customs, but they feel that they have nothing to do."

Mi Qi: The whole family has fun together

It is rare these days People make their own rice dumplings and buy them ready-made. After the end of the year, every household starts to be busy making rice cakes and sugar cakes (rice cakes). Grinding, washing, and kneading the rice cake leaves, you can smell the strong smell of the New Year in every step. Children usually gather around their parents to watch the whole process of making rice: soaking the glutinous rice, grinding it with a stone mill to get the rice slurry, then putting it into a large white rice bag (permeable only to water, not materials); Press out the water to make the glutinous rice inside form a ball; flatten a piece, wrap it with an appropriate amount of brown sugar glutinous rice filling, roll it into a round shape, press it on a square mat of bright alfalfa leaves, put it in a steamer and steam it until cooked; after taking it out of the steamer, use chopsticks to wrap it up one by one Dotted with red dots, it means happiness and peace.

The original intention of making rice is to worship ancestors. After offering sacrifices to ancestors on New Year’s Eve, you can eat it until the first month of the year, and it can be boiled or fried. In addition, there is a custom in old Fuzhou to ask each other for rice. In fact, it is not because of poverty, but to ask for good luck. They will distribute the rice collected back to their children to wish for peace and prosperity in the new year.

Rice cakes: Daughter wants to give them to her parents’ family

Because rice cakes are homophonic to “year high” and have various flavors, they have become a must-have Spring Festival food for almost every family. The rice cakes are mostly square-shaped and come in yellow or white colors, symbolizing gold and silver, and implying prosperity in the new year. When having a reunion dinner, rice cake is a must-have staple food. In addition, fish balls, meatballs, and noodles can also be used as staple food.

Daughters who are already married will send rice cakes to their parents’ families every Spring Festival to thank them for their upbringing. Of course, this is not enough, they also give their parents grass carp, pig's trotters, noodles, duck eggs, lucky oranges, etc.

These New Year's goods all have beautiful meanings: giving rice cakes, I hope your parents' life will be good every year; giving grass carp, hoping your parents will have plenty every year; giving pig trotters, hoping your parents will have strong legs and feet; giving noodles, hoping your parents will be healthy and long; giving duck eggs, hope May your parents be safe and sound; send blessing oranges, hoping that your parents will have lots of blessings.

In order to make the rice cake more delicious, the old Fuzhou people who are gradually getting rich have also made an upgraded version of the rice cake - "gold wrapped with silver". The method is also quite simple and can be completed in 5-6 minutes. Specifically, the rice cake is cut into pieces, dipped in beaten egg liquid, and then fried in oil. When the surface of the rice cake becomes golden, it is ready to be taken out of the pan.

New Year's goods: Sending lanterns

In Fuzhou dialect, "Deng" and "Ding" are homophonic, which means that the daughter hopes to have a son soon, so there is a custom of "brother-in-law giving lanterns". The time for "sending lanterns" is after the New Year, usually around the eleventh day of the first lunar month. During this period, the mother's family must send lanterns to her daughter's husband's house. "Sending lights" is very particular. In the first year of marriage, a girl is given a "Guanyin Sends a Child" lamp, in the second year she is given a "Children Sitting Basin" lamp, and in the third year she is given a "No. 1 Scholar Riding a Horse" lamp. If there is still no child in the second year, add an orange lamp. This is because "orange" and "ji" are homophonic in Fuzhou dialect. If you already have children, give one extra lantern for each child. The number of lanterns should exceed the number of children, such as Guan Dao lanterns, revolving lanterns, sheep lanterns, etc. When delivering lanterns, the lanterns are hung on both ends of two sugar canes and carried by the in-laws' uncle to the in-laws' mother's house. When the lanterns are delivered, the in-laws' mother or brother-in-law has to cook Taiping for the in-laws' uncle to eat and give them lucky money.

In the old days, after preparing the above three major New Year goods, Old Fuzhou would go to some time-honored brands to continue to purchase the needed New Year goods based on the actual situation of the family. For example, Deyujing Fruit Store (mainly specializes in miscellaneous foods, such as glass noodles, pork skin, etc.), Mintian Food Store (mainly specializes in condiments), Lanji Sauce Duck Store, Yuchun Wine Store, and Juchunyuan Restaurant (selling Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, etc.) , Susu Sauce Duck Shop, Metropolis Cured Meat Shop, Dingri You Meat Shop, Cai Dasheng Firecracker Shop, Datong Candle Shop, Qingxianglin Incense Candle Shop, Yiyou Fish Ball Shop, Tongli Meat Yan Shop, Huanwo Yi (cake seller) ), Meiqie Bakery, Wuhe Melon Seed Shop, Shili Peanut Shop, Saiyuan Olive Shop, Zhongting Street Fish Street, etc. The business of these time-honored brands was quite prosperous at that time. Currently, only a few of them, such as Dingri Meat Shop, Juchunyuan Restaurant, and Tongli Meat Yan Shop, are still in business, and many of them no longer exist.

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