What are the healthy foods for Dragon Boat Festival?
Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday. In this festival with a strong national flavor, people from different regions have their own customs. So, what kind of food do people eat during Dragon Boat Festival, and how do they celebrate it? Let's find out together and explore the healthy foods for Dragon Boat Festival.
1. Eating Zongzi
Dragon Boat Festival is a tradition to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan, who had the habit of eating Zongzi. Nowadays, there are many types of Zongzi with different flavors, such as pork Zongzi, egg yolk Zongzi, jujube Zongzi, and plain Zongzi. However, it is important to control the amount of Zongzi intake according to personal circumstances and not to overindulge. Also, remember to heat the Zongzi before consuming them for safety and to reduce the burden on digestion.
2. Picking tea leaves and making herbal tea
In some northern regions, people like to pick young leaves and wild vegetable leaves during Dragon Boat Festival, and make them into tea. In the Chaozhou region of Guangdong, people go to the mountains and fields to pick herbs and boil them to make herbal tea. This is also beneficial for health.
3. Drinking Wu Jia wine
"Collect Wu Jia on the 5th day of May, and make Wu Jia wine" is a folk custom. Wu Jia refers to the bark of Wu Jia tree, which has a unique fragrance and can nourish the liver, kidneys, and strengthen bones and muscles. It is believed that drinking Wu Jia wine can ward off evil spirits. The medicinal uses of Wu Jia bark include treating hernia, abdominal pain, impotence in men, residual urine, back pain in women, and foot pain. Wu Jia wine is especially suitable for areas with high humidity during Dragon Boat Festival.
4. Sugar jujube glutinous rice
During Dragon Boat Festival, the Naxi ethnic group eats sugar jujube glutinous rice. Glutinous rice can nourish the spleen and lungs, and it contains a substance called glutinous rice protein, which contains a lot of vitamins, phosphorus, calcium, iron, protein, and fat, which can increase blood in the body. Therefore, it is important to note that people with diabetes should not eat it.
5. Eating Sausage Noodles
People in Shaanxi must eat Sausage Noodles on Dragon Boat Festival. Sausage Noodles is a local specialty snack in Shaanxi, with dozens of varieties. Among them, Qishan Sausage Noodles are the most famous. Sausage Noodles are characterized by thin and evenly thick noodles, fragrant sausage, and shiny soup. Qishan Sausage Noodles have a strong local flavor, with a soft and smooth texture.
6. Eating "Five Reds" and "Five Yellows"
The traditional Dragon Boat Festival food in Nanjing is "Five Yellows," which includes eels, yellow croaker, duck egg yolk, cucumber, and realgar wine. With the changes in history and social development, the contents of "Five Yellows" have gradually evolved into "Five Reds," which are "roast duck, amaranth, duck eggs, lobsters, and realgar wine" nowadays. It is said that eating these "Five Reds" and "Five Yellows" during Dragon Boat Festival can ward off evil spirits and heatstroke throughout the summer.
7. Drinking calamus wine
Drinking calamus wine is a traditional custom of Dragon Boat Festival. A scholar named Chen Kechang in the Southern Song Dynasty wrote a poem that goes, "Toast with calamus wine, every year on the 5th day of May." Calamus wine is a medicinal wine made from calamus as a medicinal ingredient and white or yellow wine. Drinking calamus wine during Dragon Boat Festival is believed to ward off evil spirits and promote good health when consumed regularly.
8. Eating Jian Dui
In the Jinjiang area of Fujian, people must eat "Jian Dui" on Dragon Boat Festival. Jian Dui is made by frying a thick batter made from flour, rice flour or sweet potato flour with other ingredients. Legend has it that in ancient times, the area around southern Fujian had continuous rain before Dragon Boat Festival, and it was said that the sky had a hole in it and needed to be "repaired." After eating Jian Dui during Dragon Boat Festival, the rain stopped, and people believed that the sky had been fixed.
9. Eating Ye Zi Bo
"Ye Zi Bo" is an essential delicacy for the people of Yulin during Dragon Boat Festival. There are many legends about Ye Zi Bo, and its history can be traced back a long time. Later on, Ye Zi Bo gradually evolved into a popular local traditional snack in Yulin.
10. Eating Da Gao
Dragon Boat Festival is a grand festival for the Korean people in Yanbian, Jilin Province. The most representative food on this day is the fragrant Da Gao. Da Gao is made by pounding mugwort with glutinous rice and placing them in a wooden basin, then using a long wooden pestle to pound and shape the rice cake. This food has a strong ethnic flavor and adds to the festive atmosphere.
11. Eating Ai Mo Mo
In many places, during Dragon Boat Festival, people ferment rice flour or wheat flour with mugwort and steam Ai Mo Mo together. Mugwort contains various volatile oils, which have a fragrant aroma and can repel insects and kill bacteria. It has inhibitory effects on various bacteria and some skin fungi. Therefore, mugwort is essential during Dragon Boat Festival, whether it is consumed as food or used for other purposes.
12. Eating peaches, eggplants, and green beans
In Sichuan, it is customary to eat peaches, eggplants, and green beans during Dragon Boat Festival, which are believed to bring health and longevity. There is a saying: "If you eat eggplant, you will shake, and if you eat beans, you will be old." The Hakka people in Miaoli area also eat eggplants, long beans, peaches, and plums during Dragon Boat Festival. However, the symbolic meanings of these foods may vary among different regions. Eating peaches symbolizes longevity, while eating plums represents reproduction of offspring. Some people also believe that eating eggplants can prevent heatstroke, and eating long beans can prevent snake bites (because long beans resemble snakes). Eating eggplants can also repel mosquitoes (in the local dialect, eggplants are called "hanging vegetables," and mosquitoes are called "biting," which sounds similar).
Finally, I wish everyone a healthy and meaningful Dragon Boat Festival.
