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What is the Cold Food Festival?
Han Shi is a festival celebrated on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, originating in some provinces of China, northern Vietnam, and some Chinese communities around the world.
Every year on this day, many families grind rice flour, steam mung beans, make glutinous rice balls, vegetarian cakes (in China, they make sweet glutinous rice balls in syrup), cook sticky rice and sweet soup to offer to Buddha and their ancestors, as a way to commemorate loved ones in the last days of spring.
"Han Shi" means "cold food." However, few people know that the two words "Han Shi" are associated with a historical anecdote in China, widely known through the novel "Eastern Zhou Kingdoms."
The story of the origin of the Cold Food Festival.
During the Spring and Autumn period, King Wen of Jin faced rebellion and had to flee his country, taking refuge in Qi one day and Chu the next. At that time, a wise man named Jie Zitui followed the king, offering him strategic advice. One day, while on the run, their food supplies ran out, so Jie Zitui secretly cut a piece of flesh from his own thigh and cooked it for the king. Upon hearing the story, the king was deeply moved and grateful.
Jie Zitui served Duke Wen of Jin for 19 years, enduring countless hardships and dangers together. Later, Duke Wen of Jin regained the throne and returned to rule the State of Jin, generously rewarding those who had helped him in his exile, but forgetting Jie Zitui's contributions. Jie Zitui did not harbor resentment; instead, he returned home and took his mother to live in seclusion on Mount Dian.
Later, Duke Wen of Jin remembered and sent people to search for them. Jie Zitui refused to leave Tianshan Mountain to receive his reward, so Duke Wen ordered the forest to be burned, intending to force Jie Zitui to come out. However, he resolutely refused to obey, and ultimately both he and his mother perished in the fire. Out of sorrow, the king erected a temple in their honor and ordered the people to refrain from lighting fires for three days, eating only cold, pre-cooked food in remembrance (approximately from the 3rd to the 5th of the 3rd lunar month each year).
Colorful Chinese dishes for the Cold Food Festival.
On the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, the Chinese typically prepare unique and colorful dishes such as mung bean dumplings, rope-shaped rolls, snails, and more.
Spring rolls are an indispensable dish in traditional meals on special occasions in China. The ingredients for spring rolls are very common, including peas, eggs, carrots, seaweed, cilantro, peanuts, lean meat, etc. What makes spring rolls different is the soft, fragrant, and chewy rice paper wrapper made from rice from Fujian province.
Qingyuanzi (green dumplings) are a traditional Chinese delicacy often offered to ancestors or given as gifts to friends and neighbors. The dumplings have a glossy, jade-like green color and a sweet, nutty flavor. The outer layer is green, dyed with mugwort or wormwood, while the filling consists of chives, eggs, and dried tofu.
In addition, five-colored rice – consisting of black, yellow, red, purple, and white, symbolizing the five elements – is a traditional dish of Jiangsu people. On the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, people in Jiangsu cook this rice and give it as gifts to relatives, friends, and neighbors. Snails are also a popular choice for Chinese people during the Cold Food Festival.
Vietnamese Cold Food Festival
Although originating from China, the Vietnamese Cold Food Festival still retains its own unique characteristics, deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture, and has little connection to the story of Jie Zitui.
Originally, because the Cold Food Festival (Hàn Thực) originated in China, the dishes offered as sacrifices also reflected Chinese culture. However, upon its introduction to Vietnam, the regulations and the types of cakes used for offerings were slightly modified to suit Vietnamese traditions. In particular, the Vietnamese created glutinous rice balls (bánh trôi) and vegetarian cakes (bánh chay) to symbolize cold foods – hàn thực. Therefore, this day is also known as the glutinous rice ball and vegetarian cake festival.
Since ancient times, glutinous rice balls (bánh trôi) and vegetarian rice balls (bánh chay) have been featured in Vietnamese poetry as popular and characteristic dishes of the Vietnamese people. Both types of bánh trôi and bánh chay are made from fragrant glutinous rice flour. Bánh trôi are small, white balls with a red sugar filling, boiled in a pot of boiling water until they float to the surface and are just cooked through; bánh chay are flat, round balls without filling, placed on a small plate, and served with sugar syrup poured over them.
There are also stories that say glutinous rice balls and vegetarian rice cakes originated during the Hung King era, and the custom of making these two types of cakes commemorates the legend of Au Co's "hundred eggs." The hundred small cakes symbolize the hundred eggs of Lac Long Quan. Glutinous rice balls represent the 50 eggs that hatched into 50 children who followed their mother to the forest; vegetarian rice cakes represent the 50 eggs that hatched into 50 children who followed their father to the sea.
Nowadays, Vietnamese people have added many more colors to the two types of glutinous rice balls (bánh trôi and bánh chay) such as red, green, yellow, black, etc., based on natural coloring ingredients like pandan leaves, red beans, black sesame seeds, yellow/purple sweet potatoes... These eye-catching and vibrant colors make the rituals and preparations for the Cold Food Festival (Tết Hàn Thực) more accessible to the younger generation.
Things to avoid during the Cold Food Festival.
There aren't many taboos on the Cold Food Festival, and in the past, the most important one was not lighting a fire. This taboo originated in China.
However, on this day, Vietnamese people do not abstain from using fire and still cook as usual; at the same time, they use glutinous rice balls and vegetarian cakes to offer incense and worship, with the meaning that these are cold foods (han thuc).
The traditional way of making cakes for the Cold Food Festival (Han Shi Festival) is to ensure that they are white, vegetarian cakes, without the colorful decorations commonly seen today. Traditional cakes for the Cold Food Festival are made from white glutinous rice flour, round, full, and pure, with sugar coating inside, to symbolize purity and serenity.
Offerings to the deceased on this day should be simple and modest, not overly elaborate or expensive. Therefore, avoid lavish celebrations with extravagant feasts; instead, a simple offering with sincere devotion is sufficient.
Furthermore, observing a vegetarian diet and avoiding killing animals on the Cold Food Festival is also encouraged, as folk belief holds that this will help the souls of the deceased find peace more easily.
