China has many unique traditional festivals that they have been preserved in their historical development. These festivals usually have their own history. At the same time, on these special days, the Chinese will eat some special food to celebrate. Next, I will introduce 5 important festivals and food related to the festival in order from the beginning of the year according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Spring Festival
In China, the Spring Festival is the most important festival of the year. Because this day is the Lunar New Year, symbolizing the beginning of everything. So on this day, family members usually get together to eat, and dumplings is an essential food.
There are many kinds of stuffing in dumplings, such as pork cabbage, shrimp corn, egg leeks, and carrot mutton. Besides, there are so many shapes of dumpling such as triangle, twisty and one-direction crescent moon.
In fact, making dumplings is a very technical and difficult thing. First of all, you should make a thin dumpling wrappers and fold it with stuffing to different shapes. If you can't fold it tight, the dumplings will be scattered after cooking. My grandmother taught me many times, but I have not learned it until now. However, I believe that practice makes perfect, if you are interested in it, as long as it takes more time, you can master this skill.
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is another important festival in China. It is the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. in China. The full moon symbolizes reunion. Therefore, on this day, the Chinese generally eat Yuanxiao, because the food is round, and it has the same symbol as the reunion in Chinese.
The cooking method of Yuanxiao is different between North and South. In the north, the stuffing rolls outside in the flour until it becomes a ball. In the south, the stuffing is wrapped in the dough made of glutinous rice flour, and then hand-shaped into a ball.
There are many kinds of stuffing in Yuanxiao. The most common are black sesame stuffing, walnut, and bean paste. In order to attract children, some merchants make the Yuanxiao with fruit.
If you want to know more customs about The Lantern Festival, click the video!
Qingming Festival
The Qing Ming Festival is China's largest festival of ancestor worship. People usually go to the cemetery on this day to commemorate the lost relatives and friends. At the same time, the Festival is in the Spring, there is a new and old replacement in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is the time when everything grows. People will choose to go on a trip or go out on this day to get close to nature.
On this day, southerners will eat sweet green rice balls. It is cyan, mixed with wormwood juice into glutinous rice flour, and then wrapped bean paste or lotus seeds into it, with a light long grassy aroma.
In my opinion, I think it is somewhat similar to the Yuanxiao, but the making methods is actually different. Here is the tutorial of the Sweet Green Rice Ball.
Dragon Boat Festival
There are many different meanings of the Dragon Boat Festival, but the most famous is that it was created to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States period. He put forward a lot of good strategies for the development of the country, but his thoughts was not adopted because of the aristocracy. Finally, when his country was defeated, Qu Yuan jumped in the river on that day. （If you want to know the whole story,here is a video about him: Qu Yuan.）
In the recent years, it has become a festival symbolizing epidemic prevention and evil. Because according to yin and yang, this day is the best day for Chinese herbal medicine.
In the Dragon Boat Festival, the main materials that people are used to eating Zongzi. It is made by rice, stuffing and cilantro (or eucalyptus). The variety of Zongzi varies depending on the eating habits of different places. The glutinous rice has a north-south flavor. There are two major categories of salty and sweet. The salty flavor mainly include meat yolks and egg yolks. The sweet flavor mainly include bean paste and jujube.
Here is a video about how to make meat Zongzi. But in my opinion, sweet Zongzi is more tasty. If you eat it with sugar, you will think it tastes like a dessert.
Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is another festival that symbolizes reunion. It seems that because in ancient China, every family had many family members, and there were few opportunities to bring everyone together. Therefore, the Chinese attach great importance to reunion.
On this day, family members will sit together and eat moon cakes to enjoy the moon. In ancient Chinese legends, the fairy lived on the moon with a rabbit. So when I was a kid, my mother told me if I look at the moon on the day, I might see the fairy.
Therefore, for the above two reasons, the moon cake is generally round, and then the appearance is engraved with the image of a rabbit or a fairy. But now, you can see moon cakes of different shapes and patterns in Chinese supermarkets. At the same time, its stuffing has sweet and salty flavors, such as bean paste, salted egg yolk and lotus.
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