Why do you eat glutinous rice balls on Lantern Festival?

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, one of the traditional festivals of Han nationality in China, was ushered in. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called night "night", so they called the fifteenth day of the first month the Lantern Festival. The fifteenth day of the first month is the night of the first full moon in a year and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. On the night of Spring Festival, people celebrate this festival and the continuation of the Spring Festival. Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan Festival". According to the folk tradition in China, on this bright night, people light thousands of lanterns to celebrate. Going out to enjoy the moon, lighting and setting fires, enjoying lantern riddles, eating Yuanxiao, family reunion and celebrating festivals are all enjoyment. Shangyuan means the first full moon night of the New Year. The origin of Shangyuan Festival is recorded as years old in Miscellaneous Notes, which is a Taoist stereotype. Taoism once called the 15th day of the first month the Shangyuan Festival, the 15th day of July the Zhongyuan Festival and the 15th day of October the Xiayuan Festival, which were collectively called the "Sanyuan Festival". The gods worshipped by Wudou Midao, an important school of Taoism in the late Han Dynasty, were celestial officials, local officials and water officials. They said that God bless the people, the local officials forgive sins, and the water officials relieve Eritrea. They used three yuan to match the three officials, saying that Shangyuan Tianguan was born on the fifteenth day of the first month, Zhongyuan was born on the fifteenth day of July, and Xiayuan Shuiguan was born on the fifteenth day of October. In this way, the fifteenth day of the first month is called Shangyuan Festival. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu said in a dream: "The fifteenth day of the first month is the day when God bless the people." It is said that God bless the people and local officials make atonement, but the real motivation of the Lantern Festival custom is that it is at a new time point, and people make full use of this special time stage to express their wishes for life.

origin

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which began in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Lantern Festival viewing began in the period of Emperor Han Ming in the East. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month, monks watched the Buddhist relics and lit lanterns to worship the Buddha, so that all the gentry and ordinary people hung lanterns. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ordered the 15th day of the first month to be designated as the Lantern Festival. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. Taiyi: the God who rules the universe. When Sima Qian created the taichu calendar Law, he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival. Another way of saying it is that the custom of burning lanterns in Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism; The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man respectively, and the heaven official is happy, so the delicious Lantern Festival is the last one.

Light the festive lights. It is also said that the Lantern Festival originated from the Torch Festival. In the Han dynasty, people held torches in rural fields to drive away insects and wild animals, hoping to reduce pests and pray for a bumper harvest. To this day, people in some areas in southwest China still use reeds or branches as torches on the 15th day of the first month, and hold high in groups to dance in fields or grain drying fields. Since the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, it has been in full swing. Tens of thousands of people took part in singing and dancing, from faint to dark. With the changes of society and times, the custom of Lantern Festival has changed greatly, but it is still a traditional folk festival in China. The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in Han Dynasty, three days in Tang Dynasty and five days in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lights were lit from the eighth day of August until the seventeenth night of the first month, a total of ten days. Connected with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, full of excitement, and brightly lit at night, which is spectacular. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more "hundred operas" such as dragon dancing, lion dancing, dry boating, walking on stilts and yangko dancing, but the festival period was shortened to four to five days. The legend of Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao girl is related to the custom of eating Yuanxiao: According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a favorite person named Dong Fangshuo, who was kind and funny. One winter, it snowed heavily for several days, and Dong Fangshuo went to the Imperial Garden to fold plum blossoms for Emperor Wu. As soon as I entered the garden gate, I found a maid-in-waiting in tears ready to throw herself into the well. Dong Fangshuo rushed forward to help and asked her why she committed suicide. It turns out that this maid-in-waiting named Yuanxiao has parents and a sister at home. Since entering the palace, she has never missed the legend of Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao girl.

Meet my family. When spring comes, I miss my family more than usual. I think in front of my parents, I would rather die than be filial. Dong Fangshuo expressed deep sympathy for her suffering and assured her that she would try her best to reunite with her family. One day, Dong Fangshuo left the palace and set up a divination pavilion on Chang 'an Avenue. Many people are scrambling to find him for divination. Unexpectedly, what everyone wants is the signature of "burning us on the 16th day of the first month". Suddenly, there was a panic in Chang 'an. People are looking for a solution to the disaster. Dong Fangshuo said, "On the night of the 15th day of the first month, Vulcan will send a goddess in red to visit the earth. She is the messenger who ordered the burning of Chang 'an. I'll give you the copied poem and let today's emperor do something. " Say that finish, then dropped a red pillar and roared off. The people picked up the red post and quickly sent it to the palace to report to the emperor. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took it and read: "Chang 'an is robbing, and the Forbidden City is being burned. It has been burning for fifteen days, and the midnight snack is red." He was so scared that he soon invited resourceful Dong Fangshuo. Dong Fangshuo thought for a moment and said, "I heard that Vulcan likes to eat dumplings. Don't Yuanxiao in the palace often make dumplings for you? Let Yuanxiao package jiaozi on 15th night. Long live the incense and offerings, and order every family in Kyoto to pack jiaozi and worship Vulcan together. Then tell the subjects to hang lights together on the fifteenth night and set off firecrackers and fireworks all over the city, as if the whole city were on fire, so that the jade emperor could be fooled. In addition, inform the people outside the city to go to the city to watch the lights for fifteen nights, and they will eliminate disasters and solve problems in the crowd. " Liang Wudi was very happy after hearing this, so he ordered him to do it according to Dong Fangshuo's method. On the fifteenth day of the first month, Chang 'an City was decorated with colorful lights, crowded with tourists and very lively. The parents of the maid-in-waiting Yuanxiao also took their sister to the city to see the lights. When they saw the big palace lantern with the words "Yuanxiao" written on it, they shouted in surprise: "Yuanxiao! Lantern Festival! " When Yuanxiao heard the shouts, she was finally reunited with her relatives at home. After such a busy night, Chang 'an was safe. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed and ordered that glutinous rice balls should be made for Vulcan every year on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the whole city was decorated with lanterns and set off fireworks. Because jiaozi cooked by Yuanxiao is the best, this day is called Lantern Festival. According to the legend of Yuan Shikai and Yuanxiao, after Yuan Shikai usurped the achievements of the Revolution of 1911, he was bent on restoring the throne of the emperor, but he was afraid of people's opposition and was always on tenterhooks. One day, he heard people selling Yuanxiao in the street screaming, "Yuanxiao." I think the word "Yuanxiao" is homophonic with "Yuan Xiao", which is suspected of the demise of Yuan Shikai and related to my own fate. So before 19 13 Lantern Festival, it is forbidden to call it "Yuanxiao", and it can only be called "glutinous rice balls" or "fruit powder". However, the word "Yuanxiao" was not cancelled because of his will, and the people did not buy his account, so it was still circulated among the people.

Eating Yuanxiao as food has a long history in China. In the Song Dynasty, a novel Lantern Festival food was popular among the people. This kind of food was originally called "Floating Zi Yuan", later called "Yuanxiao", and merchants also called it "Yuanbao". In ancient times, "Yuanxiao" was more expensive, and a poem said: "Guests look at the Imperial Street with a hook curtain, and the treasures in the city come for a while. There is no way to go before the curtain, and the money can't be returned. " On the fifteenth day of the first month, Yuanxiao, or "Tangyuan", contains white sugar, roses, sesame seeds, red bean paste, cinnamon bark, walnuts, nuts, jujube paste and so on. And wrapped in glutinous rice flour into a circle, you can be vegetarian and have different flavors. It can be boiled, fried and steamed, which means happy reunion. Jiaozi, Shaanxi is not wrapped, but "rolled" in glutinous rice flour, or boiled or fried, warm and round.

Eat yuanxiao scientifically

The Lantern Festival is approaching, and many people have already prepared the Lantern Festival at home, and they can't finish a meal. They are "regular customers" on the dining table for even a few days, and breakfast, extra meals and even supper are indispensable. As the saying goes, it is too late. In fact, eating Yuanxiao is the same. From a nutritional point of view, glutinous rice skin with sweet stuffing such as bean paste, sesame, jujube paste and peanuts or salty stuffing such as fresh meat and vegetable meat are unhealthy foods with high sugar and high calorie. So how to eat Yuanxiao in the end to ensure delicious and healthy? Not suitable for breakfast. Yuanxiao is a high-calorie and high-sugar food. It also contains oil, but it lacks nutrition. Apart from calories and sugar, there are not many other nutrients. Such food is not suitable for breakfast in the first place. In addition to insufficient nutrition, it is also because people who get up early have the weakest gastrointestinal function, and the skin of Yuanxiao is sticky and difficult to digest. Therefore, eating Yuanxiao for breakfast is prone to indigestion, leading to pantothenic acid and heartburn, which affects the work and life of the day.