Yuanxiao and the Yuanxiao Festival

Yuanxiao is a thin piece of glutinous rice dough with fillings wrapped up in it looking like a ball. It is also called “tangyuan”. As tangyuan has a similar sound effect with tuanyuan (meaning “reunion” in Chinese) and Yuanxiao Festival comes with the first full moon of the year, tangyuan has a symbolic significance of family reunion and people simply call the food yuanxiao.

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Fillings for yuanxiao are various. There are meat, vegetables and spicy fillings. The common ones are sweetened bean paste, sugar, sweet-scented osmanthus, nut meat, hawthorn, pork, etc. Yuanxiao is also filled with a mixture of five different elements, including onion, ginger, garlic, chives and mustard. The mixture of the five elements has a double meaning of “reunion” and “endurance”.

Yuanxiao made in Chengdu Sichuan Province and Ningbo Zhejiang Province are well-known in China. It is filled with black sesame and sugar mixed with lard. 

Chinese Folklores & Festivals Website

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