
"Snow-Clearing River Travel" Five Dynasties·Guo Zhongshu
Cover News Reporter Li Yuxin
There is a folk proverb that says: "Beginning of winter to make up for winter , to make up for empty mouths." What does this mean? Backing back to the ancient times, the farmers worked hard for a year, and seeing the beginning of winter approaching, in the traditional seasonal division of the ancients, the beginning of winter is the beginning of winter. Therefore, ancient farmers took advantage of the day when the beginning of winter to rest and rewarded the hard work of the family. They killed chickens and sheep or used other nutritional supplements to supplement them. Tonication is called "tonication of winter". This is a Chinese festival dietary custom and is popular all over the country.

dumplings (photo source from the Internet)
1 November 7th, another year of the beginning of winter solar term is here. The custom that ordinary people expect is naturally to be able to taste the delicious "smoothing winter". According to the Chinese people's eating habits of " not eating from time to time", winter is a good time to "nourish" the body. People generally have different dietary traditions such as eating dumplings, eating tofu, making dumplings, and drinking mutton soup. At the same time, on this day, steaming dumplings are also foods for the solar term. Because dumplings come from the saying "Jiazi", the beginning of winter is the intersection of autumn and winter, so you naturally have to taste the dumplings when you are "Jiazi".
Making glutinous rice cake (Photo source Internet)
But in Chengdu, a corner of the southwest, there is another custom about delicious food, that is - Making glutinous rice cake. According to Liu Xiaochang, no matter in the city or rural area, every household will make glutinous rice cakes on the beginning of winter, but this custom is even worse in rural areas. "That day, the large team of glutinous rice cakes was in a vast magnificent state, and the sound of pounding glutinous rice cakes can be heard everywhere. Mom, mother, brother, sister and younger brother all want to pound glutinous rice cakes. The famous snack in Chengdu, " Three Cannons ", is made of pounded glutinous rice cakes. They are sweet, delicious and soft."
Unexpectedly, the pounded glutinous rice cakes are not only for people to enjoy, but also for the ox that has been working hard for a year to taste. Because around the beginning of winter, it coincides with the " Niuwang Festival " on the first day of the tenth lunar month. Moreover, since ancient times, "ox" has always been a symbolic image in traditional farming culture, and was regarded by the ancients as a representative of hard work and honesty. In this land in Sichuan, there is also a tradition of worshiping the cow god. Chengdu’s landmark Niuwang Temple is the best proof. "The cows have worked hard all year round. Some of the pounded rice cakes will be wrapped with eggs for the cow to eat. On this day, they will lead the cows to the river to drink water and eat grass, and make wild chrysanthemums on the ridges into garlands, and put them on the cow's heads." Liu Xiaochang said that people were happy on this day and the cows were happy because cows could rest and not have to plow the fields.
Of course, you have to eat dates in the beginning of winter. After many days of drying, the dates have become red, which is a good time to taste. At this time, seasonal fruits and persimmons are all sweet tastes of winter. "It's the beginning of winter. People store grain and oil, and also need to to make teeth and sacrifice to to prepare for the spring plowing next year. The purpose is to nourish the energy and maintain the body." Liu Xiaochang concluded.

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