The Traditional Folk Custom Of Pastry Mould Art

Food culture is one of the most important folk customs of China. Meanwhile, Chinese food culture has magnificent contents and influences. For Chinese, food is not only the energy source to support livingness, but also the joy of aesthetics. Pastry mould is an important carrier of Chinese food culture. There are lots of categories of pastry mould, as for now, the artistic value and collecting value of pastry mould are more and more valued. The article studied on the pastry mould in North China and South China, for a deep insight of food culture and folk customs of China.The article is divided into four parts. By comparison of the Cultural etiquette and custom functions, the folk festivals and decoration meanings of North China’s and South China’s pastry mould, we can draw the similarity and differences between them.Chapter 1 is introduction, discussed the purpose, significance, method and innovation of the research. Chapter 2 provides an overview of pastry mould transformation process, explains the names and the classification of pastry mould. The history of pastry mould can be traced to the Bronze Age, and reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty. The classification of pastry mould is based on form, shape and pastry. Chapter 2 summarizes the features of carving of pastry mould.Chapter 3 is the main content of the article, mainly discussed the regular decoration patterns of pastry mould. Base on functions, the decoration patterns of pastry mould can be classified into 4 categories, including marriage and praying, birthday and New Year, religion and worship, blessing. Some of the design patterns are showed in the article. In this chapter, the traditional festival of China had been introduced, several pastry mould of different festival in north and south China were explained. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 summarized the general features of pastry mould in China.Although pastry mould is so elegant calligraphy and poetry, but it was the atmosphere which shares roots explain a real good honest folk, is a record of history, folk culture and art is the most sincere expression. The cultural feature and meaning of pastry mould is important for preserving the Chinese traditional culture, thus should be valued and protected properly.