The History of Tang Yuan
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| Image taken from: http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/ |
Hello everyone… did you read the history of Zongzi that I posted before? Do you like the value of that food?. Well actually Chinese food are really interesting for me, because Chinese it self has a lot of sacred tradition that contain food, so the value of the food is much precious as the tradition.
Well, this time we will talk about the other good history about Chinese food. We will talk about Tang Yuan. I already posted about how to make Tang Yuan, so you can try to make this one by your own.
In china tang yuan is such an important dessert in the Chinese Lunar Festival or Yuan Xiao Jie. In the festival Chinese people usually make and eat tang yuan with their family. Actually this food is the symbol of unity.
Long time ago, During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220), a girl named Yuan Xiao was taken from her home when she was very young to serve the emperor by making the best tangyuan in the kingdom. She hadn’t seen her family for a long time, and her homesickness had driven her to thoughts of suicide when one of the emperor’s advisors, Dong Fangshuo, found her weeping next to a well, contemplating her final leap. Yuan Xiao explained that she missed her family, and was considering committing suicide. The advisor promised Yuan Xiao that he would find a way to reunite her with her family.
Dong Fangshuo pretended to be a fortune-teller. He told all the people that the God of Fire was expected to burn down the entire city on the fifteenth day of the month. The Emperor, when he found out about this, asked Dong Fangshuo for a solution. Dong Fangshuo said that the city should hang red lanterns and light fireworks to make it appear as if the city was burning, which would appease to the God of Fire. As well, Dong Fangshuo told the Emperor that the God of Fire likes to eat Tang Yuan, a specialty of Yuan Xiao’s. So everyone in the city had to prepare Tang Yuan on the fifteenth day of the month.
Yuan Xiao’s parents also came to the capital to make the Tang Yuan for the festival, so Yuan Xiao can reunite with her family and live happily ever after. Based on the story, tang yuan has the meaning about the unity not only between Yuan Xiao and his family but also about the people that together make the Tang Yuan for the festival. The shape of tang yuan also symbolized the full moon in the first full moon of the lunar new year.
I hope, after we know about the story beside the food we can appreciate our food more and more. Well, see you next time… have a nice day…
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