In China, April 4, 2017 is the day of Qingming Festival. The date of Qingming, dpending on the 15th day from the Spring Equinox, changes every year between April 4th to 6th. On that day people will go to sweep tombs to commemorate ancestors as the most important activity to show respect to our ancestors. Also, people will have 3-day holiday to go out for spring outing to celebrate the coming of spring, green and blossom. During Qingming, willow starts turning green, for a good meaning, people will put willow branches on gates for protection against evil, as well as for welcoming the spring and green. When people going out for spring outing, they will make a willow crown and put on head. To celebrate Qingming, different places in China has their own special food to celebrate. I am going to introduce several common food in China. One calls Qing Tuan, meaning green glutinous rice ball. Mixed glutinous rice and juice from green mugwort or barley grass makes it green, symbolizes the green of spring, and normally with red bean paste as fillings. There are many other food that people eat around Qingming time. For example, snails are getting fattest around Qingming, thus it is the best time to eat snails, which been called Qingming snails. Snails can be stir-fried with shell, and flavored with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, and chili, then eat with toothpick to pick out the meat. Also the flesh can be picked out first and cooked with other ingredients, for example, in my hometown, snail meat stir-fried with Chinese chives is the most common combination. Sanzi is made of wheat flour dough as noddles and deep fried, making it very crispy. Nowadays, it is not only eaten during Qingming, gradually it is eaten as snack in many places in China. Around Qingming, in many warm places the peach starts blossoming. In my hometown, the peach blossoms every year, and my family will go to botanic garden to visit the beautiful peach blossom. As a good ingredient to cooking, people will use peach blossom for congee. This custom can be traced back to Tang Dynasty. Thank you for reading about the new culture about Chinese Qingming Festival. Even though I am at Miami now where always is green, I still want you enjoy the coming of spring and try more Chinese food!
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