The customs of Lujiang began.

Overview of urban and rural living customs in Lujiang

"A hundred miles is different, and a thousand miles is different." (Hanshu-Wang Jiji) Every place will form unique rural customs because of its unique geography and history.

Lujiang County is located between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, with a total area of 2,348 square kilometers. The life customs of its urban and rural residents, such as diet, clothing, residence, travel, etc., are formed between Jianghuai and Jianghuai. However, due to the vast territory and Lucheng as the center, there are still some differences in the living customs of towns and villages in the north and south of China.

I. Dietary customs

"Food is the most important thing for the people". Dietary customs occupy an extremely important position in people's daily life and last the longest among all folk customs.

(A) the main food

Lujiang urban and rural residents take rice as their staple food, and also eat miscellaneous grains such as barley, wheat, corn, sweet potato, pumpkin and beans. In addition to rice, noodles, steamed buns, steamed buns and other pasta are also staple foods. Beans are mainly processed, such as soybean milk, soybean powder, thousand pieces and so on. Nutrition and taste have become the new standards of diet.

Its eating habits are popular in the county, with three meals a day, one dry meal for Chinese food and two porridge (commonly known as "porridge") in the morning and evening. However, the traditional folk food system is not static. Especially in rural areas, the frugal fashion of eating more when busy, eating less when idle, eating dry when busy and eating thin when idle has been handed down. During the busy farming season, the countryside has the habit of eating "summer tea" and "topping", that is, people who do farm work have an extra meal in the afternoon. If you have money at home, cook rice noodles with fried eggs or broth; If the living conditions are poor, you can only leave some dry rice or "rice crust" for Chinese food in the afternoon when you are tired. In the past, it was common for poor farmers to eat two meals a day in order to save food and firewood during the winter slack season.

Lujiang folk, in addition to rice (porridge), noodles are also one of the staple foods. Noodles are mainly divided into "dried noodles" and "rice noodles". "vermicelli" is made of wheat flour with salt, alkali and water by hand. "vermicelli" is exquisite in material selection, exquisitely made and complicated in technology: after going through 12 procedures, grinding, sieving, kneading, waking up, winding, second waking up, drawing, third waking up, releasing, second stretching and lowering, a handmade noodle as fine as hair, clear as white jade and white and smooth can be made.

"Rice flour" is made of rice flour, and the process is relatively simple: mix rice and glutinous rice according to a certain proportion, soak for several days, grind the rice pulp into slurry with water, evenly spread the rice slurry in a steaming pan, steam it, tear off the steamed dough, let it cool, cut it into shreds with a knife, and dry it in the sun (air). Because "rice noodles" are steamed by steam and easily digested when cooked again, they are mostly the staple food of pregnant women, so they are also called "moon noodles". "Rice flour" is short, easy to carry and has a long shelf life. It is one of the essential staple foods in urban and rural areas.

With the development of society, lifestyles tend to be diversified, and traditional dietary customs are constantly changing and adjusting in the inheritance.

(2) Dishes and dishes

Homemade kimchi is the main daily supplementary food in urban and rural areas of Lujiang. Pickled vegetables include radish, cabbage, sherry red and so on. In crowded families, these radishes and cabbages are pickled in jars, dried and washed, and laid flat in jars layer by layer. Sprinkle salt on each layer, and then spread another layer. Then, the man put on sandals barefoot and stepped on the jar. The more "round" (tight) you step on it, the more delicious it is. Families with rich living conditions will pickle salted fish, bacon, salted duck and other meat dishes in the second half of the year.

In the eastern, southern, western and northern towns of China, there are also some local specialties, such as Shengqiao in Rudong Township. Every household makes "wind chicken" and "wind fish" (that is, after the chicken or fish is slaughtered, it is hollowed out, then it is loaded with relevant seasonings and hung to dry. When eating, it is steamed as a whole, with abnormal fragrance, fresh but not greasy); Zhu San Braised Goose in Nihe Town of Nanxiang is a famous dish of Anhui Time-honored Brand. Baishan in the northern countryside and Tongda's dried whitebait are very famous in Jianghuai. Baihua cuisine (also known as "pearl cuisine" and "general cuisine") in Tang Chi, Xixiang entered CCTV; Huangtun in the southeast township, Ketan in the southwest township and other mountainous areas, as well as dried bamboo shoots, dried Chinese toon heads and dried purslane, are local specialties for entertaining guests and giving gifts to relatives and friends.

Vegetables for daily consumption mainly include green vegetables, radishes, leeks, eggplants, beans, wax gourd, pumpkins and bean products. It is especially common to make tofu with green vegetables. There is a folk saying, "Simple tea and light rice will make you happy, while vegetables and tofu will make you safe."

(3) Festival catering

In Lujiang, the Chinese New Year's catering culture is rich in content and strong in local characteristics. Eating "Yuanxiao" on the fifteenth day of the first month, commonly known as "Tangyuan" in Nanxiang, means family reunion; Tomb-Sweeping Day eats prickly heat, which is fried food, crispy and delicious. It was called "cooler" in ancient times, which originated from the custom of forbidding fire and cold food in ancient "Cold Food Festival".

Eating "germinated rice" in summer means soaking rice in water to germinate, drying in the sun, grinding it into powder and making it into rice cakes. Dragon Boat Festival breakfast is the most abundant, with zongzi, mung bean cake, eggs and flour as "soup fruit". In Lujiang South Township, the Dragon Boat Festival breakfast is noodles made of new wheat harvested that year. As the saying goes, eat "noodle soup" and drink realgar wine at noon.

"Plum" (also known as "mildew", that is, rainy season), every household should eat "plum chicken", especially the cock that has not yet opened its mouth to crow, which has high nutritional value and is regarded as a tonic. Poor economic conditions, but also to fry a few eggs instead, called eating "plum eggs."

On Mid-Autumn Festival, the "Roasted Chestnut Chicken (Duck)" for lunch is a main course; The Mid-Autumn Festival dinner is rich and grand, so there is a saying that "the sun sets early and the Mid-Autumn Festival is late".

On the solstice of winter, people usually eat noodles, which is called "eating noodles on the solstice of winter makes the day longer". In other words, from the winter solstice, the nights get shorter and the days get longer.

The most distinctive feature of the twelfth lunar month is eating "Laba porridge". According to legend, eating "Laba porridge" on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month originated from the story that the Buddha ate porridge and became a monk. In the old days, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls in various monasteries and gave alms along the street. They cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to believers. After eating Laba porridge in the temple, you can get the blessing of Buddha and increase your happiness and longevity. Later, it spread to the people and was gradually optimized. It is made of glutinous rice, red dates, red (green) beans, lotus seeds, longan pulp, peanut kernels, red and green silk and sugar, so it is also called "eight-treasure porridge". In Lujiang, "Laba porridge" is not only eaten by family members, but also invited by relatives, friends and neighbors to eat or give gifts to each other, which means wishing each other well-being.

Eating "New Year's Eve" is the most grand and sumptuous family dinner in a year. During the Chinese New Year, the common traditional dishes in people's homes are Harmony Cuisine, jiaozi, Silver Ingot Fish, Dried Plum and Tofu Braised Roast Meat. These dishes are popular for different reasons. Harmonious dishes: meaning harmony; Fried dumplings: it means family reunion and beautiful reunion, and some people call it Yuanbao, which means adding money into treasure; Yuanbao fish: meaning more than one year; Dried plum meat: meaning mutual help between the rich and the poor; Tofu fruit (sound "rich fruit") burns meat, which means auspiciousness.

(4) banquet

Lujiang people are very hospitable. In the folk, when relatives visit, they first boil eggs in a bowl of sugar, which is called "burning tea" to show their welcome. At the same time, arrange to buy fish in the street, kill chickens (ducks) at home, and treat them warmly. No matter how bad the conditions are, we should fry (steam) a few eggs and stir-fry some special agricultural products such as peanuts and beans to entertain guests. As the saying goes, "people are not bad in thousands of ways."

Between urban and rural areas, at the time of weddings, funerals and celebrations, relatives and friends should give gifts or gifts to each other to show their congratulations or condolences, and the recipients should handle banquets in time to show their gratitude. During the Spring Festival, friends and relatives entertain each other, which is called "Forget the Year Wine". In the old days, banquets were mostly held at home, and its formal banquets such as "wedding banquet", "washing the Three Dynasties" and "birthday banquet" were all cooked by chefs at home.

There are plenty of dishes at the party. Generally, there are four cold dishes (cold dishes) and four barbecue dishes (barbecue, fish, roast chicken, etc. ), four dishes (fried pork, fried pork liver, etc. ), three rounds (meatballs, fish balls and glutinous rice balls) and one or two "big plates" (hooves)

Banquet dishes have a certain emphasis. In the name of the dish, the first stir-fry at the table is called "harmonious dish", which means "harmonious gas"; In the last course, four big marionettes are called "four happy marionettes", which means "Happy family, round and round". "Four Happiness Mariko" is a kind of "round banquet", and guests can leave after eating.

Ye Fu in the territory is a Buddhist resort in Jiangbei, and many people in this area eat vegetarian food and recite Buddhism. When they come to the guests, they set up a "vegetarian feast", that is, all the dishes on the table are vegetarian. From the style of dishes, there are chickens with fish and meat, but these chickens with fish and meat are soy products. For example, chicken legs are tightly wrapped in thick linen with thin bamboo branches inserted in the middle, which are the bones of chicken legs; Ham is made up of thousands of dyed slices, then sliced, thin, fat and crisp, just like Jinhua ham. Braised mushrooms with sugar stir-fry, with good color and flavor. There are also thousand-layer cakes, salt and pepper orchid beans, fried oil, sweet and sour pickled cabbage stalks, hot and sour soup and so on. Are made of sesame oil and vegetable oil. Stir-fry, stew, burn, stew, or stir-fry, stir-fry, steam. The production method is the same as that of meat dishes. "Su" has a unique flavor, but it is generally only enjoyed by Buddhists and guests.