One season of Xiaofeng Yin, one season of Hao Yueming
Time is rushing, and it is another year to spend a good full moon reunion day
People have long been unable to hold back the long-awaited lovesickness
Preparing for the Mid-Autumn Festival
In Ningde, there are many Mid-Autumn Festivals
Traditional customs with local characteristics
Some of them have gradually dispersed
Some are still deeply rooted in the folk
Banana City Cake
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival
Eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional custom in China, and the difference is that the mooncakes in each region have their own characteristics, and there is a posture of competition for heights. In our Ningde Banana City, there is also a name for the Mid-Autumn Moon Cake, that is, "Gift Cake". The so-called "gift cake" is both a moon cake that can be eaten and a gift that can be used for visits.
An old shop at the head of the battle bridge in Jiaocheng city still retains the relatively original "gift cake" production process.
In the early morning, the boss went to the market to select the fattest piece of fat meat as the most important raw material of the "gift cake", and the fat crystal Q bomb that had been boiled in boiling water was crystal clear. In addition, it is also necessary to prepare flour, winter melon strips, peanuts, dates, sesame seeds and other materials, winter melon strips, peanuts, etc. need to be diced, the boiled fat in boiling water into it, sprinkled with green onions as a garnish, stirred can be placed aside to wait for the wrapping of the crust. Compared with the filling, the production of the crust is a manual work, kneading the flour into a dough, pulling it into an equal amount of small bun balls, and then another person will press the bun ball flat, and then roll it into the shape of a towel roll, so that several times, and at the same time have to put the pre-prepared puff pastry in the dough, just so that the crust can be crispy. The finished bun wraps the filling, brushes the egg mixture and puts it in the oven, waiting for a while, and the "gift cake" is made. It is said that this "gift cake" is also a Mid-Autumn Festival gift prepared by the man for the woman during the engagement.
In Ningde, there is a habit of giving gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "sending mid-autumn festivals". "Sending mid-autumn festival" is usually for the son-in-law to send a festival gift to the parents-in-law before the Mid-Autumn Festival, especially the newlywed son-in-law, this Mid-Autumn Festival ceremony is particularly thick, not only has moon cakes, but also meat, noodles, sugar and so on. (Photo by Zhang Xingwang)
Fuding cake flowers
However, in Fuding, this "Mid-Autumn Festival" is a two-way street, not only the son-in-law will send a Mid-Autumn Festival gift to the father-in-law and mother-in-law before the festival, if the daughter has given birth, then the grandmother and uncle will also send mooncakes and other Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to the grandson and nephew.
In Fuding, there is also a special packaging on the Mid-Autumn Festival "gift cake" - cake flowers. Cake flower is a unique variety of New Year paintings in Fuding, originating in the Qing Dynasty, popular in the surrounding xiapu, Fu'an, tuorong and other counties (cities) and Zhejiang Pingyang, Cangnan area. At that time, Fuding's mooncakes were as large as a disc, and when the cake shop sold them, they were wrapped in thick paper to form a square shape, and the large plane should have a beautiful picture to attract customers, so the cake flowers came into being. It can be said that the cake flower is the earliest packaging of the Mid-Autumn Moon Cake.
The early appearance of Fuding cake flowers is a paper-cut cake flower, which is made of various colored paper cuts and pasted, and the characters are mainly children's "Hundred Zi Flowers" as a typical representative. Hand-painted cake flowers appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min. After that, Fuding artist Lin Tonglin began to try to make "woodcut cake flowers", he first carved the cake flower pattern on the wooden board, printed with ink, and filled in the color on the basis of the ink line. This kind of wooden cake flower, the face of the character does not print the facial features, is after the printing, and then use powder to open the face, draw the facial features. Folk artists call this cake flower "face washing cake flower".
Legend has it that in the early years, children were looking forward to their grandmothers and uncles sending "gift cakes" earlier, holding the cake flowers on the "gift cakes" to compete with their friends and discussing whose cake flowers were the most beautiful. (Photo by Zhang Jin)
Kasumigaura Sugar Tower
At the same time, The children of Kasumiura are also comparing with each other, but from "Doubihua" to holding a sugar tower to discuss who is more vivid and interesting.
Sugar pagoda is a unique folk product of Xiapu, every Mid-Autumn Festival, the artists who make sugar towers will set up stalls in eye-catching places on the street, boil and fry them into a paste with sugar and water, accompanied by red, yellow and green eating drills, import impressions carved from camphor wood or nan wood, solidify and then open the mold, and take out a variety of lifelike, colorful seven-story pagodas, rooster pecking cabbage, Chang'e Benyue and other sugar towers with different shapes.
The sugar tower is more than one pound large and three or five small, divided into two kinds: solid and hollow. Artists make and sell while making, displaying and selling, the masses watching, talking and laughing, which greatly increases the festive atmosphere. The custom of sending sugar towers has been passed down from generation to generation and has been passed down to this day. After all, sending sugar towers can not only send affection, but also appreciate and eat, and children are happy.
Among the sugar tower types, the seven-story pagoda has the most beautiful shape, and the tower has the role of calming the evil Naji, and all such sugar products of various shapes, collectively known as the sugar tower, have a history of about three or four hundred years. (Photo courtesy of Kasumigaura Sugar Tower wooden mold carving inheritor Yan Yongjin)
Mid-Autumn Stone
Different from the relaxed and interesting "Dou cake flower" and "sugar delivery tower", in the past, there was a tradition of "dragging stones" in the Mid-Autumn Festival in Banana Castle, Kasumiura, Tuorong and other places, which was a solid "physical work". The so-called "dragging stone" means that the people who participate in the stone dragging will tie the large stones they use with hemp rope, one person sits on the stone, and many people drag the hemp rope forward in front, and each group races with each other. Today, in Xiapu Shajiang, Yacheng, Sansha and other places still retain the Mid-Autumn Festival "dragging stone" tradition. At the beginning of the event, as few as two or three teams, as many as a dozen teams. Dozens of people in each team, pulling hundreds of pounds of stones across the street, shouting, firecrackers, boulders rubbing against the ground, very lively. (Photo Kasumigaura Tourism Official)
A piece of "gift cake" with extraordinary meaning
A colorful "cake flower"
A sweet and auspicious "sugar tower"
A lively and fun "trailing stone" event
It carries the hometown memory of generations of Ningde people
Dew from tonight white, the moon is the hometown of Ming
The month of the hometown, the memory of the hometown
It's always there
Source: Wenwen Ningde