Festival for Ancestor Worship
It is a tradition in Xiamen and its neighboring cities that Festival for Ancestor Worship (Jingzu Festival) is seen as one of the largest folk festivals. It falls on the 3rd day of the third lunar month in Chinese lunar calendar and baobing are offered on this very day as sacrifices to worship the passed ancestors.
“Baobing”, is also called “runbing” in Mandarin and spring roll in Taiwanese. There are two main components of “Baobing”, the skin made mostly from the fine flour and fillings made from precooked ingredients such as dried tofu, pork, bean sprouts, bamboo shoot, carrot, ternip and fragrant-flowered garlic. Those deep-fried ingredients are wrapped fully in the shape of bamboo tube. You can dip the Baobing in chili sauce or mustard to make it much more flavorful.
Although we fail to trace the history of “Bobing”, there is an old saying goes like this: after Zheng Chenggong recapturing Taiwan from the Dutch colonialists, great efforts have been made by this famous general in Ming Dynasty for Taiwan’s development. After his death, his son Zhengjing followed his father’s wishes and continued defending Qing army against invasion. When he called out his troops to the southern Fujian province, they met fierce resistance from the Qing army and his troops suffered heavy casualties. Finally they won the battle after several times’ stalemate. The local masses were so excited about this news and they welcomed Zheng army’s coming with great hospitality. At the same time, people made the “Baobing” to pay respect to the deceased. Thereafter, it becomes a common practice for the local people to offer Baobing as sacrifice in memory of the ancestors on March 3rd of the Chinese lunar calendar.
