China had popcorn as early as the Song Dynasty. What are the functions of popcorn in Song Dynasty?

China had popcorn as early as the Song Dynasty. What are the functions of popcorn in Song Dynasty? On this day, farmers in southern China celebrate the arrival of the solar term with fried glutinous rice. The more glutinous rice blooms, the better the harvest will be. There is a cloud in ancient poetry: good rain knows the season, when spring comes. Sneak into the night with the wind, moisten things silently. This is the portrayal of rain and solar terms, which means that warm spring is coming. According to rural farmers, the solar term of rain means that after the snow melts, the water flows on the ground, and the snow is no longer seen, and it is completely dissolved.

It is a popular custom to occupy the color of rice in rice-growing areas in southern China. According to the fried glutinous rice flowers, the color of rice accounts for the original color. Sufficient color means increasing production, while insufficient color means low production. The color depends on the number of glutinous rice flowers. The more glutinous rice with glistening flowers, the better the rice harvest this year; The less rice flowers are exploded, it means that the rice harvest is not good this year and the rice price will be expensive. The pronunciation of "flower" and "hair" is the same, showing signs of making a fortune. In some places, Hakkas also want popcorn to worship celestial officials and local officials, in order to pray for a warm and prosperous world, and every household will have a bumper harvest. Agriculture-oriented, ancient and modern, ancient is strong. In the rainy solar terms, "occupying beige" has become a folk custom trying to master farm work. Since the Song Dynasty, the people of wuyue have had the custom of "divining the rice harvest on the 13th and 14th of the first month": according to the fried glutinous rice flowers, the more white flowers in the popcorn, the better the color, which indicates that rice production may increase this year.

What is beige in rainy season? This is a popular custom in the southern rice-growing areas of China, that is, to occupy the color of rice with fried rice fragrance in this year. Sufficient fineness means increasing production, while insufficient fineness means the least output. The color depends on the number of blooming glutinous rice flowers. The more glistening glutinous rice emerges. The better the rice harvest this year. In ancient times, popcorn was made of glutinous rice. One way is to wash and dry the glutinous rice, and then stir-fry the very fine sand in a pot. Stir-fry and continue to stir the air-dried glutinous rice, so that the glutinous rice can be evenly distributed in the sand when heated. In ancient times, because there was no modern popcorn equipment to pressurize raw materials, the fine sand used by the ancients was the heat transfer medium of popcorn, which could play a certain role in sealing and pressurizing, so that glutinous rice was stirred up due to pressure.

In this poem, when the ancients fried popcorn, the rice grains would burst because of the heat, and when they burst, they made a "pop" sound, so the ancients called popcorn "pop". It can be said that popcorn, which we often see now, actually existed in ancient times and was the earliest snack in the history of China. From here, we can see how people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival at that time. They also admired the wisdom of the ancients, because there was no modern advanced technology in ancient times. Making popcorn was not just a simple heating of food, but a high-pressure effect produced by physical high temperature to change the taste of food, which could reflect the long history of the ancients.

In the ancient Song Dynasty, popcorn had already entered the homes of ordinary people. At that time, ordinary people would make popcorn every year to celebrate the Lantern Festival. At that time, almost every household had to make a pot of popcorn, not only for eating, but also for divination. Because the ancients thought that if the fried popcorn can explode, and the more it explodes, it means that this year's crop harvest will be very good and it will be very good for this year's wealth. Therefore, making popcorn is also auspicious for the future.