Source: Hakka style
Xiaoshu is the eleventh solar term in the twenty-four solar terms. It tells everyone that the weather is about to get hot and are you ready to spend a new summer.
It is said that the word "summer" for Xiaoshu is very similar to the word "boil" in seal script . This is also very similar to the meaning of Xiaoshu. Is it like someone is quietly cooking the world, heating up little by little.
For Hakkas , solar terms are not only the essence of farming culture, but also a good news for foodies.
The ancients even began to study what delicious food should be eaten in each solar term. There are so many rich ingredients in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and they are made into delicacies in different ways, and even paired with a solar term, which is very ritualistic. The New Eating Festival is different from other folk festivals in that it has no fixed date and is held before the harvest. Its time is around the "Small Heat" in the twenty-four solar terms. The time of the New Year's Eve Festival is usually determined by an agreement or the government. There are hundreds of thousands of people celebrating the New Year's Day on the same day. Once the time of the New Year's Eve Festival is determined, the masses will be "happy and happy". A few days before the festival, every household will come to invite grandma, grandpa, aunts and other distant relatives and friends to celebrate the festival at home.
During the Xiaoshu season, "eating new foods" is popular in various places, that is, eating new rice and drinking new wine. This is especially true for Hakka people. Due to war and famine, the Hakka people continued to migrate south from the Central Plains. Since many good plain lands were occupied by indigenous people or earlier residents, the Hakkas had no choice but to live in the mountains. They reclaimed wasteland and cultivated fields in the mountainous areas. Most of them lived a relatively difficult life. They relied on rice cooked into porridge for three meals a day, or other cereals as cereals. Staple food, it is not easy to have a dry meal. On the day of eating new things, men and women do not go out to work, and every household prepares to celebrate the festival. Men first go to the rice fields to pick plump and ripe ears of rice and offer them to ancestral graves, ancestral halls, shrines, etc. Women pound the new grain into white rice and cook it into new rice. The festival dishes include chicken, duck, fish, meat and newly available vegetables, all steamed with rice flour. Before meals, we worship the God of Grain, the Earth, and King Kang, play the wind and beat and play with the dragon lantern.
After the Hakkas settled in the south, the younger generations had a heart of respect for their ancestors who worked hard to cultivate and create fertile fields. Since the end of the Song Dynasty, there has been a folk custom of harvesting new scythes after the early rice has matured every year after the slight summer heat. Before people take their first bite of the new rice, they make it into dry rice, brew it into new wine, and prepare meat, eggs, and newly-launched bitter melon, loofah, and eggplant.
The specific ceremony is as follows according to the literature: when items are placed on the altar of the God of Grains for worship, after burning incense and lighting candles, you should say: "Please feed the God of Grains with fresh food! Thank you to the God of Grains for your bountiful harvest, and bless your family with prosperity and good health." Be strong and strong." After the incense burns to ashes, burn the paper on your shirt. Then he put rice, wine, meat and vegetables on his dining table, said "please ancestors (predecessors) try something new", and bowed three times with both hands. At noon, the villagers who have helped harvest the rice are invited to eat fresh food together, exchange production experience, and discuss plans to develop production together.
The New Food Festival has a strong cultural flavor of farming. It contains gratitude for the land and the gifts of nature. This simple feeling may be understood as piety and reverence for nature, and respect and friendliness for workers. The dry rice made from the rice grown by oneself tastes delicious and full of intimacy. Generally speaking, the people invited are brothers who are helpers in the countryside. The long-awaited meal, coupled with the distinctive wine and dishes, makes it taste special. Nowadays, although eating dry rice is a common thing, the custom of eating new food is still prevalent in rural areas of Hakka .
In cities, it is common to buy a small amount of new rice and cook it with the old rice, and eat it with newly-launched vegetables.
