The story of zongzi is 80 words

A few days ago, it was the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. I stayed in the dormitory, eating zongzi in my mouth, watching the dragon boat race on TV, and I couldn't help thinking of those stories about zongzi.

Among these stories, the most famous is the story between Qu Yuan and Zongzi. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the fishermen couldn't find his body anywhere, so they had to find a way to preserve it. So, the fishermen brought the rice balls back from home and threw them into the river to feed the fish, hoping that the fish would not bite Qu Yuan's body after they were full. In this way, year after year, the function of rice balls became a memorial to Qu Yuan. At this point in the story, it seems that it has nothing to do with zongzi. But another legend explains the relationship between rice balls and zongzi. This legend explains that after Qu Yuan's death, an old man dreamed of him and asked him if he had received zongzi sacrificed to him. Qu Yuan said that zongzi is eaten by fish, shrimp and crabs. The old man then asked him how to eat zongzi. Qu Yuan replied that he should wrap the mystery with something and throw it down. So people wrapped rice balls into zongzi with bamboo leaves and threw them into the river for Qu Yuan to eat.

I grew up in a small mountain village in northern Guangxi. Zongzi, like firecrackers, has become something I looked forward to every year when I was a child, because these wishes can always come true. At that time, I lived in my hometown and my staple food was corn paste. I can only eat pork and rice occasionally, but I often meet only one of them, and the probability of them meeting together is very low. Zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival can solve this problem well. There is both meat and rice, which really makes me feel very satisfied. As long as I can remember, my mother and grandmother always make zongzi on the fourth night of May every year. Grandma wrapped two kinds of zongzi, one is bigger, and adults and children eat it; There is another kind, sharp and angular, which is a "special offer" for children. The meat is the same except for two dots of glutinous rice. Adults don't touch sharp jiaozi, but children often eat big ones.

According to the custom in my hometown, Zongzi is not only eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, but also during the Spring Festival. Spring Festival dumplings are not bacon, but fresh meat, which tastes different from bacon. The Spring Festival is the biggest festival in my hometown, and all kinds of meaty foods are very rich, including zongzi. On the second day of the lunar new year, I go home with pork or chickens and ducks, and when I come back, my family will also give zongzi as a gift. My family was poor at that time. Every time I go back to my grandmother's house for New Year's greetings, I only bring pork and seldom chicken. But grandma's gifts are also very rich, besides lucky money, there are zongzi, fruit, sugar cakes and so on. Especially when our three brothers and sisters go to school together, the family economy is very difficult. The lucky money my uncle sent to my grandmother is often diverted to our grandson. In order to make us eat better, grandma broke the practice of making zongzi only on fixed festivals and asked her mother to make them for us.

With the passage of time, the supply of zongzi has changed from short supply to oversupply. Every year after the Dragon Boat Festival and the Spring Festival, there are always many zongzi left. During the Dragon Boat Festival, four years in college, when I went to study in Dalian, Liaoning Province from Guangxi, I could always eat zongzi given to me by my aunt in the shop, only with a red date and sugar. For a stranger like me, zongzi is sweet in my mouth.

After work, I am far from home. I am single, and my whole family is not hungry. In order to save trouble, I won't make zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. But every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, you can always eat zongzi from your colleagues, with various tastes and styles. Last year, during the Dragon Boat Festival, I just came to work in a procuratorate in a different place and invited some friends to spend the holiday together. When the boss of my department heard about it, he specially sent more than a dozen zongzi. After working for more than a year, I met the Dragon Boat Festival again. As a bachelor, I got preferential treatment from my colleagues. Colleagues gave me more zongzi, and the varieties of zongzi were richer.

In my mind, I have eaten more than half of Zongzi, and every time I chew it, I can feel this simple truth between people. I think it is not only the swollen glutinous rice after cooking, but also the full love between people that will spread the leaves.