Baoshan Township’s Eating at Noon Cultural Festival was held today (February 21) at the side of Baodou Village Meeting Hall. A large number of local people carrying baskets packed with Hakka foods on poles and the deity procession packed Lane 57, Baodou Road. Quite a few children carrying baskets containing sweets hung on poles could be seen in the procession, attracting the gaze of many people. At noon, several thousand people enjoyed traditional Hakka foods together, experiencing the fun of eating with others.
A full range of traditional Hakka foods, including oil rice, chicken soup with rice wine, glutinous rice cake, Hakka tangyuan glutinous rice dumplings, vegetable buns, fried noodles, fried rice noodles, and niu wen shui glutinous rice cakes made an appearance at Eating at Noon today in the ceremonial area of Baodou Village. Fan Xue-jing, Director of the Department Culture and Education of the Hakka Affairs Council, Legislator Lin Wei-zhou and others attended to introduce the thousands of visitors attracted by the chance of experiencing Hakka culture to the origins of the Eating at Noon festival and the meaning of “Finish all the food, have a good year.”
As well as the children carrying baskets attracting attention, the baskets carried by Jiang Song-fu, Deputy-director of the county’s Bureau of Health and Baoshan Township Chief Qiu Kun-tong and others also caught the eye; containing seasonal fruit, Hakka thick noodles and vegetable rolls, fruit and vegetable sandwiches, the foods made with reduced salt, sugar and soy sauce, the aim was to encourage people to eat five kinds of fruit and vegetable every day.
The first splendid performances at this year’s festival were by a square-mouthed lion dance troupe and a Hakka eight instrument (ba yin) group. Fan Xue-jing stressed that the traditional Hakka Eating at Noon festival has been held for over a century without a break. Many households in Baoshan Township voluntarily cook up tasty dishes to be eaten at noon on the day of the festival, making Eating at Noon livelier every year. She expressed the hope that the festival continues to grow and becomes one of the main Hakka settlement festivals.
Baoshan Township Chief Qiu Kun-tong explained that Eating at Noon is the most important annual deity procession and day for friendly interaction between residents in Baoshan Township. Larger in scale since 2011, groups from the communities across the township and surrounding Hakka settlements are invited to participate. It has received a subsidy from the Hakka Affairs Council for six years in succession, as well as being closely supervised by Hsinchu County Government. This year, Eating at Noon’s procession returned to the 100-year old route, in Baodou Village ceremonial area, the venue this year, where the food carried in baskets by local people (also well known as Tiao Dan Shi Fu activity) was enjoyed by all on February 21.