Why do we eat eggs during Qingming Festival? What are the sayings and etiquettes about eating eggs during Qingming Festival?
Eating is also a unique culture in China. Many traditional festivals and solar terms have their own food customs, which often have symbolic meanings. Eating eggs during Qingming Festival is one of them. A year's plan begins with spring. The wind in February of the lunar calendar officially brings spring, and the weather is gradually getting warmer. The Fortune Teller website will interpret every day of February of the lunar calendar in 2018 for you!Why do we eat eggs during Qingming Festival?According to folk customs, eating an egg on Qingming Festival will ensure good health throughout the year. The origin of eating eggs on Qingming Festival is that there was a custom of banning fire in some areas in the pre-Qin period. During the many days of fire ban and cold food, boiled eggs were the best food reserve to get through this period.Eating eggs originated from the ancient festival of sacrifice. In order to get married and have children, people boiled various eggs such as chicken eggs, duck eggs, bird eggs, etc. and painted them in various colors. They were called "five-colored eggs". They went to the river and threw the five-colored eggs into the river. They were washed down by the current, and people downstream would scramble to pick them up, peel them and eat them. After eating them, they could get pregnant. Now eating eggs during Qingming Festival symbolizes perfection. Eggs are a symbol of fertility and life in ancient Chinese culture. Legend has it that Pangu, the creator of the world, was conceived in an egg. "The heaven and earth were in chaos like an egg, and Pangu was born from it" (Yiwen Leiju). Qi, the ancestor of the Shang Dynasty, was born because "he saw a black bird drop its egg, and Jian Di took it and swallowed it, and thus became pregnant" (Records of the Grand Historian). Daye, the ancestor of the Qin Dynasty, was also conceived because "a black bird conceived an egg, and a woman swallowed it" (Records of the Grand Historian). In some rural areas, there is a custom of "bumping eggs" between children. The prior bumping and peeling of eggs will inevitably arouse the children's interest in bumping eggs with each other. If we were to explore the symbolic meaning of eating and cracking eggs during the Qingming Festival, it should also embody people's awe for life and fertility. Qingming Festival is the day for worshiping ancestors and sweeping tombs. There is a folk saying that when sweeping tombs, boiled eggs should be broken on the tombstone and the eggshells thrown on the grave, symbolizing "shedding the shell", heralding the renewal of life and the hope that descendants can succeed. Spring is the season when all things are gestated, which is consistent with the meaning of eggs "giving birth to life". Eggs contain almost all the nutrients needed by the human body. In addition, during the Qingming Festival, the weather is sunny and spring is in full swing, and people go outings one after another. Boiled eggs are an ideal food that is easy to carry. All these have led to eggs becoming a customary food for the Qingming Festival. There are two types of Qingming Festival eggsOn the Qingming Festival, people can not only eat eggs, but also play with them. There are roughly two types of eggs: one is "painted eggs" and the other is "carved eggs." The colorfully painted eggs can be eaten, while the "carved eggs" are only for viewing.In addition, some places have the custom of "bumping eggs", which is also a favorite of children. Everyone would take their own boiled eggs and clink them together one by one for good luck and to see whose egg was harder. If a child's egg has a strong shell and breaks the other eggs, that child will grow tall and strong this year. |
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