In the past, the Chung Yeung Festival had to take the married daughter home for the holiday, so it was also called the "Daughter's Day". Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoSeptember 9th, it happens that the 29th meets, and "nine" is the same as the long-lasting "long", which means short-lived, so the Chinese government has designated September 9 as the "Old People's Day" in recent years, also known as the "Respect for the Elderly Day". In our country, respecting the elderly has become a common practice, and respecting the elderly and filial piety to the elderly has always been an excellent tradition of the Chinese nation. This traditional virtue is also expressed in the customs of the seasons. In addition to the aforementioned drinking dogwood, chrysanthemum wine, and eating chrysanthemum food, there are many more, the most famous of which is eating cakes. In the north, eating chongyang cake is particularly popular.

According to the "Xijing Miscellaneous Records", in the Han Dynasty, there was a custom of eating puffy bait on September 9, that is, the original Chongyang cake. Bait, that is, the cake of antiquity. The bait of the "Weekly Rite" is used as a memorial service or eaten at banquets. In the Han Dynasty, there was also a millet cake, which may be not far from today's cake. Pengbait, presumably similar to millet cake and the like. In the Song Dynasty, the trend of eating Chongyang cake was flourishing. Cake is homophonic with Gao, and eating cake is to take an ominous meaning, so it is loved by people.

Stick some coriander leaves as a sign, and sandwich rough dried fruits such as green fruits, jujubes, and walnut kernels in the middle; There are 3 layers and 2 layers of fine flower cakes, and there are finer candied dried fruits sandwiched in the middle of each layer, such as preserved apples, preserved peaches, preserved apricots, black dates, etc.; The money cake is basically the same as the fine flower cake, but it is smaller, like "money", and it is mostly the food of the upper class nobles. I heard that in the early years, the family did not use the dough cake sandwiched with dates and chestnut fruits, or steamed with Jiang rice and yellow rice noodles into sticky cakes, like "gold" and "silver" flower cakes.

It is rumored that Kang Hai, the champion of the Ming Dynasty, was a martial artist in Shaanxi. After he participated in the township test in mid-August, he was sick in Chang'an, and after the list was released in August, the good news was sent to Wugong, but Kang Hai had not yet arrived home at this time. There was no one at home to send the reward, so the newspaper refused to leave, and he had to wait until Kang Hai returned. When Kang Hai returned home from his illness, it used to be the Chung Yeung Festival. Only then did he send the news, give him a reward, and steam a pot of cake for him to make dry food on his return journey. I steamed some more cakes and gave them to the neighbors. Since this cake is used to celebrate the champion of Kang Haizhong, people who have children who go to school later also distribute steamed cakes during the Chung Yeung Festival to ask for a good omen. This is how the custom of eating cakes during the Chung Yeung Festival spread.

Chongyang cake, also known as flower cake or Chongyang flower cake, is a traditional festival cake in China; Wangwen Shengyi is the festival of the Double Ninth Festival in the first month of September of the summer calendar. The way this cake is made and the customs of eating it vary from place to place, and there are many theories about its origin and the meaning of folk culture. It is common to think that Chongyang cake originated from the custom of ascending during the Chongyang Festival. According to Liang Wujun's "Continuation of Qi Harmonic Records" of the Southern Dynasty, during the Han Dynasty, Huan Jing, a native of Runan, studied under Fei Changfang to learn immortals. One day, Fei Changfang informed the students: There is a catastrophe coming to your house on September 9, you can teach your family to sew cloth bags, which are filled with dogwoods and tied to their arms.

Huan Jing acted according to his words, and he was really fine. Later generations followed suit, and then constituted a complete set of Chung Yeung Festival customs such as climbing the high mountain, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and inserting dogwoods on the ninth day of September. Since about the Song Dynasty, the custom of Chongyang dieting "Chongyang cake" has been officially seen in the book, such as Wu Zimu's "Menglianglu" volume 5 records the customs of Lin'an (Hangzhou) Chongjiu: "On this day, the people of the capital shop steamed cakes with sugar noodles...... Insert a small bunting, named 'Chongyang Cake'. Later, such as Ming Liu Tong and Yu Yizheng's "Imperial Beijing Scenery and Things" volume 2 also contains Beijing's heavy nine customs: "The cake shop is marked with paper colored flags, and it is called 'flower cake flags'." "This tradition of planting small flags on flower cakes has not changed so far. The original meaning is that ordinary citizens are limited by the urban topography and product resources, and it is inconvenient to climb to avoid disasters or collect dogwoods, so they use food cakes instead of climbing (cakes) and paper flags instead of dogwoods.

First, the cultural significance of Chongyang cake focuses on the word "cake", that is, the homonym of this homonym and the homonym of various condiments of cake-making, which expresses the auspicious blessing. For example, Xie Zhaoqian's "Five Miscellaneous Works" quoted Song Lu Yuanming's "Miscellaneous Notes of the Year" that folk customs, on the ninth day of the ninth month of September, "at dawn, put a piece of cake on the forehead of the children, and even wished: 'May the children be high in everything.'" 'This ancient man made cakes for nine days.' In addition, Song Anonymous's "Chronicles of the Year" said that "on September 9th, the cake was steamed with flour, and several deer were placed on it, called 'Shilu Cake'", which has seen the homophonic expression of the condiment ornaments of the cake.

The proverb of "September 9, move back to the girl to rest" is prevalent among the folk so far, and the condiments such as jujube, chestnut, melon seeds (benevolence) in the flower cake or the pattern of "barbarian lion" on the cake surface (Song Jinmi's "Qianchun Year Chronicles: Chongjiu") and other patterns imply the motive of the young woman begging her mother's family for the good fortune of the early son. All of these are "the meaning of the ancients making cakes for nine days".

It is said that the custom of eating cakes on the ninth day of September was once prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, and the "Words of Liu Guestjia" contains a joke that Master Yuan De did not dare to follow the custom of "cakes on the ninth day" because of his father's high esteem; In the "Tang Liudian Diet", there is also a record of "September 9th Ma Ge Cake", but there is no name for the Chongyang Festival. The truth is as stated in Sui Du Taiqing's "Jade Candle Treasure Book": "At that time, the millet was harvested together, and because of the sticky rice taste, it was touched and tasted new, and then it became a habit." ”

That is to say, the ancients used the corn grain to ripen in September, so it was steamed as a cake and other food to worship the ancestors and recommend the gods to taste the new, Lu Yuanming's "Miscellaneous Notes of the Year" said that "the two societies (that is, the spring society, the autumn society), Chongyang is still cake food, and Chongyang is prosperous", just to outline the prototype of Chongyang cake is the sacrifice of the ancestors in the spring and autumn two social ceremonies. According to the "Book of Sui, Five Elements Chronicles", in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a nursery rhyme of "July is early, and it is just right to eat cakes in September", it is known that this custom has been around for a long time, but in the Tang and Song dynasties, with the prevalence of the customs of the Double Ninth Festival, it evolved into the exclusive food of the festival. However, the folk meaning of his joy to celebrate the autumn has remained for a long time, and the poem of "Spinning Wheat Cake to Invite Fathers and Elders" and Lu's "Two Societies" have been retained for a long time...... Shang cake food" can be proven.

It is also said that the source of Chongyang cake is the food "pengbait" of the pre-Qin Dynasty. "Peng" means Pengzi, Artemisia plant; "Bait" is a sticky food, and modern Chinese dictionaries often interpret it as "cake", because it is known that Peng bait is a cake-like food made of Pengzi mixed with rice flour. Jin Gehong's "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" volume 3 records that the maid of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, recalled the old things in the palace, and there was "September 9th...... The phrase "eating pengbait" speculates that this custom will not begin in the early Han Dynasty, but should be a pre-Qin tradition. "The Book of Rites: Internal Rules": "Shoot people with mulberry arcs, Peng arrows six, and shoot the four directions of heaven and earth." Kong Yingda said: "Peng is the grass that resists chaos. This understanding is in line with the explanation of the third volume of the "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" that "eating canopy bait is to purify demons and evil spirits". Therefore, it is known that the original intention of the nine food canopy bait in the first month of September was to drive away evil spirits and purify demons, and after this custom evolved into the Chongyang food cake of the Song Dynasty, its original meaning was buried.

There is also a saying that the Tang Dynasty scroll "Miscellaneous Copy" (Si 5755) found in Dunhuang is that the ancient emperor had a son named Yao, who was named Tang Marquis at the age of eight and ascended to the throne on December 8. On the ninth day of September of a certain year, Tang Yao convened a meeting of the princes of the world and entertained them with noodles, rice and wine. The rice had not yet been delivered, and Emperor Yu had passed away. Therefore, the hundred officials recommended Dai Tang Yao to succeed to the throne, because they wanted to mourn for the emperor and could not drink alcohol, so they switched to white rice and flax to make white rice dough, cakes and other foods, which were eaten when the princes visited the new lord.