Chinanews client, Beijing, February 14th (Reporter Shangguanyun) Eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year, eating dumplings on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and eating dumplings during the winter solstice... For many people, dumplings seem to be a "standard item" for the holidays ", entrusted countless beautiful meanings.
However, it is also said that dumplings are the staple food and local snacks in northern China, and they are also New Year's food. However, in the South, they usually eat dumplings and stewed sesame oil chicken at the winter solstice. The custom of eating dumplings during the festival mainly exists in the north.
So, why do northerners like to eat dumplings during festivals?
How do dumplings come from?
Data map: The picture shows the finished handmade dumplings.
Photo by Wang Haoyang
The "evolutionary history" of a delicacy
There are several different theories about the origin of dumplings.
One of them believes that dumplings originated from the ancient "corner", which is also the etymology of the term "dumpling" today.
According to records, dumplings had the name of jiaowan in the Tang Dynasty, or Fenjiao.
In the Song Dynasty, it was called a corner, and "Tokyo Dream Hualu" said that there were crystal corners and fried corners in Bianjing market.
In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to "bianshi", dumplings were also called "boiled dumplings".
There were many ways to make dumplings in the Ming Dynasty.
For example, fried dumplings made with hot noodles and deep-fried dumplings; Song Xu’s "Song's Health Club" has a kind of "honey horn", which is an oil filled with peeled walnuts, hazel, pine nuts or molasses and red bean paste. Fried dumplings.
Later, the "Qing Barnyard Notes" compiled by the writer Xu Ke mentioned that "the soup made from boiling water is called dumplings." This can probably be seen as a clearer description and definition of "dumplings".
Over time, various legends have been attached to this food, some of which are quite legendary.
It is said that when Nu Wa was creating a human, the weather was very cold, and the ears of the small person made of loess could easily fall off. In order to fix the ears, she thought of a way.
Nuwa pierced a small eye on the little man's ear, then tied the ear with a thin wire, and put the other end of the wire in the little man's mouth to bite.
Over time, the common people began to make dumplings to commemorate Nu Wa, saying that if they eat dumplings in winter, their ears will not be frozen.
When do you eat dumplings on New Year's Day?
So, since when did people start to eat dumplings during Chinese New Year?
Data map: Dumplings are wrapped.
Photo by Yang Bo
Wang Renxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that dumplings, as an agreed delicacy on the first day of the new year, may have originated in the Ming Dynasty, and there are also special game contents in which dumplings are packed.
There are indeed traces to this statement.
According to Liu Ruoyu's "Zhu Zhong Zhi" in the Ming Dynasty, dumplings were called "Bian Shi" in Ming Palace.
It is said that on the first day of the first month, "drink pepper and cypress wine, eat water and snacks, that is, flat food. Or secretly pack one or two silver coins, and those who get it will be worth a year.
Put money in the "water dim sum", and the person who eats it indicates good luck in the coming year. This is very similar to the customs of the new year.
In the Qing Dynasty, "Yenjing Sui Shi Ji" also recorded the Chinese New Year eating dumplings. For example, on the first day of the new year, "no matter rich or poor, they all eat white noodles as horns (dumplings), which is called boiled dumplings. The whole country. No difference."
At this time, the popularity of dumplings seems to be getting higher and higher.
It is mentioned in "Tian Zhi Ou Wen": "From the first day of the first month to the fifth day, the common name is broken five. The old way of eating dumplings on the fifth day is the northern name for cooking dumplings."
Some people say that this has fully demonstrated the importance and love of dumplings in local folk customs.
Dumplings VS Wontons
However, a closer inspection of related customs reveals interesting points in the proverbs, such as "October 1st, the winter solstice, every family eats dumplings" and "wonton noodles in the winter solstice".
Data map: The picture shows the Wufu dumpling feast to welcome the winter solstice.
Photo by Han Zhangyun
It is said that ancient wontons and dumplings once referred to a kind of food. Wontons appeared very early, and their appearance resembled the "chaos" without seven orifices mentioned in "Zhuangzi", hence the name.
The "Wanli Ye Huo Bian" of the Ming Dynasty quoted some interesting antithetical sentences that were circulated in Beijing at that time, such as "Thin-skinned and crispy versus succulent wontons, Chunshu dumplings versus peach blossom siu-mai". Wontons have been clearly distinguished.
Folklore expert Xiao Fang said that the ancient winter solstice was considered the starting point of the year, so eat wontons.
Dumplings are similar in shape to wontons, and the production methods are similar. Later, the custom slowly evolved and it became eating dumplings during the New Year.
But he also mentioned that the custom of eating dumplings during festivals does exist mainly in the north, such as the winter solstice and Lidong, and eating dumplings on New Year's Eve means "hand in time".
Dumplings were rarely eaten in ancient southern customs.
"Before earlier, there was no wheat in a place a little southerly." He said that in the past the southern winter solstice ate glutinous rice balls and winter solstice dumplings. During the Chinese New Year, they would eat rice cakes and rice cakes. They would eat all kinds of stir-fried vegetables, but they would not eat them. Dumplings.
The cultural connotation of a bowl of dumplings
Nowadays, dumplings are a very common food, and they can be eaten at any time throughout the year, not limited to the New Year’s Day or a certain festival.
Data map: Previously, there was an endless stream of customers in a dumpling shop in Beijing.
The day is the fifth day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar. The northerners commonly call it "Bao Wu". It also coincides with the beginning of spring in the traditional Chinese solar terms. Northern Chinese people have the custom of eating dumplings and spring cakes on the calendar.
Photo by Cui Nan issued by China News Service
From the perspective of folklore, dumplings taste delicious, and they were indeed rare delicacies in the past when the material was poor; the food eaten during festivals often enshrines good meanings. Dumplings are shaped like ingots, and they also have the auspicious meaning of "fortune and treasure". meaning.
As for the reason why northerners like to eat dumplings during the festival, some netizens have concluded that it is not that they have to eat dumplings during the festival, but that they like the feeling of making dumplings and sharing food with the whole family, talking and laughing, and lively.
It can be seen that dumplings are not just as simple as food. When people eat dumplings, they may be more concerned about the cultural atmosphere of the festival and the strong affection.
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