The twenty-third day of the waxing moon, also known as the small year, is the day of eating stove candy in the traditional culture of the mainland. In the folk song "twenty-three, sugar melon sticky", more meaning is to stick to happiness, stick to good days, and the new year is getting sweeter and sweeter.
"Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky" refers to the custom of eating sugar melon on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon. The twenty-third day of the waxing moon is a small year, and many places have the custom of eating sugar melon to sacrifice the king of the stove. Legend has it that on this day, the Emperor of the Stove wanted to return to the Heavenly Court to report the situation in the mortal world to the Jade Emperor, so every household used sugar melons to sacrifice the Emperor of the Stove, so that he could only say good things in the Heavenly Court in his mouth, in order to please the sweetness of the coming year.
The origin of sugar melon
As the saying goes, "Twenty-three, sugar melon sticks". Sugar melon is actually a kind of stove sugar. And stove sugar, as a finished product of caramel, is not only the sugar melon. Like Kanto sugar, shortbread, hemp sugar, rice candy, etc. also belong to the stove sugar.
Stove sugar is a kind of sweet food made of caramel, which is a kind of edible sugar made by fermentation of starchy grain raw materials such as corn, glutinous rice, and japonica rice. Since the main component of caramel is maltose, it is also called maltose syrup.
The production of caramel has a long history in the mainland. About 3,000 years ago, the mainland began to produce caramel sugar, which is the first starch sugar produced by the mainland using plant raw materials. The original caramel was called "饧" (or "饴"), and it is said that the current sugar word evolved from the word "饧".
Why sugar melon is "sticky"
The custom of sacrificing stoves has a long history, and "sugar melon sticky" is a standardized program. People offered the sweet and sticky stove candy to the stove king, hoping to stick to the mouth of the stove king, so that he could "say good things in heaven and auspicious in the netherworld."
Can stove candy really stick to the mouth of the stove king? This may just be a good wish of people, but it is true that stove sugar is really sticky. So, why does stove sugar have sticky characteristics? To illustrate this, let's take a look at its raw material, the main ingredient of caramel is maltose, which is the source of caramel sweetness. The content is second only to maltose for dextrin. Although dextrin is sugar, it has no sweetness. It is dispersed in water to produce a large viscosity, which can be used to make adhesives. In this way, the "sticky" caramel is full of strength thanks to the dextrin component in it, saying that there is "paste" in the stove sugar.
Why eat sugar melon
According to folklore, the Emperor of the Stove was originally a star in the sky, because he made a mistake, he was demoted to the human world by the Jade Emperor and became the "Eastern Chef Commander". It sat in the middle of the kitchen stove of each household, watching how people lived and behaved, recording in detail the good and bad things, and on the twenty-third day of the 23rd month, it turned back to the heavenly court and reported to the Jade Emperor the good and evil situation of each family. On the evening of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, he returned to the human world and punished evil and promoted good according to the will of the Jade Emperor.
Therefore, on the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, people will sacrifice the stove, and offer the sticky and sweet sugar melon to the king of the stove, sticking to the mouth of the king of the stove, so that it "says good things to heaven and keeps peace in the earth." Children used this day as a prologue and "rehearsal" for the Spring Festival. As soon as the day was wiped black, firecrackers were set off, and in the sound of firecrackers, the man in the house put a plate of sugar melons, a bowl of tea was offered in front of the statue of the king of the stove, candles and incense were lit, after praying and performing the ceremony, the statue of the king of the stove was removed from the wall and burned, and then the tea was spilled on the paper ash, and the sugar melon was grabbed by the children to share and eat.
The Year of the Tiger festival is coming, say hello to you in advance, be healthy, good luck every day, and taste wonderful. Finally, Xiao Jin wishes everyone good luck in the Year of the Tiger, and the financial resources of the Year of the Tiger roll in!
●Ordinary institutions of higher learning approved by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
●Established by the Department of Education of Shandong Province as the first batch of pilot institutions for comprehensive evaluation and enrollment in Shandong Province, and a separate enrollment institution in Shandong Province
●National vocational education brand engineering college
●Shandong Province cultivates excellent colleges and universities with craftsman spirit
●Yantai artisan incubation base
●Cooperate with Shandong University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Qingdao University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, etc., and implement the special book set reading training plan
●Designated certification training institution of Shanghai Gold Exchange
●Yantai Advanced Unit of Vocational Education Work
●Shandong Province single stroke, comprehensive evaluation application code 14570
●Shandong Province Summer Examination Application Code E570
The graphics and text come from the Internet
Editor/Jiao Tianci Zhang Shuqi Tang Ying
Audit/Hongbo Zhang
Yantai Golden Vocational College Rong Media Center