Text/MQ Zhang
"Peter ge Xi, a day of sight, such as marching Xi! He chooses Xiao Xi, but he doesn't see you for a day, like Sanqiu Xi! I haven't seen it for a day, it seems to be three years old! " This is wormwood in the Book of Songs. It's about not seeing each other for a day, like the love of lovers after three years. "It's Duanyang Day again, and I'm not alone?" What kind of wormwood is this at home? Expressed the thoughts of relatives for the distant wanderers.
On the bleak shore of the grass, the wormwood is swaying in the wind and rain, emitting a charming fragrance. This is wormwood by the Lijiang River in northern Guangxi in May.
"I miss my relatives every holiday." It's the Dragon Boat Festival again, and the streets and alleys are full of the fragrance of wormwood and zongzi. In China, eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival has become a custom. During the Dragon Boat Festival these days, it has become a custom to insert wormwood and hang wormwood at the door of every household.
When I was a child, I heard from my elders that wormwood was hung on the lintel or on one side of the door to ward off evil spirits. When I was young, I naturally believed it was true. In fact, the wormwood hanging at the door has another function, which is to repel mosquitoes. In May in the countryside, mosquitoes flourish, and the smell of wormwood is just the fear of mosquitoes. People braid the collected wormwood, hang it at the door and light it, and drive away mosquitoes with thick smoke. These are all my childhood memories. Every time I think of them, I always feel homesick at this moment.
The Dragon Boat Festival is the same in northern and southern China. I remember that during the Dragon Boat Festival in the northern countryside, in addition to buying bamboo leaves, glutinous rice and red dates to wrap zongzi, I chose wormwood, braided it and hung it on the door. Over the past 20 years, following the pace of the motherland's construction, I have been to many places and have the honor to appreciate the similarities and differences of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. Let's talk about zongzi again. In the north, glutinous rice and millet (also called yellow rice in the north) are the main materials, and three or five jujubes are added. Some add peanuts or mung beans and red beans. They are wrapped tightly with bamboo leaves in a triangle shape, tied tightly with bamboo leaves into a thin rope and cooked in a large iron pot for an hour or two. When cooking zongzi, the house is full of the fragrance of Indocalamus leaves and the mixed taste of glutinous rice and red dates. The south is different. As far as the main ingredients are concerned, jiaozi in the south is mainly made of glutinous rice, because such a good raw material as millet can't grow in the south, but jiaozi in the south has many auxiliary materials. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, preserved meat dumplings, ham dumplings and sausage dumplings represented by Jiaxing meat dumplings are particularly "greedy". In recent years, chicken, duck, goose and fish dumplings have been added. There are many kinds of zongzi, which are delicious, and people can't put it down.
Since I joined the work, I have basically spent the Dragon Boat Festival in the south every year. So I have a soft spot for zongzi in the south. Standing in the direction of the north, eating a southern zongzi and looking at the hometown of the north, the countryside in May is already full of wheat waves, fragrant grass, and the fragrance of wheat, wormwood, kudzu, mint and calamus is flowing everywhere. In this case, mom and dad must be busy making zongzi and inserting wormwood. (Editor in charge: Deputy Editor-in-Chief)