Memories about Yuanxiao Festival

By Zhang Chengyi

The 19th of February is the 15th day of the first month on the Lunar Calendar, which is also known as the Lantern Festival of China. In the June of 2008, the Lantern festival was included in the second batch of the national intangible cultural heritage.

Lantern Festival is also known as the Shangyuan Festival, Little January, and Yuanxiao Festival. One moving historical story helps to explain why the festival has had different names over time.

During the An-Shi Riot in the Tang Dynasty, from 755 to 763, General Guo Ziyi helped the emperor in recovering lost territories and won himself glory for his achievements. The emperor wanted to reward him. However, due to consecutive years of wars, the nation was in a significant deficit. Besides, the capital city was also catastrophically damaged, leaving no mansions suitable for a prize. Since no substantial awards could be given, the emperor decided to award the general a symbolic gift. As the Spring Festival had just passed, the emperor made up his mind to celebrate the Shangyuan Festival in his honor. The emperor also ordered the royal chefs to prepare a novel dish as a reward for the generals and soldiers.

The order agitated the chefs. At that time, the ingredients, spices, and cuisine were all very limited. Porridge, noodles, and pancakes were pretty much the only edible things. How on earth could chefs come up with a novel cuisine? However, at that time, a decree unfulfilled meant decapitation. The leader of all chefs organized a meeting in order to create a new cuisine. Fortunately, the luck had turned to the chefs’ favor. A young chef had once been kept in the kitchen, and he tried to play with various ingredients due to the dullness he felt toward the common dishes. He ground a bag of sticky rice into small grains, kept them in a shallow basket, threw some minced fillings into the basket, added some water, and rolled the fillings in the basket. The fillings were covered with the sticky rice grains, forming some small white spheres. He boiled these balls and shared with other chefs. They all thought that these balls were in fact quite delicious. Hearing this, the head chef realized that these white balls were a novel cuisine themselves! He immediately ordered the young chef to replicate his production process and teach others the cooking procedure—he also ordered his servants to buy more ingredients and make many of these white balls in a hurry.

At the Shangyuan Festival, these bowls of boiled white balls were passed to the emperor and officials. Everyone acclaimed them for the delicacy of this unprecedentedly scrumptious cuisine. Their rounded shape resembled the bright full moon high up in the night sky, thus resembling people’s desire to gather together with family. Staring at the white balls in his bowl, the emperor thought of the fact that the rebel forces weren’t yet stabilized, and the recovery of Tang Dynasty was far from accomplishment, and became dejected.

General Guo Ziyi noticed the change in the emperor’s facial expression, so he stood up and said, “These balls haven’t yet been named. Please name them, your majesty.” The emperor accepted this request. After a short moment of thinking, the emperor said, “This is the night of the Shanyuan Festival, so the food everybody gathers together and eats should be named “Yuanxiao.” (Yuan is the “yuan” from “Shangyuan”, while “xiao” means “night” in Chinese.) The generals reckoned this was a nice name. From then on, the food was enjoyed by the public, and the Shangyuan Festival gradually earned its nickname of Yuanxiao Festival.

When I first ever recollect memories, “yuanxiao” had already occupied the dominant name in my mind of the Lantern Festival. It became a natural corollary for me, as well as many Chinese, to relate the Lantern Festival with that sticky, sweet dim sum. As for my personal experience, it was my grandmother, a southern Chinese woman, who specialized in rolling yuanxiao. It is unquestionably a feast to my eyes to witness the miracle of her conjuring up these delicate, flawless white balls by simply rolling them. First, she mixes crushed walnut kernels, mashed dried dates, sugar, f lour, and water to make up the filling for the soup rounds. Then, after soaking the chopped filings, the fillings are thrown into a winnowing pan with a layer of glutinous rice flour. Finally, by softly and skillfully shaking the winnowing pan, the flour is wrapped up on the fillings as the skin of the morsel. One additional step is taken to boil the semifinished product. The boiled yuanxiao was the favorite of us gluttonous kids—I always ate one after another voraciously, and one bowl of yuanxiao was never enough.

Despite the well-known tradition of eating Yuanxiao, Chinese people also celebrate the Lantern Festival in various ways. At night, people put out splendid and colorful lanterns for others to appreciate. Hung below these lanterns are delicately designed riddles that people work out together.

I will never forget partaking in the lantern tradition during primary school. Our teacher assigned us to purchase our own lanterns and go camping during the night. I made myself an octagon-shaped, slightly antique, reddish-yellowish, handheld lantern. My classmates, as I can recall, had jack-o-lanterns, dragon-shaped lanterns, handmade spherical lanterns, and many others.

The celebration of the Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese Spring Festival. Consequently, the gatheringtogether of the Yuanxiao Festival also implies the beginning of a new year’s life and work.

元宵節印象

文/張成熠

2月19日是中國農歷年的正月十五，也是中國一年一度的元宵節。2008年6月，元宵節選入第二批中國國家級非物質文化遺產名錄。

元宵節，又稱上元節或者小正月，之所以改名“元宵節”，流傳著一個感人的歷史故事。

唐朝安史之亂后，節度使郭子儀東征西討，收復了不少城池，功不可沒。當朝皇帝唐肅宗想重賞他。由于連年征戰，國庫空虛，都城也是滿目瘡痍，沒有像樣的宅院分給功臣，無法實現物質獎賞。當時春節剛過，唐肅宗突發奇想，決定在上元節這天為郭子儀等眾將士補過一個小年。他命令御廚準備一種新奇的食物，以款待眾將領。

這可急壞了御廚們。當時食材緊缺，食物種類單調，以粥、面、餅為主，何以弄出新奇的食物呢？然而，搞砸了朝廷的慶功宴是要殺頭的。御廚頭子召集所有廚子琢磨新食物的事。一位年輕御廚曾被關在廚房里，無聊至極就擺弄各種食材。他把一袋糯米磨成面，裝在笸籮里，又把已經做好凝固的餡扔在笸籮里滾，邊滾邊灑些清水，餡料沾滿糯米面并滾成圓球，再把這些白面圓球煮熟，分給眾廚。大家吃了之后，都覺得粘而不膩，十分好吃。御廚頭兒聽后很高興，認為這種白面團兒就是他們要找的那種新奇的食物！他讓年輕御廚復原制作過程，并教會一干廚師，又連夜找人采買食材，趕做了很多白面團兒。

上元之夜，一碗碗面團兒端到皇上和群臣手中，眾人品嘗著這種從未吃過的食物，贊不絕口。圓滾滾的面團兒和天上的明月相映成趣，正寄托著將士們與家人團圓的向往。唐肅宗望著碗里的白面團兒，想到叛軍還沒完全平定，恢復大唐的盛世任重道遠，不禁神色黯然。

郭子儀看到了皇帝神色的變化，起身對皇帝說：“這種白面團兒還沒有名字，微臣斗膽請皇上賜名。”唐肅宗默想了一會兒說：“這是上元夜大家歡聚一堂時吃的食物，就叫‘元宵’吧。”此后，這種食物的做法傳入民間，深受民眾喜愛，上元節也逐漸被人們稱為元宵節了。

從我記事時起， 元宵便在我的印象中烙下印記。每到過年，就會想到吃元宵，每個中國人都和我一樣，每到元宵節，就會想吃這種軟糯糯、甜滋滋的東西。我外婆來自南方， “滾元宵”是一絕，她用笸籮輕輕搖動面團，就能魔法般變出這些精致潔白的元宵來。首先，她將核桃仁碎、棗泥、糖、面粉加水均勻地和在一起，做成元宵的餡兒。然后，她把切好的餡兒沾點兒水后丟進鋪了一層糯米粉的簸箕里。 最后，輕柔地、富有技巧性地搖動簸箕，糯米粉便緊緊地裹到了餡兒上，形成了一個個完整的元宵。下鍋一煮，便成了一碗碗香甜可口的元宵。饞嘴的我總是一口接著一口，吃完了還要舔一舔碗內壁上由黃豆面、糧、桂花醬等混合而成的調料。

除了吃元宵傳統，中國老百姓還通過多種方法歡慶元宵。 夜幕降臨，人們會擺上絢麗多彩的花燈與親友共賞。花燈之下，是人們精心設計的燈謎，供所有與會者開動腦筋。記得幼時過元宵節，老師會讓我們去買花燈，晚上，同學們一起賞燈嬉戲。我至今依然清晰地記得，我當時做了一個八邊形的花燈，泛著微微偏紅的黃光，略顯老舊。同學們裱的花燈五光十色：有南瓜燈、龍行燈、紙球燈……不勝枚舉。

元宵節一過，中國年也接近尾聲，所以，元宵節與家人團聚，也就意味著新一年生活和勞作的開始。