(College in the Spring Festival) Shangdang, Shanxi: Lantern Festival baked lantern cakes are getting higher and higher

  Chinanews.com, Changzhi, February 5th (Li Tingyao and Li Ling) "Lantern cakes are baked during the Lantern Festival, and the days are high every year" is a folk saying in Shangdang District, Changzhi, Shanxi.

The custom of eating lantern cakes is preserved here. Every year before the Lantern Festival, every family will knead dough, shape and cut flowers together to make lantern cakes with different shapes.

Niu Cuiqin and her family used scissors, combs, toothpicks, chopsticks and other tools to make lantern cakes in the shape of rabbits.

Photo by Li Ling

  In Henghe Village, Yincheng Town, Shangdang District, Niu Cuiqin and her family used scissors, combs, toothpicks, chopsticks and other tools to make lantern cakes in the shape of rabbits.

The main materials of lantern cake are white flour and red dates, which are made layer by layer, the higher the better.

Photo by Li Ling

  "The main materials of the lantern cake are white flour and red dates, which are made layer by layer. The higher the better, it indicates that the year will be prosperous and climb up step by step." Niu Cuiqin told reporters.

  Also busy is the Junweifang steamed bun shop in Yincheng Village, Yincheng Town.

A cage of steaming lantern cakes came out of the pan, and the smell of jujube sweet and wheat scented the nostrils.

People keep coming to order and pick up lantern cakes.

A cage of steaming lantern cakes came out of the pan, and the aroma of jujube and wheat wafted into the nostrils.

Photo by Li Ling

  Li Junwei and his wife are authentic residents of Yincheng Village, who have been selling lantern cakes in the village for more than 20 years.

During the Lantern Festival, the couple got up at 5 o'clock every day to make lantern cakes and were busy until evening.

"Many customers made reservations years ago, and there are hundreds of orders. Most of the lantern cakes I eat at home come to pick them up on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the first lunar month."

  "The first is to pass on the skills, and the second is to support themselves." Li Junwei and his wife made money by making lantern cakes, and usually sold steamed buns, earning tens of thousands of yuan a year.

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