What to eat in the south during the Lantern Festival? Differences in food culture between the north and the south!
The Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, but the customs and food vary from region to region. What do people eat in the south during the Lantern Festival? In fact, the eating habits of the north and the south are different due to the geographical differences, but the passion for celebrating the Lantern Festival is equally high. For more details about the 2018 Lunar New Year calendar, please visit the Fortune Teller website for consultation!What do people eat in the south during the Lantern Festival?The Chinese Lunar New Year is the most important festival for the Chinese people. There is a whole set of food customs during the Spring Festival, and the food of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the finale of the New Year's food customs. However, the names of Yuanxiao in northern and southern China are different. Southerners call Yuanxiao "Tangyuan", and the making methods of Tangyuan and Yuanxiao are also different. People in the south prefer to make glutinous rice balls by themselves during the Lantern Festival. They use hot water and glutinous rice flour to knead the dough, and then mix walnuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, jujube paste, and bean paste into fillings. They then pinch small pieces of dough to wrap the fillings, knead them with both hands, and roll them into smooth round balls. Whether it is Yuanxiao or Tangyuan, they are both boiled in water and eaten. They are sweet and soft when you bite them and are very delicious. According to folk sayings, eating Yuanxiao or Tangyuan on the Lantern Festival is a homonym in Chinese, which means "reunion".1. Tangyuan During the Lantern Festival, people in the south eat tangyuan, mainly to pray for family reunion. The glutinous rice used to make Tangyuan is mild in nature, sweet in taste, and can replenish deficiency and regulate blood, strengthen the spleen and appetite, invigorate qi and stop diarrhea. It has the functions of warming the middle, promoting body fluid and moisturizing dryness. Furthermore, the regular fillings of various types of glutinous rice balls are mainly fruits and dried fruits, including sesame seeds, walnuts, peanuts, and add vegetable oil, which makes the nutritional value "even higher." Boiling glutinous rice balls is the simplest way to prepare them, and it is actually also the healthiest way to eat them. 2. Lettuce: Guangdong people like to "steal" lettuce during the Lantern Festival, mix it with cakes and pastries and cook it. It is said that this food represents good luck. Guangdong people are peaceful and down-to-earth, and they seek good luck in festivals. Lettuce, which is usually used in festive occasions such as the opening of a new store, is also a must-have for the Lantern Festival. Lettuce is often a common vegetable on southern dinner tables. Its name sounds similar to "making money", which means making money. Therefore, it is also regarded as a festive symbol of wealth and good fortune. 3. Yuanxiao Tea In Shaanxi and other places, there is a custom of eating Yuanxiao tea, which is to put various vegetables and fruits into the hot soup noodles, which is very similar to the ancient "Yuanxiao porridge". This tea increases the intake of fiber, minerals and vitamins, and is not as greasy as ordinary Yuanxiao. It can neutralize the acidic constitution caused by eating more animal foods during the festival, and also makes the Yuanxiao more nutritionally comprehensive. 4. Oil tea: Food for the Lantern Festival night, in plain areas it is called “flat dumplings on the 15th, and round dumplings on the 16th”, people eat dumplings one day and Lantern Festival on the next; in mountainous areas it is “oil tea on the 15th, and flat dumplings on the 16th”. This is exactly what is meant by “customs vary every ten miles”. Making tea means stirring the tea with chopsticks and putting it into the pot to make oil tea, also known as noodle tea. 5. Youchui is a traditional food for the Lantern Festival. It was rice or bean porridge topped with gravy during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. But this food is mainly used for sacrificial offerings and cannot be considered a festival food. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that Zheng Wangzhi's "Records of the Chef" recorded: "People in Bianzhou celebrate the Lantern Festival with oil hammers." The method of making oil hammers, according to a record of "Shangshi Ling" in "Lu's Miscellaneous Stories" quoted in "Taiping Guangji", is similar to the later fried Yuanxiao. Some people also call it the "Pearl of Oil Painting". 6. Dumplings The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is here. People in the north have the habit of eating dumplings. People in Henan have the Lantern Festival custom and tradition of "flat dumplings on the fifteenth day and round dumplings on the sixteenth day", so dumplings should be eaten on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Dumplings are a folk food with a long history and are very popular among the people. There is a folk saying that "nothing tastes better than dumplings." 7. Date Cake: People in western Henan like to eat date cake during the Lantern Festival, as it symbolizes good luck. Date cake was originally a royal pastry of the Qing Dynasty. It has a fragrant flavor and is sweet in the mouth. It contains nutrients such as vitamin C, protein, calcium, iron, vitamins, etc. It can not only nourish the spleen and stomach, invigorate qi and promote salivation, but also protect the liver, increase muscle strength, nourish the skin and prevent aging. 8. Sticky cake is also known as rice cake. In addition to Yuanxiao and noodles, people also eat sticky cakes during the Lantern Festival. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in "Prescriptions for Emergencies: Food Therapy" that "Rice is sweet, slightly cold, non-toxic, can remove heat and benefit Qi." After the Tang Dynasty, there were also records of eating cakes on the Lantern Festival in the Yuan Dynasty. 9. Bean flour lanterns When talking about the customs of the Lantern Festival, people usually think of eating rice dumplings, appreciating lanterns, and guessing lantern riddles. However, there is another custom that has been passed down from the Han Dynasty, which is lighting bean flour lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The lights of the Lantern Festival are auspicious lights that can drive away evil spirits and cure diseases. Therefore, people make bean flour lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to pray for family happiness and prosperity in the new year. 10. Bean dough: People in Kunming like to eat bean dough. The preparation is similar to that of Yuanxiao. The beans are fried and then ground into flour. Then they are rolled into balls and boiled in water. It tastes good. 11. Zaozong: People in Taizhou eat Zaozong after watching the lanterns on the 14th day of the first lunar month every year. The rice soup is made by stir-frying shredded pork, shredded winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, fresh dragonfly, dried tofu, fried dough sticks, Sichuan bean curd, spinach, etc., then adding a little rice flour and cooking it into a salty paste. The fermented rice soup drunk on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is sweet, made with sweet potato starch or lotus root starch, lotus seeds, sweet dates, longans, etc. 12. Steamed buns and wheat cakes In Pujiang area of Zhejiang Province, there is a custom of eating steamed buns and wheat cakes during the Lantern Festival. It is said that the reason is that steamed buns are made of leavened dough and wheat cakes are round, which means "reunion of children and grandchildren". In Shangyuan, Changde, Hunan Province, families use pepper as soup and add leeks, fruits and other ingredients to entertain guests, which is called "seasonal soup". 13. Noodles: There is a folk saying in Jiangbei area that goes "Eat noodles on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month and hope for the new year." Locals eat noodles on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month. It sounds like it has nothing to do with the Lantern Festival, but it also means praying for good luck. "Yihui Sui Shi Ji" records: "On the 18th day of the first lunar month, the lanterns are turned off and people eat noodles, which is commonly known as 'dumplings for the lanterns and noodles for the lanterns'. Each family holds their own banquet to celebrate." Eating noodles when the lanterns are turned off symbolizes continuous joy. |
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