Folk customs and cultural connotations in various places in the long summer.

The traditional four seasons and eight festivals in China are all related to food, so is the long summer. Long summer is a festival to eat, which used to be called "Long summer tasting new things". The long summer is usually in the early April of the lunar calendar. Spring leaves come in summer, cherries are red, new bamboo shoots come out, fresh fruits and vegetables begin to appear, and people can feast again. In fact, in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, people still keep the custom of offering sacrifices to gods, tasting new things, giving festivals, weighing people and making new tea in these summers. In the long summer, Nanjing people also like to eat pea cakes to cool off. According to Mr. Xia, a folk master in Nanjing during the Republic of China, in "Jinling Age", "It means that it is not summer now when children are told to ride on the threshold to eat pea cakes in the long summer." It is because of the hot summer that most people don't want to eat or drink, and want to take this opportunity to "suppress". Of course, the pressure can't be suppressed, but from the perspective of health care medicine today, it makes sense to eat more fruits and vegetables and light food.

The "three delicacies" in old Nanjing are divided into water, fields and tree heads.

April is the season of long summer, with spring, fruits, vegetables and fresh fish. In the past, southern Jiangsu and other places had the custom of "tasting three new things in the long summer". Three new words refer to cherry, green plum and shad. "Long summer tastes three flavors". Nanjing people are also used to dividing the three delicacies into water, fields and tree heads.

"Twenty-four solar terms" cloud: "April Festival, the beginning also; Summer is fake, and everything is fake at this time. " At the beginning of April in the lunar calendar, spring goes to summer, the weather gets warmer and everything is thriving; Three wheat rape has matured, cherry, green plum, loquat and other fresh fruits have been listed one after another, and various vegetables have been born in time. The Long Summer Festival has a long history. Of course, it is mainly based on "early adopters". As the saying goes, "Long summer tastes three fresh". Nanjing people are used to dividing the three delicacies into water, fields and tree heads. The three wonders in the water are snail, shrimp and shad. The three fresh vegetables produced in the field are amaranth, broad bean, pea cake or black rice; The three flowers on the tree head are cherry, green plum and toon head.

Three delicacies in the water, snail shrimp is a common thing, often eaten when I was a child; The shad are hard to see. At the turn of spring and summer every year, it returns to the river from coastal waters to lay eggs. The history book says: "shad leaves the Yangtze River in March, which tastes sweet, but it is bony and decays quickly." It is one of the rare fish in the Yangtze River. Amaranth and broad beans in the field can be picked in their own vegetable fields, and they can be eaten in a variety of ways, such as burning bean curd with amaranth, frying leek, frying garlic seedlings with broad beans, douban egg soup, fried bacon with douban and pickles with douban. Black rice was written in detail in childhood snacks. Pea cake was eaten when I was a child, but I only remember that it was light green, as if it was made of glutinous rice flour and soybean flour, sweet and glutinous; People in rural areas don't cook much now, and this pea cake has been lost.

Among the three fresh trees, cherry is my favorite. Plum refers to immature plums, which taste sour and crisp, and can be eaten with honey, which can slightly alleviate its sour taste; If you dare not eat more, your teeth will be too sour to eat tender tofu. Toona sinensis head is something I stay away from, so I don't care much about how to eat it. Zhenjiang, near Nanjing, has the eating custom of "tasting eight new things in the long summer". Among them, shad is the most precious. Head tide shad is a tribute to Chao Yan, and ordinary people have tasted shad after the third tide. There is also a proverb in Suzhou, "See three new things in the long summer". "Sanxin" refers to newly matured cherries, plums and wheat; People worship their ancestors with the "Three Novelties" first, and then the living taste it.

Cao Xueqin's family once sent cherries and shad to the emperor.

Cherry, a kind of Korean peach, is warm in nature and slightly sour in taste, which can regulate middle energizer, benefit spleen, maintain beauty, drain essence and promote diuresis. The crimson one is called Zhu Ying; Purple is called purple cherry, which is delicious. In ancient times, it was used to worship ancestral temples and offer relatives to the emperor, and the court also used it to give it to officials. On April 22nd, the forty-fourth year of Kangxi (1705), when Emperor Kangxi arrived in Jiangning (now Nanjing) on his fifth southern tour, Cao Yin, a doctor of Jiangning Weaving Institute, paid tribute to Kangxi that night, which was the best cherry produced in Yingzhou, Xuanwu Lake. When Kangxi saw it, he was very happy and said, "Advanced Empress Dowager, I will use it again." Immediately, the official sent the cherries to Beijing within 24 hours (48 hours).

Shad, "Fishing Land Machine" said: "shad, summer solstice, hence the name." Shad was always used as a tribute in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Cao Yin once supervised the transportation of shad to Beijing Palace as a special envoy. He once wrote a poem "Mud Fish": "Holding a thousand silk smiles, the night tide once knew the wind of fish. Plums are ripe in the rain in the river, and tits crow in the dark spring. In March, there is no time to put salt, and so is the shrimp dishes in Wuhu. Usually, the dishes at home are on holidays, and Han Tao's cheeks are mostly red. " Han Tao is a cherry. Although Cao Yin takes shad as the theme, his poems contain three new things, such as cherry and childhood, which also shows his profound understanding of the customs of the south of the Yangtze River.

Children should be weighed when eating pea cakes.

There is a record in Jinling Age: "In the long summer, children are told to ride on the threshold to eat pea cakes. Does that mean summer?" The origin of this custom is that many people don't think about diet because of the hot weather in summer, so it is expected that children will not be anorexic if they eat pea cakes all summer. When I was a child, Chang Xia's parents would make some pea cakes every year, so that my brother and I could ride on the threshold and eat them. After eating the pea cake, you have to weigh yourself. This is called "weighing people".

At that time, apart from delicious pea cakes, I only regarded "weighing people" as a game, and I secretly laughed at my parents' pedantry. Of course, I didn't know what "summer is not summer" at that time. Later, I learned that the custom of "tasting new things" and "weighing people" was handed down from the Qing Dynasty, and "Wumen Buwei" wrote that "the family uses big scales to weigh people." Summer can be called "summer" and summer is also called "bitter summer". Summer in traditional Chinese medicine refers to a disease of long-term fever in summer. Most of the patients are children, which is caused by perspiration dysfunction. Feeling unwell, unable to sleep or eat, and losing weight day by day after summer is a very common symptom. From this point of view, "weighing people" has little to do with "summer", but people take the opportunity of long summer to weigh their children to remind themselves to pay more attention to their health when the hot summer comes. Of course, the best way is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, which is also a dietotherapy and health care method.

As for the origin of this custom, folklore is related to the stories of Meng Huo and Liu Adou. It is said that after Meng Huo was surrendered to Shu by Zhuge Liang, he took orders from Zhuge Liang. On his deathbed, Zhuge Liang entrusted Meng Huo to visit the master of Shu once a year. On the day Zhuge Liang entrusted him, it happened to be the long summer of this year, and Meng Huo immediately went to worship Adou. Since then, every summer, Meng Huo has promised to visit Shu. A few years later, Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, destroyed Shu and took Adou away. Meng Huo did not forget the entrustment of the Prime Minister. Every year, Chang Xia led troops to Luoyang to visit Dou E, and every time he went, he weighed Dou E to verify whether Dou E was abused by Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty. He threatened to fight Kim if he mistreated Dou. In order to accommodate Meng Huo, every year in the long summer, Emperor Wu of Jin used glutinous rice and peas to make lunch for Adou. Dou saw that peas were glutinous and fragrant, and he ate them twice. Meng Huo weighed himself in the city, each time weighing several kilograms more than the previous year. Although Adou had no skills, Meng Huo was called a man by Chang Xia, and the Emperor Wu of Jin did not dare to bully him, so he lived a quiet and happy life and lived a long and happy life. Although this legend is different from historical facts, what people want is a peaceful world of "peace and happiness, long life". Chang Xia said that people would bring good luck to Adou, and people prayed that God would bring them good luck. Free from disease, the so-called fear of summer. Long summer, also known as the end of spring in ancient times, is generally a poet and a poet. It is inevitable to be sad when you are in love with spring. Spring sorrow enters poetry, invites friends to gather for drinks, and leaves many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. flood