What are the customs and specialties in Nanjing?

Nanjing’s traditional festivals

Since ancient times, “the wealth of the world comes from the southeast, and Jinling is its headquarters.” Nanjing has been a city for ten generations. Characteristic, has profound cultural connotation, reveals a bit of elegance, heroism, elegance and grace.

Spring Festival

It used to be called New Year's Day, commonly known as the New Year. During the New Year, the courtyards should be cleaned, lanterns decorated, new clothes and hats put on, Spring couplets posted, and firecrackers set off.

Nanjing people post Spring Festival couplets or door gods on their doors during the New Year, and some literati put up one on their doors. The painting of chicken means "the chicken and the sun grow together", which is not found in other places. Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty visited Jiangning Mansion three times as the prime minister, and said in a poem: "Amidst the sound of firecrackers." At the end of the first year, the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu. "This custom began in the Southern Dynasties. For thousands of years, Nanjing people have been drinking it, and a set of rules has been formed: when the sun rises, face the east and "drink in order from youngest to oldest." The younger ones drink first, and the older ones drink later. , which means the sun is rising in the east, and the sun is rising. From the morning, relatives and friends come to greet the New Year. When the guests arrive, they greet each other with refreshments and two ingot eggs, which are said to be "ingots". , wish each other "good luck and prosperity", offer tea and cigarettes, and treat each other with fashionable pastries

Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the first full moon in the lunar year. The night is called Yuan Ye, and night and Xiao are synonymous, so it is called Yuanxiao. The Lantern Festival originally started as a sacrifice, and gradually evolved into a grand, lively and colorful entertainment festival. In ancient times, it lasted from 16th to 18th. Three days; in the Song Dynasty, it was from the 14th to the 18th, and on the 5th; in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor in Nanjing, and the Lantern Festival was extended to ten days, from the eighth to the seventeenth day of the lunar month. In order to enjoy the Lantern Festival (glutinous rice balls), there is a custom in Nanjing of "lighting up the Lantern Festival and putting down the Lantern Festival".

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, during the Nanjing Lantern Festival, there was a custom of playing with dragon lanterns and hanging gauze lanterns. Soldiers also play with it, and its length is beyond the reach of others. The short one is more than ten feet, and the long one is more than a hundred knots. When played, hundreds of people can play with the gauze lanterns. There are also celebrities painting on them. The more expert they are, the more valuable they are. Merchants will also hold lantern riddle guessing activities in front of the store, attracting many tourists. Those who guess correctly will win prizes for selling items. There is a "walking lantern" pioneered by Nanjing people, with a lantern on the outside and candles on the inside, which uses the heat of the air to rise. The principle drives the lamp surface to rotate, and the lamp surface is painted with galloping horses in various postures, just like ten thousand horses galloping. The British scholar Joseph Needham called it a majestic invention of the ancient Chinese, and the gauze lantern is exquisite and colorful. The competition for brilliance attracts long-term residents and guests to come out, singing and laughing. "Under the bright moon under the shadow of silver candles, we are all people walking on lanterns." In recent decades, the Confucius Temple Lantern Festival has become more and more prosperous, using new techniques. , new materials, sound and light electronic control, various, lifelike and dazzling lanterns, which last for one month from the Spring Festival, attracting as many as 200,000 to 300,000 tourists from all over the world every day.

Qingming Outing

Since ancient times, the Qingming Festival has attracted the attention of the imperial courts and the people of all dynasties due to the custom of sweeping tombs to worship ancestors. Folks visit the tombs to offer sacrifices, sprinkle flowers, burn paper, dig and cover the tombs, and insert willows to express caution. Xiu Zhuiyuan's sentiments were brought to the grave-seekers' doors, and the grave-seekers also invited each other to have tea and rice, calling each other "grave relatives' home".

It was a beautiful time for men and women to go to the countryside. Niushou Mountain, Yuhuatai, and Meihua Mountain are called "outings with wine".

In recent years, Niushou Mountain has been renovated and added attractions, and has been combined with the newly developed Jiangjun Mountain nearby. In addition, Yuhua Terrace in the south of the city and Meihua Mountain in the eastern suburbs are also popular places for tourists. In the past ten years, Meihua Mountain has built thousands of acres of plum gardens and hosted international plum blossoms. Festival. Every time the spring light is shining, thousands of flowers are blooming, the clouds are steaming and the fragrance is floating, men and women stand shoulder to shoulder, intoxicated in the sea of ??fragrant snow and never leave.

Visiting Qinhuai during the Dragon Boat Festival

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is called the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanyang Festival. On this day, Nanjing people like to eat rice dumplings, mung bean cakes, "fried five poisons" (stir-fried with whitebait, dried shrimps, water chives, leeks, and black dried beans), amaranth and realgar beans, and drink realgar and calamus wine to avoid disasters. . Washing your eyes with water that has been exposed to the sun is called "breaking the fire eyes", and it is said that you can avoid eye diseases for a year. They also used calamus and mugwort leaves to sprinkle water on the ground and then inserted them into the lintel of the door to "ward off disasters". Hang the image of Zhong Kui and the five poisons (toad, poisonous snake, scorpion, centipede and gecko) engraved by the alchemist to "drive away ghosts and avoid evil". Children wear five-color silk ribbons around their necks, with salted duck eggs in the ribbons; their arms are tied with a silk ribbon made of five-color silk, called the "thread of longevity"; they wear tiger-head shoes, wear a tiger-head shawl on their backs, and use realgar wine to draw the Chinese character "王" on their foreheads. Women also wear colorful tiger flowers on their temples.

After lunch, the whole family went to Confucius Temple to watch the dragon boat race on the Qinhuai River. There have always been "three gangs" of dragon boats in Jinling, including the river gang, the river gang and the wooden gang. The dragon boats are so numerous and large in scale that they are rare elsewhere. Each boat is decorated with colorful kites; children pretend to be characters from the opera and play various games on them. When the boats pass by, people on the riverbank throw silver horns, copper coins or let goose and ducks fly for the dragon boats for fun, which is called "winning the bid". On the shore, male and female ants gathered together, the clouds were like clouds, the golden drums were beating together, and the cheers were thunderous. Wealthy people also rent cruise ships in advance to enjoy the sights. Qinhuai cruises emerged from the Tang Dynasty and flourished from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the early Republic of China. The painted boats, flutes and drums, the sound of oars and the shadows of lights are a dazzling and beautiful scenery on the Qinhuai River. This is vividly described in Gu Qiyuan's "Guest Words", Kong Shangren's "Peach Blossom Fan" and Yu Huai's "Banqiao Miscellaneous Notes".

In the past 20 years, the Qinhuai River has been vigorously renovated, the water has been changed regularly, and painted boats have been added, creating a pleasant scenery. At night, thousands of lights on both sides of the Qinhuai River are colorful and colorful. When tourists are on a cruise ship, the ship passes by in the scenery and people walk in the painting, which gives them a unique taste.

The full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th is also called the August Festival in Jiangnan. This night, there is a full moon in the sky and a full moon in the world. Even if you are away from home, you have to rush home to reunite. Nanjing people like to enjoy the moon with their families, which is called "Celebrating Reunion", sitting together and drinking together is called "Full Moon", and going out to the market is called "Walking on the Moon". In the early Ming Dynasty, there were the Moon Tower and the Wanyue Bridge, and in the Qing Dynasty there was the Chaoyue Tower under the Lion Rock. They were both places for tourists to admire the moon, and the Wanyue Bridge was the most popular. Wanyue Bridge is located in Qinhuai, Henan Province of Confucius Temple, where the old courtyard is located. Next to the bridge is the residence of famous prostitute Ma Xianglan. At that night, scholars gathered at the bridgehead to play the shengxiao and write poems to the moon, so the bridge was called Wanyue Bridge. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined. There is a poem by later generations: "Fengliu Nanqu has been sold out, leaving the West Wind Long Banqiao, but I remember the jade man sitting on the bridge, the moon is facing each other and teaching me to play the flute." Long Banqiao, that is, the long Banqiao. Originally Wan Yueqiao.

Below the Qing Dynasty, people still enjoyed the moon. People worshiped the moon, displayed fresh fruits and moon cakes, burned incense sticks (the incense sticks were tied like a tower, with paper buckets on top, called dou incense sticks), and talked about "Chang'e's Run". Moon" story, and then share the mooncakes. Mooncakes were sold in Guabu as "Laiyue", and during the Republic of China, "Jinling cakes" were the best.

On this night, it is the custom of Nanjing women to "touch" the melons and beans in the Jasmine Garden (for fun by touching and "stealing" the melons and fruits). The man who gets the melons and beans should be a good match. This game has been popular for a long time. In the past 20 years, people have attached great importance to the Mid-Autumn Festival. They go to Taicheng to enjoy the moon, or go boating on the Qinhuai River in Xuanwu Lake and Confucius Temple to enjoy the moon. It is quite popular to buy mooncakes by yourself or give them as gifts from work units, which brings good feelings to each other on the night of the full moon.

Double Ninth Festival Climbing Meeting

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month in the lunar calendar is called the Double Ninth Festival because both the month and the day are Yang numbers. Historically, people in Jiankang (now Nanjing) went out to climb mountains on this day, forming a "climbing party." This custom originated from a weird and bizarre legend about avoiding evil, which is detailed in "Xu Qixie Ji" written by Wu Jun, a Liang native in the Southern Dynasties. From the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Double Ninth Festival in Jiankang was still flourishing. At that time, I lived in the south of the city and climbed the Yuhuatai, in the middle of the city I climbed the North Pole Pavilion, and in the north of the city I climbed Mufu Mountain, of which Mufu Mountain was the most famous. There was a pavilion built on this mountain during the Han Dynasty. Legend has it that the horse turned into a dragon when Emperor Jin and Yuan crossed the river, so he named the pavilion the "Hualong Pavilion". There is an ancient Liang Damo cave on the side of the mountain, and there are many tourists, forming the custom of "climbing the shogunate". In the 10th year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1805), it was initiated by prefect Hu Lanchuan (the prefect of Jiangning) and other county officials and social celebrities. Youzhijun and Fujun took charge of the task of building the "Wangjiang Tower" on the mountain, which lit up the night and served as a navigation beacon. , you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery, and it is praised as a good deed by people near and far.

Double Ninth Festival, Nanjing people like to eat Double Ninth Cake, "either powdered or flour-based, or wrapped in flour and cooked with meat, called camel's hoof." They drink chrysanthemum wine, admire chrysanthemums, and make Double Ninth Flags to reward them. Children, if you marry on this day, you will be given a flag and fresh food box, which is called "Double Ninth Festival Box".

Nowadays, people are happy to climb high during the Double Ninth Festival, not to avoid evil spirits, but to appreciate the majestic rivers and mountains of the motherland and the new construction, which gives them a sense of comfort.

Today’s Four Seasons Tourism Festival

Spring ·Nanjing International Plum Blossom Festival Plum blossoms are the city flower of Nanjing. Exploring and appreciating plum blossoms is a folk custom in Nanjing that has not declined since the Six Dynasties. Nowadays, there are plum blossom temples in Nanjing’s Pearl Spring, Fujiabian, Gulin Park and other places, among which Meihua Mountain is the best. Every year from the end of February to mid-March, Nanjing holds the International Plum Blossom Festival, with as many as 400,000 people attending the main venue at Meihua Mountain.

Summer·Jiangxinzhou Grape Festival Jiangxinzhou, an island in the Yangtze River southwest of Nanjing, has beautiful scenery and beautiful scenery. Every July to August, thousands of acres of vineyards on the island are full of fruits. Visitors can go to the island to view the scenery of the river, enjoy the natural oxygen bar, and enjoy the wild fun of picking grapes.

Autumn·Nanjing Yuhua Stone Art Festival Yuhua Stone is one of the landmarks of Nanjing. In September of the golden autumn, a series of activities such as "Raining Flowers from the Sky" performance, Yuhua Stone Exhibition, seminars, and quarrying tours will be held in Yuhuatai Scenic Area. Liuhe County, where Yuhua Stone is produced, also held branch activities.

Winter ·Listening to bells to welcome the New Year is usually held at the bell tower of Qixia Temple. The master of the temple chanted sutras and prayed for peace and wished peace to the people, and then the host and the guest representatives rang the bronze bell 108 times. The whole place was filled with a peaceful and festive atmosphere.

Linggu Osmanthus Festival

Linggu Osmanthus Garden, located in the Zhongshan Cemetery Scenic Area, is the country's largest osmanthus-specific garden covering an area of ??1,700 acres and planting nearly 20,000 osmanthus trees. Every September when the fragrant osmanthus blooms, the flourishing flowers attract many tourists to Linggu Temple to enjoy the autumn osmanthus.

The Gaochun Crab Festival is held from September 30 to October 6 every year. It has become a custom for Nanjing people to "go to Gaochun, taste crabs, see the Giant Buddha, and visit the old streets." The three major scenic spots of Gaochun Old Street, Youzi Mountain and Yinghu Taoyuan will also hold activities such as opera, lanterns, martial arts, dragon boat performances, ten thousand crabs, and bonfire parties, which will make Chinese and foreign tourists linger.

Pukou Eco-tourism Festival

Pukou Eco-tourism Festival, known as Ten Mile Hot Spring, Hundred Mile Old Mountain, and Thousand Mile Ginkgo, is a tourism festival integrating appreciation, participation and fun. . Through a series of activities such as the Water Splashing Festival, the Folk Culture Festival, and the Mountaineering and BBQ Festival, people can fully experience the natural ecological beauty of "mountains, water, green, and air".

Nanjing Salted Duck

Salted duck is a famous specialty of Nanjing. It has been famous for a long time and has a history of more than a thousand years.

Nanjing salted duck can be made all year round. The marinating and re-brining period is short. It is made and sold now. Buy it and eat it now. It should not be stored for a long time.

The duck skin is white and the meat is tender, fat but not greasy, fragrant and delicious, and has the characteristics of fragrant, crispy and tender. The salted duck around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year has the best color and taste because the duck is made during the season when the osmanthus is in bloom, so it is famously known as: osmanthus duck.

"Baimen Cookbook" records: "In the August period of Jinling, salted duck is the most famous, and everyone thinks that the meat has the fragrance of osmanthus." Osmanthus duck is "clear and purposeful, and you will never get tired of eating it for a long time." Excellent wine. It seems to have become a secular etiquette in Nanjing to go out on the street to buy a bowl of salted duck during festivals or when visitors come to your home on weekdays.

Yu Hua Shi

Nanjing specialty, abundant in Yuhuatai, Juhuatai and other places. According to research, the finest Yuhua Stone is a kind of agate.

It is said that during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, the eminent monk Master Yunguang gave a lecture in Shizigang and was so moved that rain fell from the sky like flowers. When the flowers rained into the ground, they turned into countless colorful gravels as big as chicken eggs and as small as broad beans. From this, Yuhua Stone got its name, and Shizigang was also renamed Yuhuatai.

The Yuhua stones produced in Yuhuatai are various gravels that have been rounded by the movement of running water. The main components are quartz sandstone, quartzite, siliceous rock, igneous rock and other hard rocks, as well as quartz, chalcedony and opal. A type of mineral. The former has no bright color and luster; the latter, namely quartz, chalcedony and other chemical components, is silica. Common colors are white, milky white, and slightly yellow. There are also red, purple, green, rose, and black. There is also a kind of agate that is composed of concentric, ring-shaped and spotted agates with stripes of different colors.

Some of the rare Yuhua stones are extremely magnificent, with hazy and transparent images of mountains, rivers, clouds, flowers, birds, fish and insects, ghosts and gods, and some with patterns in the shape of Pig Bajie and Sun Wukong, which are even more praised by the world.

People often "keep" Yuhua stones in water bowls and display them on their desks as ornamental objects. Folk artists in Nanjing also carve rain flower stones into various works of art, integrating natural and artificial elements.

Yuhua Tea

Yuhua Tea is a specialty of Nanjing and one of the top ten famous teas in the country. It has a round green shape, tight and straight cords, tall and straight branches, and white hair, just like pine needles, symbolizing the unyielding and everlasting heroic image of the revolutionary martyrs, so it is named Yuhua Tea.

Yuhua tea mainly grows in the suburbs of Nanjing. There are strict requirements in raw material selection and process operation. Before Grain Rain, 2.5 to 3 cm long leaves with one bud and one leaf are picked, dried and rolled. There are four processes of shaping, shaping and roasting, all of which are done by hand. Yuhua tea has good color, aroma, taste and shape. After brewing, the tea color is green and clear, the aroma is elegant, the taste is mellow, and the aftertaste is sweet. It has the functions of quenching thirst and refreshing the mind, digesting and diuretic, treating asthma, removing phlegm, and relieving irritability and greasiness. , has been selling well overseas since 1966. In Japan and Southeast Asia, people use Yuhua tea as precious gifts to give to relatives and friends.

Nanjing Salted Duck

Nanjing Salted Duck is famous both at home and abroad. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the folk song "ancient academy, glazed pagoda, black satin, salted salted duck" spread in Nanjing, which shows that Nanjing's salted duck has long been famous. Salted duck is made by marinating and air-drying it with salt, and is divided into two types: cured salted duck and spring salted duck. Because its meat is tender and tight, like a slab, it is called salted duck. The production technology of Nanjing salted duck has a history of more than 600 years. In the Qing Dynasty, local officials always selected new salted ducks with better quality to pay tribute to the royal family, so it was also called "tribute duck"; court officials used salted duck as gifts during mutual visits. They give each other gifts, so they are also known as "official gift salted duck". It is a favorite dish of Jinling people, so it has the reputation of "the flavor of the Six Dynasties" and "the best dish in a hundred categories". The salted duck is delicious and delicious. It is plump outside, with fat body and white skin, tender and tight meat, crispy and fragrant aftertaste.

Nanjing duck gizzards

Nanjing duck gizzards is one of Nanjing’s famous local products. It sells well at home and abroad and is as famous as salted duck. It has a history of more than 200 years. Nanjing duck gizzards are oblate in shape, dense in texture, and easy to carry. The gizzard meat is firm and chewy, has a long-lasting flavor, and is not greasy. It is a delicacy that is loved by young and old alike. Dried duck gizzards are a treasure given to relatives and friends by Nanjing people, and are also a good food to accompany meals and drink tea. It is oblate in shape, has dense flesh, is easy to preserve, is easy to carry, and is delicious and fragrant. It is a favorite product for everyone.

Nanjing Fragrant Tripe

Nanjing Fragrant Tripe is one of Nanjing’s famous specialties and was created during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. It is shaped like an apple, petite and exquisite, and is commonly known as "little belly" in old Nanjing. Its meat is tight, red and white, and tastes tender and refreshing, with a slight sweetness. It is not only a famous dish at banquets, but also a good accompaniment in daily life. Nanjing Xiangdu is said to have a history of 120 years and became famous throughout the country during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. Shaped like an apple, it is easy to carry. The skin is as thin as a cicada's wing. The meat is tender, red and white in color, and has a unique flavor. It is a famous dish and a good accompaniment to meals.

The main ingredient is fresh pork, which is usually 30% fat and 70% lean. The condiments are appropriate amounts of salt, sugar, spices, etc. In the old days, when there was a round banquet, the place where the fragrant belly was placed was where the chief guest sat. The phrase "living alone in honor" vividly expresses the characteristics of the fragrant belly. At the Nanyang Entrepreneurship Conference in 1910, Nanjing Xiangdu won an award and has since become famous overseas and sold all over the world.

Nanjing Yun Brocade

Nanjing Yun Brocade is a traditional jacquard silk handicraft in Nanjing. The materials used are exquisite, the weavers are fine, and the patterns are elegant and colorful, just like the colorful clouds in the sky, so it is called "cloud brocade". It is as famous as Suzhou's Song brocade and Sichuan's Shu brocade, and is also known as the three most famous brocades in my country.

The history of Nanjing brocade production can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period. During the Ming Dynasty, the brocade weaving technology became increasingly mature and perfected, forming the local characteristics of Nanjing silk jacquard brocade. During the Qing Dynasty, there was the "Jiangning Weaving Department" in Nanjing, and brocade weaving was at its peak. The brocades produced during this period were of various varieties, with solemn patterns and brilliant colors, representing the highest achievement of Nanjing's brocade weaving technology. In addition to being exported as high-end clothing fabrics and for ethnic minority costumes and performance costumes, the Yunjin brocade produced today has also developed new varieties of designs and colors, such as Yunjin table blankets, bed mats, quilt covers, handbags, vests, ties, hanging screens and other daily handicrafts. , and packed in various cartons according to consumer needs. Nanjing Yunjin brocade is a kind of jacquard silk handicraft. It is the first of the "treasure arts" of Nanjing crafts. Sichuan Shu brocade and Suzhou Song brocade are also known as the "three famous brocades". They are characterized by solid texture, rich and beautiful patterns, and rich colors. They use a lot of gold. lines, forming a magnificent and unique style. In the past, Yun brocade was exclusively used by the royal court. Now, in addition to being made for clothing by ethnic minorities, it is also exported abroad to make high-end clothing fabrics. Nanjing Yunjin brocade has as many as eighteen colors, and the main flower is pushed out layer by layer, making it gorgeous and elegant.

Cherry

Nanjing is a famous cherry producing area in my country. Mostly produced in Xuanwu Lake area. Yingzhou in Xuanwu Lake is named after its abundant cherries. Varieties include Dongtang, Chuisi, Qingye, etc. Dongtang cherries are the best. They are large and delicious, juicy and colorful, and of excellent quality.

Lily

Nanjing’s traditional specialty, also known as the Qulao salamander, is produced in Zhongshan and other places with lush plants in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing. The skin is white, the meat is plump, sweet and delicate, and can be stored for a long time.