Why do we eat Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival? The origin and meaning of eating Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival is held in early April across the country to attract graves. There is also a custom of eating Qingtuan during this festival. There are many legends about this custom. So, why do we eat Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival? What is the meaning of eating Qingtuan during Qingming Festival?

Why do we eat Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival?

Legend 1:

Legend has it that one year during the Qingming Festival, Chen Taiping, a capable general of Li Xiucheng of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was being hunted by Qing soldiers. A farmer who was farming nearby came forward to help, disguised Chen Taiping as a farmer, and had him farm with him. The Qing soldiers did not give up after failing to capture Chen Taiping, so they added more soldiers and set up guard posts in the village. Everyone leaving the village had to be checked to prevent them from bringing food to Chen Taiping. After returning home, the farmer was thinking about what to bring for Chen Taiping to eat when he stepped on a clump of mugwort and slipped. When he got up, he saw that his hands and knees were stained with green. He immediately came up with a plan, and hurriedly picked some mugwort, went home to wash it, boil it, squeeze out the juice, and rub it into the glutinous rice flour to make rice balls. Then he put the green dumplings in the grass and sneaked past the sentry at the village entrance. Chen Taiping ate the green rice dumpling and found it fragrant, glutinous and not sticky to teeth. After dark, he bypassed the Qing army checkpoints and returned safely to the base camp. Later, Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping Army to learn how to make Qingtuan in order to defend themselves against the enemy. The custom of eating Qingtuan spread from then on.

Legend 2:

Regarding the custom of eating green rice cakes during the Qingming Festival, there is a legend recorded in the "Chinese Folk Literature Collection - Story Volume of Jiaojiang City, Taizhou District, Zhejiang Province". Once upon a time there was a young man named Jinlan. After his father passed away, he relied on his mother to spin yarn and weave cloth at home to make a living. Jinlan has been arrogant and lazy since childhood, and she always beats and scolds her mother. But the imperial court ordered that anyone who left fields uncultivated would be punished by death, so he had no choice but to work on his ancestral fields. Jinlan accidentally saw a ewe feeding her lamb in the wild. She suddenly realized and decided to repay her mother for raising her. When his mother came with a bamboo basket to bring him food, he took the initiative to step forward. The mother mistakenly thought that she was late in delivering the meal and would be beaten and scolded by her son. She was so upset that she jumped into the pond and committed suicide. Jinlan immediately jumped into the pond, but only touched a piece of wood. He took the board back home and placed it in front of the hall. It is said that this is how the tablets came about. In order to commemorate his mother, he picked the wild grass that grew where his mother put her lunch basket and made it into bitter cakes. The story also says that this day is the day when the young man becomes clear-headed and sensible, so this day is called Qingming. And every Qingming Festival, they would bring bitter cakes to the roadside near the pond to worship. Later generations called it visiting the grave. Because foods such as cakes and pastries were also called "餣" in ancient times, later generations called the cakes made by Jinlan with "青" 青餣. Later, eating green food at graves during Qingming Festival became a custom, which has been passed down to this day.

The meaning of eating Qingtuan during Qingming Festival

1. The old system of banning fire. The custom of eating cold food on Qingming Festival originated from the old system of banning fire in the Zhou Dynasty. During the Cold Food Festival, no fire can be made, so only cold food can be prepared in advance. Qingming fruit (qingtuan) is one of the most popular foods.

2. It symbolizes hope and life. Qingming Festival is also called Cold Food Festival. The main purpose of Cold Food Festival is to ban smoking and eat cold food. In ancient times, it was a transitional ceremony to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, symbolizing new hope and new life.

3. The green dumplings are as green as jade, glutinous, soft and fragrant. They taste sweet but not greasy, and fat but not plump. Qingtuanzi is also an essential food for people in the Jiangnan area to worship their ancestors. Because of this, Qingtuanzi is particularly important in the folk food customs in the Jiangnan area.

Things to note when eating Qingtuan

1. Be sure to heat before eating. Because the glutinous rice in the green ball will easily turn into cake after cooling, it is extremely difficult to digest, and the nutritional structure of the cake will also be destroyed.

2. It is best to eat it with bamboo shoots or amaranth. Eating these foods together can speed up the digestion of Qingtuan and the absorption of nutrients.

3. Never eat it together with fatty meat. If difficult-to-digest food such as glutinous rice is mixed with oil, it will increase the burden on the stomach and intestines and easily cause indigestion.

4. It is best to eat some foods that help digestion, such as hawthorn. Because these foods can reduce the digestive burden of the gastrointestinal tract in digesting glutinous rice foods such as Qingtuan, and are beneficial to the absorption of Qingtuan in the body.