Text/Paolo
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What is Spring Festival?
Maybe it's a long-lost vacation, maybe it's a relaxing trip, maybe you can eat the food you remember, maybe you'll meet someone you haven't seen in years. For different people, the Spring Festival always has different meanings.
But for people who are working hard in other places, going home is the greatest meaning of the Spring Festival. Embarking on the road back home from thousands of miles, looking forward to the moment when relatives open the door for themselves in the sound of cars and horses, such a process not only precipitated the hardships of last year, but also accumulated the courage of the coming year.
This year, League of Legends pros from all over the country are also going home for the New Year. PentaQ interviewed them in advance, talking about the New Year customs in their respective hometowns and their own impressions of the Spring Festival. At this moment, they should already be in their hometown, enjoying the atmosphere of the Spring Festival with their relatives and friends, and after a short break, they will return to the professional arena again.
I hope that they can perform better in the competition in the new year, and I wish all PentaQ readers a happy and safe new year.
Tickets posted by the 957 contestant (Ke Changyu) on the logging tired
On January 23, the twenty-sixth day of the waxing moon, 957 (Ke Changyu), who had worked in Shanghai for a year, also joined the rolling crowd of the Spring Festival when the Chinese New Year's Eve was coming, he would take the G7539 high-speed train, starting from the "e-sports center" Shanghai, passing through Jiashan, Tongxiang, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Ninghai, and finally arriving in Taizhou Linhai, after arriving in Linhai, he had to take another car to return to his hometown, Xianju County, Taizhou City.
Shenxian Ju Scenic Area has been the filming location of many movies and TV series
Legend has it that during the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a man named Wang Wen, who usually saved the poor and was charitable, was enlightened by the gods, and the whole family ascended to heaven together with the chicken and dog, becoming a god - this is the origin of the allusion to the ascension of a chicken dog to heaven. After Emperor Zhenzong of Song heard about this strange incident, he named it "The Famous Mountain of Dongtian shielded Zhou Wei, and the residence of many immortals", and the emperor named the county where Wang Wen was located Xianju. The Taizhou area is known as the saying of seven mountains, one water and two fields, but when it comes to Xianju, this saying has to become eight mountains, one water and one field. Xianju has beautiful scenery, and The Xianxian Residence and gonglu are two scenic spots in the territory of Xianju that are famous for their majestic peaks.
Xianju bayberry is often compared with table tennis, and the victim is often table tennis
In addition to the beautiful scenery, Xianju is also rich in large core and small sweet bayberry. Bayberry has higher requirements for transportation conditions, shipped to other places often taste bad, in recent years, once the Bayberry season, SF Express will play the slogan of "sending Bayberry with SF" in the southern region of Zhejiang, presumably now in Shanghai 957 can often eat the bayberry in the hometown.
Because of its vast territory and many ethnic groups, China is known as "ten miles of different winds, a hundred miles of different customs", this phenomenon is especially in Zhejiang, because the Zhejiang region is mountainous and watery, and various villages and towns have formed their own unique customs. Taizhou area is even more so, Taizhou people both rely on the mountains and eat the sea, the sea people and mountain people have their own folk customs, coupled with the frequent changes in the administrative area of the backstage state of the founding of the country, some areas were first assigned to Ningbo, Wenzhou, and then back to Taizhou, until 1994, Taizhou City was really established, so some people born in the area before 90 years of the identity of Taizhou people is very weak. This has led to the folk customs of various districts and counties in Taizhou, which are not only influenced by the surrounding areas, but also maintain their own characteristics, and even some townships have their own unique customs.
Just to say that the custom of eating zongzi in Taizhou for the New Year is different from most parts of China, but in Taizhou, not all people in all regions eat zongzi for the New Year. In some parts of Taizhou, there is also the fact that you can't go to relatives on the second day of the first lunar month, unless there are white things in your relatives' homes. It is also said that this "worship of the year" time node, Taizhou area also circulated a number of sayings, in Wenling, there is a playful saying called "after the year of worship to the moon and the half, the Buddha like a fox like a dog", which means that after the Lantern Festival is still worshiping the New Year, it will not become a system, and in the Linhai area, the circulation is "to worship the year after eight, the clear soup to drink", it is said that after the eighth day of the first year and then the New Year, it is not welcomed.
The customs of the New Year in taizhou are not uniform, and the food on the New Year table is even more varied.
Mochi, rice dumplings, cake cones
The scene of mashing mochi. Image from Taizhou Daily
There is a proverb in Taizhou, called "Twenty-seven pounding mochi, twenty-eight (wrapped) dumplings, twenty-nine nests of frozen", fin is steamed glutinous rice in the stone mortar beaten into food, is a common food in the Chinese region, in other places called fin rice, in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian area, it is called mochi. Zongzi is Zongzi, nest freezing is the roasted pork head meat and soup frozen together, in some areas, pig head meat, rice dumplings, rice cakes will also be associated with the Festival of the New Year. In addition, the process of mashing mochi and making rice cakes is similar, and they are often done together, except that sticky rice is used for mochi and late rice for rice cake.
A new type of black rice mochi with pine pollen and red bean paste
Taizhou area mochi eating a variety of ways, small glutinous rice fin, spread an egg on the top of the fry, become an egg stall mochi; after frying a layer of brown sugar, it becomes brown sugar mochi; and a variety of ingredients fried to eat, is a fried mochi; you can also fill it with a variety of fillings to eat; in the coastal area, there are black black rice mochi. Now mochi can be bought everywhere, and mochi is still the favorite of Taizhou people, but the scene of mashing mochi is rarely seen again, even in rural areas, the heavy stone mortar has mostly been abandoned. Mashing mochi and making rice cakes has almost become a folk activity for performance and exhibition.
Rice cakes can also be kneaded into various shapes, which can be seen and eaten or played
When I was young, when I mashed rice cakes and mashed mochi, the adults were working feverishly, the glutinous rice and rice cakes in the steamers were steaming, and the children stood next to them and looked at them, and the adults took the scraps to relieve the children, or pinched a few yuan treasures, small rabbits, and made a few small rice cakes for the children, and the children who were reluctant to eat put these up.
The pie cone, spreading out the pliable crust with flour, and then wrapping a dozen stir-fried dishes in it, is much higher than the Burrito in Mexico
In Wenzhou, Tiantai and other places, locals will eat rice dumplings for the New Year (the Dragon Boat Festival, eat cake tubes), and even in some areas, locals will directly use "eating water cake dumplings" to refer to the new year's greeting. It can be said that in the Taizhou area, there will be a staple food as the protagonist in the New Year.
Flat food, in some areas, is also a staple food for people during the New Year
In addition to rice dumplings, there are also rice cakes, and then there will be steamed buns, or cake tubes (also called wheat grease) with more than a dozen ingredients rolled up, dumplings and flat foods that are consistent with northern customs... Wait a minute. These staple foods will be the food that runs through the Entire Spring Festival of Taizhou people. In the past, wrapping rice dumplings, pounding rice cakes, making steamed buns, and wrapping flat food was always a few families getting together, or making more to give to relatives and friends of neighbors and neighbors, and the new year flavor came out in a coming-and-going manner. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people do it themselves, and the taste of the year has faded.
Chinese New Year's Eve and junior high school
A rare seafood in other regions – the dog claw snail
Taizhou people's Chinese New Year's Eve rice, all kinds of seafood is indispensable, from the East China Sea and rivers of large and small yellow fish, water babbler, pomfret, squid, clams, pike crabs, jumping fish, green crabs, blood clams, all kinds of snails... But eating well does not necessarily mean eating well, and families who pay attention to customs will eat quite complicated. In the Rooftop area, Chinese New Year's Eve on this day, people must first eat guiyuan soup, then eat flat food, eat cake tubes, and eat Chinese New Year's Eve meals in the evening.
Yuhuan fisherman's must-have knocking fish noodles for the New Year, the fish meat has been repeatedly pounded into thin fillets, knocking fish has both the deliciousness of the fish and the chewiness
According to the "Haimen Town Chronicle", "On the first day of the first month of the old calendar, every household posted the Spring Festival. There is an incense case at the door, and cakes and fruits are placed for the gods. Men, women, young and old, all changed into new clothes and went to the temples to burn incense, and the sound of whipping was loud and rumbling. Each family is fed with rice dumplings, rice cakes, and soup dumplings; the cakes are taken from the high rise, and the group takes the meaning of reunion. "Because the first day of the first month of the first month to avoid the knife, so the cake must be cut before the Chinese New Year's Eve, eating rice cake (or longevity noodles) in the morning of the first day means high life, eating soup at noon means reunion, and eating rice dumplings at night means taking off your clothes and sleeping." It can be seen that the Taizhou people's emphasis on eating in the New Year has quite historical roots.
In addition, the fishing villages will eat longevity noodles for breakfast; Wenling and Sanmen eat bean noodle soup (sweet potato flour) with cakes; Linhai people eat tangyuan; Huangyan and other places also eat flour balls and rice dumplings in the countryside; and there are also tofu porridge in the region. Tiantai people have to eat "five-flavor porridge", that is, porridge cooked with five raw materials such as red dates, sweet potatoes, woolly taro, red beans, and tofu, which means "praying for five blessings". Extrapolating, the five-flavor porridge originally came from the Buddhist monks, and the New Year prayed for the "five blessings", that is, shou, rich, kangning, you haode, and kao shou came to the world, cooked this miscellaneous soup, and contained the symbolic meaning of the abundance of grains. After eating five-flavor porridge, I also eat cake tubes for lunch and flat food for dinner.
Sweet potato cakes steamed from sweet potato flour, glutinous rice flour, and brown sugar are made into daily cakes because they carry a celebratory word
In Jiaojiang and other places, people eat dumplings in the morning, ginger soup noodles for lunch, rice dumplings, rice cakes, qing cakes and so on for dinner. Although many customs are no longer followed, in many places, people still follow this process to prepare for the first day of the first day.
Thanksgiving and opening the year
A streamlined New Year's eve ceremony featuring rice dumplings, rice cakes, muffins, longevity noodles, and a pig's head as the protagonist, image courtesy of Weibo user RaJor
Before the establishment of spring, or before the Chinese New Year's Eve, Taizhou people should choose an auspicious day and auspicious time of the zodiac to perform a new year's celebration ceremony. The traditional custom is to put incense burner candles, tea wine, pig head meat and other blessings at home to pray for blessings, the position can be large or small, there are meat and vegetarian with ten kinds of perfect mouth color, there are also neat and tidy, put on the red candle, incense burner, pig head meat, fish, whole chicken and goose, pay attention to some, but also have grains, beans, rice cakes, mochi, steamed buns, tofu, fruits, put on ten wine glasses and ten teacups... For a convenience, put on a few kinds of vegetables and fruits and even candy that you like to eat, but how to arrange it, the customs of each region are different.
After the New Year, firecrackers are also needed. This year, many people chose the day of the New Year on January 24, the 27th day of the Waxing Moon, which is a non-statutory firecracker day, so many people entered the police station on this day because of the firecrackers released in the New Year...
On the first or second day of the new year, it is necessary to set up a table again, put a few dishes, and make a sacrifice to make the "opening year". In other areas, the first day of the first year is to go to the tomb to worship the ancestors, and to bring the things to worship the ancestors to the ancestral graves to worship the ancestors.
Xianju eight bowls
In 957's hometown Xianju, there is a saying of "eight bowls", but some people say that the eight bowls are the product of commercial operation, and the real hospitality dish of the Xianju people is the nine bowls. In fact, a closer look at the names of these dishes, it is not difficult to find that these are eight dishes that try to connect with the "immortal culture", but there are many specialties of the Xianju area, such as the lean pork dipped in starch and knocked with sticks, the "knocking meat" that makes the meat soft and tender, and the "bubble fish" that has been dried and fried - the bubble is the meaning of frying, the fish is dried fish, and the batter of the fish must be beaten like an egg, so that the batter is fragrant enough.
The staple food of the Xianju people in the New Year is steamed buns, cake tubes, etc., and the steamed buns that cannot be eaten are made into dried steamed buns, which are crisp and delicious. Now, there are naturally not many people who are obsessed with eight bowls and steamed buns, and every New Year's Festival, of course, they love to eat and do.
If there are guests to visit the New Year during the New Year, the Xianju people first entertain each other to drink guiyuan tea, and then make a bowl of dim sum (toppings) to entertain the guests, stir-fry the shredded eggs, bamboo shoots, yellow cauliflower, bacon shreds, dried tofu, oil bubbles and other miscellaneous foods together, add water, simmer for a while, and then start the pot, with soup to put out a large bowl, that is, toppings. The juice of the toppings slowly merges with the noodle soup, which looks very attractive and tastes delicious.
Lantern Festival
Taizhou Lantern eats bad soup
Regardless of the customs of various places, the year of the Lantern Festival is over. People in Taizhou Linhai, Sanmen and other places will celebrate the Lantern Festival on the fourteenth day of the first month, and the origin of this custom has always been controversial, according to the Taizhou Daily Lu Ruping reporter, there are roughly filial piety reform, Qi Jiguang resistance, Tang Chu fortification and other several theories, but basically all the legends end with a kind of food - bad soup. The so-called bad soup (also called mountain flour paste) is made of vegetables, bamboo shoots, taro, meat, dried tofu, oil bubbles, shiitake mushrooms, fungus, bean noodles, etc. and rice noodles with sake lees. The bad soup along the sea is divided into sweet soup and salty soup, which is usually eaten by fourteen households in the year. Salty soup is mainly made of more than 10 kinds of vegetables, meat, seafood, cut into granules, fried semi-mature and then added rice flour pulp or starch pulp.
epilogue
Nowadays, the Chinese New Year's Eve meal is no longer the most sumptuous meal of the year, and the sense of New Year's ceremony is weak. For people who work outside the home, the biggest ceremony during the New Year is to come and go on the road of the Spring Festival, to meet with relatives and friends, and to feel the changes in time with friends and relatives and on themselves.
For 957, who once came to Shanghai to play professionally behind his parents' back, he has achieved good results in the past year, received the nomination for the best single, and also followed WE all the way to get good results. His parents no longer objected to him playing professionally and began watching the games he played online. At the dinner table and party of this year's Spring Festival, the pressure on the 957 should be much less, and the smile should be much more.
According to Chinese tradition, after the beginning of the year, a person is one year older. A week before the departure, Guo Changyu also interacted with fans on the logging tired, "In the past, I received red envelopes, and I probably want to send red envelopes this year."