During the Lantern Festival, the skillful Manchus prayed for peace through steamed noodle lamps
After the New Year, the next festival is the Lantern Festival, in ancient times, this day was called the Shangyuan Festival, the most eye-catching is the Shangyuan Lantern, which is the stage where the lanterns bloom. In northeast Jilin, on the day of the Lantern Festival, there will also be a unique tradition of steaming noodle lamps, which originated from the Manchu Lantern Customs in the northeast.
Old Yang's kitchen
On the day of the Lantern Festival, the tribesmen clean their hands and clean the noodles, pull a piece from the large fermented dough, knead it sharply, and immediately a prototype of an animal comes out.
Then three pinches and two pinches appeared a tiger baby. Use a wooden comb or scissors to cut a few times, and then install two large dates, and the tiger baby's ears, eyes, and mouth will come alive. Dig out an oil pit on the pinched tiger, put it in a pot and steam it, put the kneaded cotton wick in the oil pit and light it, and a tiger lamp stands in the snowflakes.
Pinch the grid of the noodle lamp, the mind is skillful, without eating the flower mold, you can pinch out a simple and rough line round face lamp.
The noodle lamp pinched with soybean noodles is called "golden lamp"; the white face is called "silver lamp"; the brown rice noodle is called "copper lamp"; the sorghum rice is called "iron lamp", which is extracted from red, pink and blue colors with orchid grass, rhododendron flowers, and hydrangea flowers, and makes a color surface, which becomes a colorful fish lamp, pear lamp, watermelon lamp, etc.
The Manchus have a custom of making zodiac lamps, and the twelve zodiac signs represent the fierce auspiciousness of the twelve months, foreshadowing the droughts and floods of each month. The noodle lamp that just came out of the pot, steamed with cracks on the edge, is called "laughing". But the corresponding month must be more fierce and less auspicious, so be extra careful in that month. The face lamp is extinguished, but the lamp body is intact, and the corresponding month must be very fruitful.
"The cow lamp is transported to the side of the cattle pen, the cattle are not worried about the work, the pig lamp enters the pigsty, and the fat pig snoozes and grows the meat. The kennel sends a yellow dog lamp, and the caretaker who dares to break in..." What is made for the baby is the zodiac lamp, the longevity lamp is made for the elderly, and the lamp for the newlyweds is the lamp for the children and grandchildren."
The Manchu face lamp has its own unique charm, it is the cultural tradition of the Manchu people, expressing the love of life and the admiration for the ancestors.
Note: The pictures in the text are selected from the kitchen log of Lao Yang in the world of food, and the copyright belongs to the original author.