[ad_1]
Eating meatballs during the New Year, eating meatballs on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and eating meatballs during the winter solstice … For many people, meatballs seem to be the “standard” for the holiday season, and they have countless beautiful meanings.
However, dumplings are also said to be the staple food and local snacks in North China, and they are also New Years food. However, in the south, meatballs and chicken stewed with sesame oil are generally eaten on the winter solstice.
So why do Northerners like to eat dumplings during festivals? Where do the meatballs come from?
The “evolutionary history” of a delicacy
There are several different theories about the origin of meatballs. One of them believes that the dumplings originated in the old “corner”, which is the etymology of the term “dumpling” today.
According to records, the dumplings were called Laowan, or Fenjiao, in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song dynasty, it was called a corner. “Tokyo Dream Hualu” said that there were glass corners and fried corners in Bianjing. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to “bianshi”, dumplings were also called “dumplings”.
There were many ways to make dumplings in the Ming Dynasty. For example, fried meatballs made with hot noodles and fried meatballs; Song Xu’s “Song’s Health Club” has a kind of “honey horn”, which is an oil filled with peeled walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts or molasses and red bean paste. Fried dumplings.
Later, the “Qing Barnyard Notes” compiled by writer Xu Ke mentioned that “soup made with boiling water is called dumplings.” This can probably be seen as a clearer description and definition of “dumplings”.
Over time, various legends have been attached to this food, some of which are quite legendary. It is said that when Nuwa was creating a human being, the weather was very cold, and the ears of small people squeezed out of loess could easily fall off. To fix the ears, he thought of a way.
Nuwa pierced a small eye into the little man’s ear, then tied the ear with a thin wire and put the other end of the wire in the little man’s mouth to bite down. Over time, common people started making dumplings to commemorate Nu Wa, saying that if they eat dumplings in winter, their ears will not freeze.
When do you eat meatballs on New Years Day?
So since when did people start eating dumplings during Chinese New Year?
Wang Renxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that dumplings, as an agreed delicacy on the first day of the new year, may have originated in the Ming dynasty, and there are special game contents in which balls of dough are packed.
In fact, there are traces of this statement. According to “Zhu Zhong Zhi” by Liu Ruoyu in the Ming Dynasty, the dumplings were called “Bian Shi” in the Ming Palace. He said that on the first day of the first lunar month, “drink pepper and cypress wine, eat water and snacks, that is, flat food. Or secretly pack a silver coin or two, and the ones you get will be worth a year.” . “
Put money in the “water dim sum”, and the person who eats it indicates good luck for the coming year, this is very much like the customs of the new year.
In the Qing Dynasty, “Yenjing Sui Shi Ji” also recorded the Chinese New Year by eating dumplings. For example, on the first day of the new year, “it doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor, they all eat white noodles like horns (meatballs), which is called boiled meatballs. The whole country. There is no difference.”
Right now, the popularity of meatballs seems to be increasing more and more. It is mentioned in “Tian Zhi Ou Wen”: “From the first day to the fifth day of the first month, the common name is divided into five. The ancient way of eating dumplings on the fifth day, the northern name is boiled饽饽. “
Some people say that this has fully demonstrated the importance and love of meatballs in local folk customs.
Dumplings VS Wontons
However, a closer inspection of the related customs reveals interesting points in the proverbs, such as “October 1, the winter solstice, every family eats dumplings” and “wonton noodles on the winter solstice.”
The ancient wontons and dumplings are said to have once referred to a type of food. Wontons appeared very early and their appearance resembled the “chaos” without seven holes mentioned in “Zhuangzi”, hence the name.
The “Wanli Ye Huo Bian” of the Ming Dynasty cited some interesting antithetical phrases circulating in Beijing at the time, such as “Thin-skinned and crispy wontons versus succulent, Chunshu dumplings versus peach blossom siu-mai.” clearly distinguished.
Folklore expert Xiao Fang said that the ancient winter solstice was considered the starting point of the year, so eat wontons. Meatballs are shaped similar to wontons and the production methods are similar. Later, the custom slowly evolved into eating dumplings during the New Year.
However, he also mentioned that the custom of eating dumplings during festivals exists mainly in the north, such as the winter solstice and Lidong, and eating dumplings on New Year’s Eve means “delivering the child.” Dumplings are rarely eaten in ancient southern customs.
“Before, there was no wheat in a place a little south.” He said that in the past, the southern winter solstice would eat glutinous rice balls and winter solstice dumplings. During Chinese New Year, they ate rice cakes and rice cakes. They would eat all kinds of sauteed vegetables, but they would not eat them.
The cultural connotation of a plate of meatballs
Today, dumplings are a very common food, and they can be eaten at any time of the year, not just on New Year’s Day or a certain festival.
From a folklore perspective, dumplings taste delicious and were indeed rare delicacies in the past when the material was poor; the food eaten during festivals often embodies good meanings. The dumplings are shaped like ingots and also have the auspicious meaning of “fortune and treasure.” Meaning.
As for the reason that Northerners like to eat dumplings during the festival, some netizens have concluded that it is not that they have to eat dumplings during the festival, but rather that they like the feeling of making dumplings. and share food with the whole family, talking. and laughing and animated.
You can see that the dumplings are not as simple as food, when people eat dumplings, they probably care more about the cultural atmosphere of the party and the strong affection. (Reporter Shangguanyun)
