When I came to grandma's door and saw some green plants in front of it, a big question mark popped up in my heart. What is this? Why hang it at the gate? I quickly asked my grandmother, and she said cheerfully, "This is Artemisia argyi. Inserting it in the doors and windows before dawn on the Dragon Boat Festival can repel mosquitoes and sterilize, and it can also ward off evil spirits. " Then, grandma tied colored threads and put on sachets for my sister and me, and she said; With these two things, children can avoid the harm of snakes, scorpions and poisonous insects and keep safe. "
After a while, grandma began to prepare materials for making zongzi. First of all, she put the washed zongzi leaves in a pot for more than ten minutes, so that the green gas on the leaves can be removed and the flexibility of the leaves can be increased, so that the zongzi will not be broken when making it. Then wash the glutinous rice and soak it for five or six hours. After everything was ready, we began to make zongzi. Grandma put two zongzi leaves in her left hand and overlapped them slightly. She fished out a proper amount of glutinous rice from her right hand and spread it evenly in the center of the zongzi leaves. Then she put candied dates and peanuts on it, covered the glutinous rice in the middle with two forefingers, rolled it into a semi-cylindrical shape, folded the leaves on both sides in half in the middle and wrapped it tightly with thread, and a round zongzi was wrapped. Wait until all the zongzi are wrapped and put into the pot, cook for two hours, turn off the heat, cook for another two hours, then turn off the heat and stew for two hours before eating.
Eating sweet zongzi, grandma told us the origin of Dragon Boat Festival, which was originally a traditional way to commemorate Qu Yuan, a great poet in history. Qu Yuan was a Chu man in the Warring States Period. He is honest, concerned about the country and the people, and devoted himself to the political reform of the country. However, he was repeatedly attacked and persecuted by villains. Besides, Chu Huaiwang is ignorant, and he is full of loyalty to the monarch and love for the people. Qu Yuan finally died in the Miluo River on the fifth day of May in grief and despair. After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from pecking at his body, people used dragon boats to drive zongzi into the river to drive away the fish and shrimp. Since then, people have had the custom of eating zongzi and racing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival every year to commemorate Qu Yuan.
While eating zongzi and listening to grandma's story, I feel It's a Wonderful Life!