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.

元宵节印象

文/张成熠

2月19日是中国农历年的正月十五，也是中国一年一度的元宵节。2008年6月，元宵节选入第二批中国国家级非物质文化遗产名录。

元宵节，又称上元节或者小正月，之所以改名“元宵节”，流传着一个感人的历史故事。

唐朝安史之乱后，节度使郭子仪东征西讨，收复了不少城池，功不可没。当朝皇帝唐肃宗想重赏他。由于连年征战，国库空虚，都城也是满目疮痍，没有像样的宅院分给功臣，无法实现物质奖赏。当时春节刚过，唐肃宗突发奇想，决定在上元节这天为郭子仪等众将士补过一个小年。他命令御厨准备一种新奇的食物，以款待众将领。

这可急坏了御厨们。当时食材紧缺，食物种类单调，以粥、面、饼为主，何以弄出新奇的食物呢？然而，搞砸了朝廷的庆功宴是要杀头的。御厨头子召集所有厨子琢磨新食物的事。一位年轻御厨曾被关在厨房里，无聊至极就摆弄各种食材。他把一袋糯米磨成面，装在笸箩里，又把已经做好凝固的馅扔在笸箩里滚，边滚边洒些清水，馅料沾满糯米面并滚成圆球，再把这些白面圆球煮熟，分给众厨。大家吃了之后，都觉得粘而不腻，十分好吃。御厨头儿听后很高兴，认为这种白面团儿就是他们要找的那种新奇的食物！他让年轻御厨复原制作过程，并教会一干厨师，又连夜找人采买食材，赶做了很多白面团儿。

上元之夜，一碗碗面团儿端到皇上和群臣手中，众人品尝着这种从未吃过的食物，赞不绝口。圆滚滚的面团儿和天上的明月相映成趣，正寄托着将士们与家人团圆的向往。唐肃宗望着碗里的白面团儿，想到叛军还没完全平定，恢复大唐的盛世任重道远，不禁神色黯然。

郭子仪看到了皇帝神色的变化，起身对皇帝说：“这种白面团儿还没有名字，微臣斗胆请皇上赐名。”唐肃宗默想了一会儿说：“这是上元夜大家欢聚一堂时吃的食物，就叫‘元宵’吧。”此后，这种食物的做法传入民间，深受民众喜爱，上元节也逐渐被人们称为元宵节了。

从我记事时起， 元宵便在我的印象中烙下印记。每到过年，就会想到吃元宵，每个中国人都和我一样，每到元宵节，就会想吃这种软糯糯、甜滋滋的东西。我外婆来自南方， “滚元宵”是一绝，她用笸箩轻轻摇动面团，就能魔法般变出这些精致洁白的元宵来。首先，她将核桃仁碎、枣泥、糖、面粉加水均匀地和在一起，做成元宵的馅儿。然后，她把切好的馅儿沾点儿水后丢进铺了一层糯米粉的簸箕里。 最后，轻柔地、富有技巧性地摇动簸箕，糯米粉便紧紧地裹到了馅儿上，形成了一个个完整的元宵。下锅一煮，便成了一碗碗香甜可口的元宵。馋嘴的我总是一口接着一口，吃完了还要舔一舔碗内壁上由黄豆面、粮、桂花酱等混合而成的调料。

除了吃元宵传统，中国老百姓还通过多种方法欢庆元宵。 夜幕降临，人们会摆上绚丽多彩的花灯与亲友共赏。花灯之下，是人们精心设计的灯谜，供所有与会者开动脑筋。记得幼时过元宵节，老师会让我们去买花灯，晚上，同学们一起赏灯嬉戏。我至今依然清晰地记得，我当时做了一个八边形的花灯，泛着微微偏红的黄光，略显老旧。同学们裱的花灯五光十色：有南瓜灯、龙行灯、纸球灯……不胜枚举。

元宵节一过，中国年也接近尾声，所以，元宵节与家人团聚，也就意味着新一年生活和劳作的开始。