A pack of stove fruits for a small year, stove fruits are a famous Traditional Han snack in Ningbo, Zhejiang. It is composed of dates, red and white balls with oil fruits, black and white polysaccharide, sesame foot bone sugar, inch golden candy, white linen slices, frozen rice candy, is a kind of pastry suitable for all ages. Legend has it that eating stove fruit can please the god of stove, the night of the stove is the Jiangnan custom, the stove fruit has sesame candy, peanut candy, frozen rice candy, as well as red balls, white balls, hemp balls, oil fruits four colors, etc. are oil burst food, meaning expansion developed, as well as rhubarb cake, small yellow cake means the size of the golden bar, meaning the meaning of the four seasons of wealth. In the past, every year on the 23rd day of the waxing moon, folk people would hold festivals to the god of the stove, inviting folk artists to the home to "jump the stove meeting" and singing "sacrifice stove songs" and other activities. These activities are now rare. Now when it comes to the festival of the stove, people are most impressed by the sacrifice of the stove fruit. "The traditional custom of eating the fruit of the stove for the god of vesta has been around for more than five hundred years.
Stove fruit is not fruit. Stove fruit is a special kind of sacrifice offering in Ningbo, known as "sacrifice stove fruit". The stove fruit is colorful, neatly shaped, dense and uniform sesame seeds, undamaged, soft in taste, sweet and crispy, honeycomb-shaped inside, not hollow food. It is a famous traditional food in Ningbo. This object is suitable for all ages and a wide range of people, and the seemingly simple and unpretentious sacrificial stove fruit is a bit dwarfed, but it is a link that maintains the traditional ritual of the 23rd festival of the Waxing Moon. It is the main offering of the "Festival of Sacrifice Stoves" in traditional customs, also known as the "Little Year", which means a new beginning of the entire Spring Festival celebration. Ningbo old sayings include: "In December, the 23rd festival of the stove jun, the five-color stove fruit pendulum", "sacrifice the stove fruit, eat the obediently", every household in the village will hold a sacrifice to the god of the stove, but also 'jump the stove meeting', sing the 'sacrifice stove song' and so on. I was deeply attracted and evoked all kinds of memories of my childhood...
Legend has it that every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the Emperor of The Stove would report to the Jade Emperor the good and evil deeds of each household. The Jade Emperor decided the blessings and misfortunes of each family in the coming year according to the narration of the Emperor of The Stove. In order to pray for the peace and security of the whole family in the coming year, every family should offer sacrifices to the stove fruit so that the mouth of the stove king will become sweeter. In this way, he would not say bad things in front of the Jade Emperor.
It is understood that in addition to eating the sacrificial stove fruit and receiving the stove, there is also a stove. Bamboo is tied into a paper bridge, and paper horses are burned in front of the door, which is called "sending stoves". In order to be able to stick to the mouth of the vesta god, not to mention the family's faults, the urban and rural families in Mingzhou made a golden ball with glutinous rice and bean paste on the night of the 23rd, commonly known as "sending stove balls", or "sugar rice cakes" and other sticky sweets, for the stove god, or sticking the stove door with sugar. Ningbo ancient style, with wine lees to smear the stove door, called "drunken life". There are also glutinous rice flour kneaded into wine vats, chicken dumplings and other shapes to worship the god of stoves.
During the ceremony, the villagers sang the song "Matsuri Song". Ningbo folk popular "Sacrifice Stove Song" song: "It is the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, and the old stove grandfather will go to heaven." Cut the grass, mix the spices, and feed the horses. Take the avenue, cross the small bridge, and arrive safely with the wind. Don't forget that the sugar melon in the world is sweet, and the Jade Emperor adds good words in front of him. Say more good, don't say bad, bring more grains and grains, big fat boys hug one, and the family respects everyone's love. Offering fruit for small dishes, Chinese New Year's Eve welcome you at night. Be gracious, don't be weird, sooner or later the young and the old will worship you. ”...
The process of making sacrificial stove fruit is very complicated, and it is not the old bottom ningbo people who really can't make that taste. It can be completed by making mill blanks, grinding taro pulp, making blanks, frying, and hemping. However, I like the last step of "hemping" the most. Hemp is to boil white sugar and caramel in a pot, pour the fried fruit blank into the mixture, take it out, and then pour it into the bamboo plaque containing sesame seeds, glue the sesame seeds, and become a date. Such a characteristic and traditional and Ningbo characteristics of the sacrificial stove fruit is ready, smell, full of the sesame incense, can't help but drool, a bite down is all the taste of memory, let people nostalgic...
Sacrificial stove fruit is the sweet memory of many Ningbo people when they were children, colorful fruits are often reluctant to eat, secretly hide some slowly to taste, and when the fruit is eaten, the year will be almost over. I remember when I was a child, holding the sacrificial stove fruit, I liked to eat white balls and hemp balls, crispy and sweet, and this taste still exists today. The night of the festival stove is the beginning of the year, and the beautiful traditional customs of Jiangnan churn the taste of the new year in the night of the festival stove!