Where is the custom of Fuyang Festival?

Fuyang Festival is a custom in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province.

The Fuyang Festival is a traditional Chinese food festival, which starts on the first day of Fuyang in the traditional lunar calendar every year and ends at the end of Fuyang, lasting for one month. "Eating Fuyang in Futian" has a long history in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, which can be traced back to the Yao and Shun period. Since ancient times, there has been a saying among the people in the Huaihai area that "a bowl of soup is enough for a sheep, and there is no need for a miracle doctor to prescribe a prescription".

The local Fuyang Festival usually starts on the first day of Fuyang and lasts for a month. In some areas in southern Shandong, similar activities are held on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, which is called the "Fuyang Festival". The Fuyang Festival has various cultural activities and celebrations, such as theatrical performances, Fuyang feasts, photography exhibitions, etc., as well as various forms of competitions and selections, such as the best Fuyang cooking skills, the best Fuyang delicacies, etc.

The origin of the Fuyang Festival

The Fuyang Festival is a festival created based on Xuzhou folk food customs with Pengzu cultural connotations. During Peng Zu's time, there was a common custom of eating sheep in Xuzhou. The "sheep side with fish" created by Peng Zu was the sublimation of the sheep cooking skills of that era. According to the "Book of Han" records, the emperor "gave him meat from his official position".

The "official meat" at that time was mutton, the first of the "three animals". There was no doubt that Emperor Futian and his ministers enjoyed mutton. Not only were sheep eaten in the palace, but there is also a record in the "Book of Han" that "the Tian family suffered hardships, and when they were old, they cooked sheep, canned lambs, and fought with wine to work themselves out."

Before the Song Dynasty, mutton was mostly served at palace banquets. From the perspective of the structure of Chinese characters, from the aesthetic judgment of "big sheep is beautiful", to the food pursuit of "fish and sheep are fresh", to the health concept of "eating sheep to nourish", all imply the pursuit of mutton delicacies by our ancestors. and insights into lamb cooking.

In the Xuhuai area, which is famous for its mutton, people in the Xuzhou area have always had the custom of eating mutton during the dog days. On the first day of each year, people are accustomed to buying mutton from the market and cooking it at home.

Because Xiao County was under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou in ancient times, there were frequent people-to-people exchanges between the two places. There were many restaurants in Xiao County that were opened in Xuzhou, which was also the reason why the festival was able to spread quickly in Xuzhou. Xiaoxian mutton has enjoyed a good reputation for more than 300 years. There are more than 5,000 mutton restaurants in Xiao County. Most of the restaurants use Xiao County white goats that are 3 to 6 months old and have received national geographical indications. The meat is extremely tender. Xiao County's traditional dishes are mostly based on mutton, and there is a saying that "there is no feast without mutton".

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Fuyang Festival