What are the Tanabata activities in Yantai?
Fruit endemic to Laos
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the traditional Valentine's Day in China. In order to be clever, there is a custom of eating appropriate fruits on July 7. Appropriate fruit is not fruit, but a snack made of flour.
There is such a custom in Qixia, Yantai, Jiaodong, on July 7th. In the farming season, there is a peasant proverb: See Gu Xiu on June 6th and Gu Mi on July 7th.
It means that on June 6 of the lunar calendar, the ears of grain in the field began to appear, and by July 7, the ears of grain were basically full and the harvest was in sight. In order to welcome the bumper harvest, on this day, every household has the custom of branding appropriate fruits.
Sitting and watching morning glory and Vega on Qixi night.
Sitting and watching morning glory and Vega on Qixi night is a folk custom since ancient times. Legend has it that on this night, people can hear the love story when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet under the melon and fruit shelf. There are countless spoony women praying for a happy marriage in the starry night, hoping to find faithful love.
Tanabata Qiao Qi
The customs of Tanabata include piercing needles, liking spiders' cleverness, throwing needles to try cleverness, giving birth to children, and worshipping weaver girls. These are the traditional customs of Valentine's Day in ancient China. On the night of Qixi, the girls will place seasonal fruits and flowers, worship the sky, and beg the goddess in the sky to give them intelligent hearts and dexterous hands.
Why should we eat proper fruit on Tanabata?
Legend has it that in the past, girls wanted to be smart and skillful before they got married, so they prayed to the Weaver Girl to give them a pair of skillful hands in this way, hoping that the Weaver Girl could also give them a pair of skillful hands, so proper fruits were born.
There are many varieties of suitable fruit in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the main raw materials are oil, flour, sugar, milk and eggs. It is a biscuit that dough is put into a wooden mold (also called dice) with pomegranate, chicken, lion, goldfish and other flower-shaped patterns, fried or baked.
Some suitable fruits are also colored in seven colors, some with red dots, strung in a string with long lines, the ends of which are hung on the wall with sand fruits or cloth as decorations and snacks, and some are strung in a circle and played between the children's necks. According to legend, on Qixi night, women and children throw appropriate fruits behind the house, and magpies take the title to bridge the gap, so that cowherd and weaver girl can meet at night across the Milky Way.
Suitable fruit is easy to make. First, cut the dough into strips one or two inches long, and then fry it in a hot oil pan until golden brown. Then scoop up the fried dough and sprinkle with sesame seeds and sugar immediately, which is crisp and sweet.