It can be seen how romantic the Chinese people are, and how related they are to so many famous people. This festival eats five yellow and twelve red Zongzi | calamus | festival
During the Dragon Boat Festival, the people of Suzhou are most concerned about the "Tao God" Wu Zixu. Xumen is still the place where the people of Wuzhong carry a strong sense of homesickness. In the coastal areas of Zhejiang, besides Qu Yuan, the people who were commemorated by the people on this day also include King Goujian of Yue, who created the rules for dragon boat racing to train the navy, Fubo General Ma Yuan, who was awe inspiring in the Western Regions, Cao E's younger sister who sacrificed her father to the river, and Zhong Kui, who was good at catching ghosts. There is also the White Lady who was skilled in martial arts but accidentally scared Xu Xiansheng to death by revealing her true form.
The association between a holiday and so many "big shots" shows how romantic Chinese people are!
Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival has the most names among all traditional festivals in China, with over twenty names. For example, Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Duanwu Festival, Chongwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Tianyi Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Acorus Festival, Yulan Festival, etc., today's young people dislike trouble and simply call it "Zongzi Festival". In fact, from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the commonly used name for Dragon Boat Festival was just a number: May 5th. Later, the Dragon Boat Festival became an official release, replacing nicknames such as May 5th and entering the mainstream discourse. Li Longji, Du Fu, Chu Chaoyang, and others have all written poems under the name of "Dragon Boat Festival". The poem "May 5th" by Mei Yaochen in the Song Dynasty should be a Tang style legacy. During the Tang and Song dynasties, seasonal activities were also endowed with meanings such as praying for blessings and receiving good fortune, dispelling evil and eliminating disasters.
During the Chengping period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the weather was favorable, and every year before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, many characteristic festival activities were held throughout the country, which were rich and colorful. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Dragon Boat Festival incorporated various local customs into its inheritance and development, and its content was diverse and complex. From the perspective of folk customs, it mainly includes hanging calamus and wormwood at the door, wearing sachets, rowing dragon boats, bathing in orchid soup, tying five colored silk threads, traveling through hundreds of diseases, preparing animal food, sticking tiger charms, hiding in the afternoon, contesting martial arts, hitting balls, writing realgar characters on children's foreheads, drinking realgar wine or calamus wine, eating five poison cakes, Zongzi, salted eggs and seasonal fresh fruits, etc.
Mr. Wang Zenghou recalled in his article that in his hometown of Gaoyou, and even in a larger area of Yangzhou, it was still popular to eat the "Twelve Reds" on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. These twelve red foods are not only home cooked dishes, but also include seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as yellow croaker, lion's head, river shrimp, old goose, little rooster, eel, amaranth, tomato, salted egg, cherry, red skinned loquat, red heart radish, etc. The dishes are mostly braised in brown, and most of the fruits and melons are red skinned. When they are set up together, the whole family turns red. This should be a beautiful memory of the year.
Zheng Banqiao, a native of Xinghua, wrote in the Yangjie Festival at the South End of the Wangjiang River: "The Dragon Boat Festival is the best time to decorate with ten red flowers. Radish, loquat, Salted duck egg, shrimp, amaranth, pomegranate flowers, ham and Jinhua." This is a bamboo word. It is a popular song from Bai Juyi's time. It usually has several paragraphs. Later on, I checked and found that there were indeed four more paragraphs before and after. The first paragraph was: "During the Dragon Boat Festival, I was busy with my mouth. Fragrant zongzi peeled off three sides of green, strong tea poured into a cup of yellow, and two plates of white sugar." When the white rice zongzi was just peeled off, it was "three sides of green". In the eyes of the painter, many ordinary objects could be painted. The last paragraph is also very interesting: "On the Dragon Boat Festival, women and children are busy and flustered. Cut calamus and boiling water in inches, mix realgar with a cup of shaojiu, and paint the word 'king' on their forehead."
When adults are busy and busy, it is also when we children take the opportunity to cause trouble, such as stealing zongzi and rolling them into small horns, and the whole alley is filled with short and sharp sounds. Once, the old lady in the kitchen caught me, dipped her fingers in realgar wine, and wrote a big word "Wang" on my forehead, which made me excited and nervous as I was only in second grade of elementary school. However, I really like the small porcelain vase that contains realgar powder, with pointed ends that are as big as Guangdong olives, and four characters written in blue and white material: Tong Hanchun Tang.
Yes, the Dragon Boat Festival is also a festival for children, a scene for them to understand society and perceive human relationships. Hanging calamus and wormwood, wearing sachets, dragon boat racing, wrapping Zongzi, martial arts competitions, hitting balls and other similar games will greatly reduce the fun without children's participation.
In Shanghai, it seems that there is no custom of eating "twelve reds" during the Dragon Boat Festival, but eating "five yellows" is preserved. The so-called "Five Yellow" refer to yellow croaker, eel, salted egg yolk, cucumber, and realgar wine. Now realgar wine cannot be consumed. Scientists believe that the main component of realgar is quinone sulfide, which is the main raw material for extracting arsenic. If realgar wine is heated and consumed, the harm may be greater. So, it was replaced by aged yellow wine. Fortunately, the custom of wearing sachets for children has been preserved. Nowadays, sachets are becoming more and more exquisite, and they are selling more and more expensive. Those with better quality have a fragrant aroma that will not dissipate until next year.
Last year, I tasted the Dragon Boat Festival banquet at the Wujiang Hotel in Suzhou. This banquet evolved from the Five Huangs into a feast. The crispy eel, braised Rice-meat dumplings with preserved pork, eel segments, double yolk salted eggs, coir raincoat cucumber, braised large yellow croaker with garlic, etc. are all things that should be included in the title. There is also a dish of fried five yellow croakers, which is quite popular. Five common ingredients in the the Taihu Lake Lake area are directly taken: leek, shrimp, water bamboo, whitebait, and agaric. The color matching also has the style of folk painting. Green, red, yellow, white, and black are corresponding to the five poisons of toad, scorpion, gecko, snake, and centipede. They are stir fried separately and finally stir fried together; The taste of salty and fresh food is just a wish. In the folk culture of Jiangsu, ordinary people also stir fry chives, golden needle vegetables, black fungus, silver fish, shrimp, and other ingredients in one pot. The common people believe that after eating "stir fried five yellow", they will not get various fever diseases throughout the summer. Using food to maintain health, eliminate diseases and disasters is a beautiful wish, as well as a crystallization of Chinese customs and wisdom for thousands of years.
The two types of Zongzi at the Dragon Boat Festival are plain white rice zongzi and salty egg yolk meat zongzi. The white rice zongzi dipped in rose sauce has excellent flavor, which is also a classic Gusu flavor.
The Dragon Boat Festival is also the time when the yellow croaker flood season forms. Braised yellow croaker, steamed yellow croaker, sweet and sour yellow croaker, shepherd's purse yellow croaker soup, and the famous Suzhou cuisine squirrel yellow croaker are all economical and delicious seasonal dishes. Ningbo people love to eat salted vegetable soup yellow croaker, which is also a common flavor in Shanghai alleyways. Braised yellow croaker with garlic is the highlight of the Dragon Boat Festival banquet. Golden garlic and black garlic are pan fried until fragrant, and the middle part of the large yellow croaker is fried until both sides are peeled. Chicken soup, soy sauce, rock sugar, and other ingredients are added to simmer, and the juice is collected over high heat. The taste enjoyment of inserting a rod to the end is irresistible, and the lingering aftertaste can last until the early summer night when the fragrance of gardenia flowers permeates the sleep.
A few days ago, I saw alkaline rice dumplings at a pastry shop near my residence. Ah, it's been a long time since we last saw each other, my dear fellow villager. In the past, elderly women from Ningbo in the alleyway often gave gifts to their neighbors. Use dried bamboo shoot shells to make zongzi leaves. The peeled Zongzi is amber, and the edges are nearly translucent. Take a bite, the alkaline water vapor has a strange aroma, but after dipping it in white sugar, it has a unique and resilient flavor. I immediately bought four to let my granddaughter feel and remember the unique taste.
After eating Zongzi, we should also recite with her Su Shi's "Youth Tour: A Gift to Huang Shou and Xu Junyou at the Dragon Boat Festival": "The silver pond is full of dust waves. The round green rolls new lotus. The orchids recommend bathing, and the calamus flowers brew wine. The weather is still calm and peaceful. Good wine pays for the festival. It is very wine and a song. The prison grass is deep, the court people are quiet, and there is no stint in feasting." The breeze is smooth, and the new lotus is beginning to bloom; Bathing in fragrant soup, brewing with calamus flowers; Slightly drunk but not drunk, singing and returning... Life is so beautiful.
