On April 2, Shi Aiqin, a villager in Dongjie Village, Luochuan County, kneaded dough flowers with relatives and friends at home and steamed cans and buns.
Every year during the Qingming Festival, according to the local customs of Luochuan, every household must steam cans and buns. There are three types of cans and buns: sacrificial jars, paper jars and population jars. The dough flowers on the top of the jar are kneaded with white noodles and red noodles mixed with chili noodles.
Paper cans and sacrificial jars are used to go to the grave and pay homage to ancestors during the Qingming Festival, generally using four, the can is a white round bun, and the top of the pot is a pig's head, a sheep's head, a tiger, and a snake.
The can of the population jar is wrapped with eggs, steamed according to the number of people in the family, one per person, and the noodle flowers have wheat hoards and wheat straw piles that symbolize the abundance of grain and surplus every year, rabbits and tigers that symbolize good health, books and pens that symbolize academic success, scissors needles and threads that symbolize spiritual ingenuity, bird nests that symbolize reunion and multiplicity, and the tank body is dotted with flying swallows and ears of wheat.
Steaming cans and steamed buns is a Qingming Festival custom unique to Luochuan. The small pot bun not only carries people's nostalgia and mourning for their ancestors, but also contains the blessings and expectations of the housewife for the whole family, and the customs passed down from generation to generation are the inheritance of the good wishes of the Luochuan folk for the family incense to continue and life to flourish. Source: Luochuan Publicity
WJ