Southerners eat glutinous rice balls during the Chinese New Year, which symbolizes reunion; Northerners eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year, which means getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. These are completely different customs between the north and the south. Nowadays, northerners living in cities have faded the custom of steaming steamed buns, but the custom of making frozen dumplings is still retained. Dumplings must be made and frozen at the latest on the 30th. For Northeasterners, making dumplings during the Chinese New Year is a big deal. They must use the best flour to make dumplings, so before the end of the year, every family wants to get ready for the flour. Making dumplings is a very troublesome thing for southerners, but it is a piece of cake for Northeasterners. Northeasterners never get tired of dumplings. There is a saying that "nothing tastes better than dumplings, nothing feels better than lying down, and nothing looks better than sister-in-law". To make dumplings, you must first knead the dough into a ball, cover it with a wet towel and set it aside. This is called waking up the dough. The dough needs to be awakened for about two hours, and during this time, the dumpling filling is prepared. During the Spring Festival, dumplings are made with several fillings, such as pork and celery, pork and sauerkraut, pork and cabbage, beef and radish, leek and egg, three fresh fillings, etc. No matter how many fillings you make, dumplings with celery filling are a must, and the motto is "diligent and quick". To make dumplings with celery filling, you must first blanch the celery in boiling water. The celery has a special smell after blanching, which can fumigate the whole house and people. The smell penetrates into the fabric of clothes and takes several days to disappear. During those days, even the air in the office is filled with the smell of celery. Believe it or not, every time this festival comes, you can tell what kind of dumplings they make by the smell coming from other people. When making dumplings, the whole family gathers together. A large board is placed on the kang, and the whole family gathers around, chatting and working. One person can make dumpling skins for three or four people. Children don't know how to make dumplings, so they put the dumplings on a lid (a round tray made of sorghum stalks) and the adults take them to the yard to freeze. Finally, they put coins in a few dumplings. Whoever eats the dumplings with coins will have good luck in the whole year. In the twelfth lunar month, the outdoor temperature is minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, so the dumplings will freeze quickly. The frozen dumplings are separated according to different fillings, put into clean flour bags and stored in the "Starry Sky" refrigerator. Frozen dumplings, big steamed buns, and sticky bean buns are the staple food and snacks for family gatherings or entertaining guests during the Spring Festival. Nanxia said that he didn't understand why people in the Northeast make so many frozen dumplings. In fact, the reason is very simple. Making frozen dumplings is to make it convenient and easy to eat during the festival. Think about it, everyone wants to play during the Spring Festival. They play for half a night, and the next morning they get up to boil water, put the frozen dumplings into the pot and cook them, and eat them. There is no need to make them right away. Especially for housewives, there are frozen dumplings and frozen dried food prepared for the New Year, so they don’t have to be as busy as usual. They can also spend time with family and friends, eat melon seeds and watch TV, visit neighbors and chat, or play poker or mahjong. After a year, housewives should also be free, right?