Today is the "sting" in the twenty-four solar terms, also known as the "enlightenment". The Seventy-Two Waiting Episodes of the Moon Order records, "Sting, February Festival." "Xia Xiaozheng" said: The first moon is stinged, and the words are stinged. All things are shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is called sting. It was the stinging that flew away. "To the effect that at this festival, the thunder of spring sounds, startling the dormant insects, so it is called stinging.
On this day, the folk have the saying of "stinging and eating pears", and some areas also have food customs such as eating eggs, fried soybeans, fried corn, drinking mash, pancakes, eating donkeys and rolling.
Eat pears
There are two kinds of sayings for eating pears, one is said to be "pear" and "away", eating pears can be away from insect pests, so that crops can get a bumper harvest in the new year; the other is to focus on health care, that when the stings are warm, the climate is dry, people are prone to dry mouth, and the water of pears is sufficient, which helps to moisturize the lungs and relieve cough.
Sauté corn, sauté soybeans
Some areas have the custom of "frying corn" on the day of the sting, called "fried worms", that is, the process of the corn being stir-fried is the process of the insects being destroyed. The same meaning is "fried soybeans". Legend has it that some areas in Shaanxi have the custom of eating fried soybeans in a frightening way, and the crackling sound of soybeans being fried in the pot is like the "jumping sound" of pests receiving torment.
Eat eggs
It is said that on this day, the white tiger is sacrificed, the white tiger is full of fangs, it is very terrible, only by feeding it with eggs, it will not hurt people, so there is a saying that the sting eats eggs.
Pancakes
It is said that some places in Shandong have the custom of eating pancakes, and in the past, pancakes needed to be burned, and there were smoke and fires, which meant that the pests disappeared in the smoke of fireworks.
Eat donkey rolling
On this day of stinging, there is also the food custom of eating donkey rolling, and donkey rolling takes the magic of the word "roll", that is, the meaning of rolling and turning over. Sting in the spring, the beginning of the year, eating donkey rolling means that in the new year can "turn over", the heart to achieve.
On this day of stinging, what are the customs and habits of your hometown?
Beijing News reporter Zhang Mingxuan Photography Zhang Mingxuan Image source Beijing News
Edited by Li Yan Proofreader Li Ming
Source: Beijing News