Chongyang Gao, also known as Hua Gao or Chongyang Hua Gao, is a traditional holiday pastry in China; as its name suggests, it is a festival item for the Chongyang Festival on the ninth day of the ninth month of the summer calendar. The way this cake is made and eaten varies from place to place, and there are many different ways of saying about its origin and folk cultural symbolism.
It is generally believed that the cake originated from the custom of ascending the heights on the Chongyang Festival. According to Wu Jun's "Qi Harmonious Records" from the Southern Liang Dynasty, during the Han Dynasty, Huan Jing, a native of Ru Nan, studied immortality under Fei Chang Fang. One day, Fei Changfang told his student: on September 9, there will be a catastrophe coming to your house, so you can teach your family to sew a cloth bag with cornelian cherry, tie it to your arm, and then climb up the mountain to drink chrysanthemum wine, and the catastrophe can be eliminated. Huanjing acted according to his words, and was indeed unhurt. Later generations followed suit and formed a whole set of Chrysanthemum Festival customs such as climbing high mountains, drinking chrysanthemum wine and inserting dogwoods on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth month of the ninth lunar month. About since the Song Dynasty, Chongyang Festival food "Chongyang cake" custom formally seen in the books, such as Wu Zimu "Dream sorghum record" Volume 5 of Lin'an (Hangzhou) Chongjiu custom: "this day, the people's stores to sugar steamed cake ...... inserted a small colorful flags, the name of the 'Chongyang cake'. Chongyang Cake'." Later, such as Ming Liu Dong, Yu Yizheng "Imperial Beijing Scenery" Volume II also contains Beijing's custom of the 9th: "cake shop standard paper color flag, said 'flower cake flag'." This small flag inserted in the flower cake on the tradition, so far not changed. Degree of its original intention, is the general public because of the urban landscape and the limitations of the material resources, want to climb high to avoid trouble or collection of cornelian cherry more inconvenience, so the cake instead of eating high (cake), to insert the paper flag instead of inserting the cornelian cherry, by the harmonies of the false should be the story ear, the intention is still in the avoidance of trouble.
Chongyang Festival who can not eat Chongyang cake
Obesity: because of the Chongyang cake has more starch, sugar, sweet bean paste, lard and nuts, carbohydrates and fat content is high, it is a high-calorie food, obese people try not to eat.
Diabetes: Because glutinous rice contains more branched-chain starch, compared with the high content of straight-chain starch in the rice we usually eat, the branched-chain starch makes the magnitude of blood glucose increase is greater, so the glutinous rice is a kind of glycemic index is higher; the body in the process of digesting starch, the long-chain carbohydrates into a short-chain carbohydrates, the glycemic index is also correspondingly higher, so diabetic patients should not eat! Chongyang cake, especially the glutinous rice type.