Happy Lantern Festival, everyone!
Today marks the day of the annual Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival; an important Chinese tradition that has been celebrated for more than 2,000 years on the 15th day of the lunar calendar.
And this year, this festival falls on February 19.
But as you very well know, China is a massive country of over a billion people. As such, despite its nationwide popularity, the Lantern Festival hasn’t celebrated the same way everywhere.
So how do the Chinese commemorate this cultural tradition?
Activities usually include lighting up lanterns and fireworks (many major cities have already banned the use of fireworks), and folk dance performances.
Guessing lantern riddles
And eating yuán xiāo/ tāng yuán! Yummy!
Today, we’ll be focusing on only one of those traditions to teach you the difference between yuán xiāo and tāng yuan as eating them has become an essential part of this festival!
In China, people will tell you that “northerners eat yuán xiāo, and southerners eat tāng yuán”. And while many think that yuán xiāo and yuán xiāo are different names for the same food, but they are actually not quite the same.
How yuán xiāo is made differs by region and fillings, which may include sugar, fruits, sesame, sweetened bean paste, and/or jujube paste among other ingredients. Some yuán xiāo don’t come with any fillings at all.
Differences in making yuán xiāo
Yuán xiāo
To make yuán xiāo, one must stuff them in solid shapes and then cut them into small pieces. Dip them in water and then add raw glutinous rice flour on the sieve shaker. Then, sprinkle with a bit of water while shaking them until the stuffing is all rolled up into balls.
Because yuán xiāo is sieved and rolled, it comes in bigger sizes than tāng yuan normally would, which requires them to cook longer than tāng yuán.
tāng yuán
Tāng yuán is made of glutinous rice flour mixed with hot or cold water to form a dough. You then need to put all kinds of stuffing into a round shape.
The fillings are different
Because of its rolled up shape that requires its stuffing to be hard, yuán xiāo uses black sesame as its sweet stuffing.
Tāng yuan, on the other hand, is kneaded into glutinous rice balls, which makes the filling process a lot smoother and easier than yuán xiāo.
Different modes of preservation
While tāng yuan ca be found in frozen packets in supermarkets, it seems yuán xiāo are a bit harder to spot. Why is that?
That’s because they need to be made and sold fresh. After being refrigerated for a few days, its surface will turn to an inedible red color. They’re quite hard to find but definitely worth the extra efforts!
As a northerner, I prefer tāng yuan with either black sesame or fruit fillings!
Yuán xiāo are round in shape, which generally represents a sense of reunion, harmony and happiness.
Family members will usually sit together throughout the evening of the Lantern Festival and enjoy their delectable taste together under the full moon.
Do you like to eat those Chinese delicacies?
Have you tried them before?
Let us know about your experience in the comment section below!