Editor's note:
"The Spring Festival is a beautiful time to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and it will always bring people new aspirations." General Secretary Xi Jinping's words express the core of the Spring Festival culture.
The Chinese New Year is a "year of time" to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new, and it is also a "year of culture" to move forward towards kindness.
On the occasion of the most important traditional festival of the Chinese nation, CCTV's "People's Leader Xi Jinping" column launched a series of special articles "Xi Jinping's Spring Festival Memories" to experience the "Chinese New Year style" of the general secretary with you.
In China, where "people take food as their heaven", "eating and drinking well" is a major event in the homes of ordinary people during the Spring Festival.
General Secretary Xi Jinping's previous inspections on the eve of the Spring Festival have left many stories related to the taste of the new year on the tip of the tongue.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2016, at the villagers' homes in Shenshan Village, Jiangxi, the general secretary and the villagers sat in a circle. Some villagers brought over the freshly steamed rice crackers, and said that they were brought to relatives' houses for New Year's greetings.
The general secretary tasted the taste carefully and praised "this custom is very good".
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2017, the general secretary held chopsticks in one hand and a colander in the other by the stove of the villagers' homes in Desheng Village, Hebei Province, and blew up rice cakes, which meant rising year after year.
The golden rice cakes are sweet and fragrant, and the oily fragrance rises together with the festive taste of the new year.
On January 24, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping fried rice cakes at Xu Xuehai's house in Desheng Village, Xiaoertai Town, Zhangbei County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province.
In Zhanqi Village, Sichuan, eating dumplings during the Spring Festival is a traditional folk custom.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Zhanqi Village for inspection. When he saw the villagers were making dumplings, he gave a thumbs up and said to everyone in Sichuan dialect: "I wish your life is as comfortable as eating dumplings!"
In Huozhou, Shanxi, as soon as the steamed buns are steamed, the taste of the year comes.
On the eve of this year's Spring Festival, in Fengnanyuan Village, Huozhou, Shanxi, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a jujube flower bun in three or two strokes.
Looking at the jujube flowers, rabbits, and small fish made by the villagers, he praised it as "very auspicious", "it gives people a good feeling every year, and it represents the yearning of the vast number of fathers and villagers for a better life."
The expectations and blessings for the future are linked to the name and form of food, which is the romance of traditional Chinese food culture.
On January 26, 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping made New Year's buns in Fengnanyuan Village, Shizhuang Township, Huozhou City, Linfen City, Shanxi Province.
"Today is the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and it's a small year. I'm here to visit you." On February 3, 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping appeared in Yuangudui Village, Weiyuan County, Dingxi City, Gansu Province, at an altitude of more than 2,400 meters.
He came to see the needy people.
After a small year is a new year.
While chatting with the villagers, the general secretary talked about the custom of celebrating the New Year in northern Shaanxi with great interest: "We spend the New Year in northern Shaanxi mainly by grinding millet into noodles and making steamed buns in the shape of tigers and rabbits. Mo, also point the color, colorful."
Before the Spring Festival in 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping organized the New Year's goods by himself and returned to Liangjiahe to visit his fellow villagers.
At noon that day, at the house of the old party secretary Liang Yuming, the general secretary, Shi Chunyang, Lu Housheng, Zhang Weipang and other old friends sat around and ate the "New Year's tea" of the Liang family.
In northern Shaanxi, the food eaten during the Spring Festival is collectively referred to as "New Year's Tea Rice".
Oil cakes, chicken, mutton, sauerkraut, glutinous rice balls, pumpkin... On the dinner table, all the authentic farm meals are the New Year's flavor of the people in northern Shaanxi, and it is also the hometown flavor that the son of the Yellow Earth misses.
On January 24, 2017, the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, General Secretary Xi Jinping walked into Desheng Village, Zhangbei County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province with his concern for the people in need.
The guests came from afar, and the villager Xu Wan brought out his own New Year's goods to entertain.
The golden color, sweet and crispy "open smile" is a must-have for every family in Bashang, Hebei.
The general secretary tasted a piece and said it tasted good.
"I am celebrating Chinese New Year every year now. I buy some Jiangmi strips on the street, and there is one called Fried Pork Fork..." The general secretary shared with everyone his favorite bite for the New Year. Eat some for the holidays."
Food and beauty are not to be missed.
Behind the different tastes are similar emotions.
Ciba is in the shape of a round cake, white and soft, which means reunion and roundness.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2016, when General Secretary Xi Jinping, who came to visit the people in the old district, walked into Zuo Xiufa's house, everyone was busy making glutinous rice cakes.
The general secretary smiled and said, "Let's fight together, okay?"
"Okay," Li Zongwu, a villager with a mallet in his hand, answered hastily.
The general secretary hit more than a dozen times in a row, and asked everyone how long it would take to hit each time.
Li Zongwu remembered, "He also jokingly said that he could exercise."
On February 2, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping made glutinous rice cakes with villagers in Shenshan Village, Maoping Township, Jinggangshan City, Jiangxi Province.
A variety of distinctive Chinese New Year snacks and delicious New Year delicacies not only satisfy the enjoyment of taste buds, but are also full of New Year's joy and nourish sweet days.
"I'm here to see you, and I'm here to say New Year's greetings to everyone!" In Sitiao Hutong, Caochang, Beijing, General Secretary Xi Jinping, who came to pay his respects, was invited by Zhu Maojin, a hutong resident, to make dumplings together.
The Zhu family recalled that the general secretary picked up chopsticks and rolled dumpling wrappers to wrap the dumplings, and then placed the wrapped dumplings on the panel, "moving like the neighbors' parents."
While making dumplings and chatting about daily life, the general secretary said that his family also likes to make fennel stuffing.
"I haven't made dumplings for many years because of work. Look, the more you make, the better. The same is true of our lives, the more you make, the better!"
On February 1, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping made dumplings and chatted with Zhu Maojin's family at Sitiao Hutong, Caochang, Qianmen East District, Beijing.
In Simola Wa Village in Yunnan, a village that means "happy place" in the Wa language, Li Fashun, a villager, invited General Secretary Xi Jinping to make rice Baba, a traditional Wa New Year food.
He picked up a ball of rice cakes with his right hand, pressed it hard on the mold, and pressed harder with his left hand... The general secretary made two red and bright rice cakes in a row.
He smiled and said, "Press the word "Fu", and then another word for "Happiness". Li Fashun felt, "This red, sweet and sweet rice cake is like Smola today."
On January 19, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping, together with villager Li Fashun's family, made rice Baba, a traditional local festival food, in Smola Wa Village, Zhongzhai, Sanjia Village, Qingshui Township, Tengchong City, Yunnan Province.
In Huawu Village, Guizhou, the villagers invited the general secretary to make Huangba, a traditional special food that is indispensable for the Chinese New Year in Guizhou.
Pick up a zong leaf, sandwich a piece of glutinous rice and soybean noodles, roll up the zong leaf, and fasten it with a thread... General Secretary Xi Jinping wrapped a yellow cake with his own hands.
He smiled and said, "I wish you a happier and sweeter life in the future!" Everyone present also laughed.
On February 3, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping chatted with Zhao Yuxue's family while chatting with Zhao Yuxue's family and making local traditional festive food yellow rice in Zhao Yujia, a Miao villager in Huawu Village, Xinren Miao Township, Qianxi County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province.
In today's drastic changes in China, the lives of ordinary people are getting better and better, and it is very convenient to buy food from all over the world.
But there is always some flavor of hometown. On this special day, it strung our nostalgia and memories, bringing us warmth and joy.
New year, work hard together.
(China Central Radio and Television Station CCTV Network)