Xuzhou Mutton Festival in Dog Days

The mutton festival is a traditional food festival of China, “eating mutton in dog days” has a very long history in Xuzhou, Jiangsu and can date back to the Yao and Shun periods.

The mutton festival starts from the first dog-days in lunar calendar and ends at the final dog-days each year, lasting for one month. Since the ancient times, in Xuzhou area there is a saying in the folk that “It’s unnecessary to make a prescription by miracle-working doctors after having a bowl of mutton soup in dog days”.

The mutton here refers to the mutton in dog days in summer. It’s pioneering work to have dietary therapy by eating mutton in hot days as it is to restrain heat by heat, perspire and expel toxin in the body, removing the toxin and moisture produced in winter and spring.

During the mutton festival, all restaurants in Xuzhou and Xiaoxian County promote serial “mutton dish collection in dog days”to citizens to get their comments, and hold the opening ceremony for the mutton festival, local dramas, dancing, Chinese Wushu, folk customs are performed every day, and fabrics, dough modelling, paper cutting, flowers, birds and odd stone shows are held too.