Eating rice-balls blended with green vegetable juice is a custom of Qingming festival in Nanjing, a custom which can be well traced back to the Zhou dynasty. People in ancient times only ate cold food instead of cooking during Qingming festival. Rice-balls are dyed with green plant leaves as sacrificial offerings. Nowadays, they are chiefly made of juice extracted from tender mugworts and glutinous rice. Several years ago, there were so many kinds of them, such as those with sweet and salty stuffings (rice-balls mixed with lard and rose as well as rice-balls with day-lilies and fresh pork, etc.). At present, the function of such food as the sacrificial offering is gradually fading away. It serves more frequently as a delicacy in season and of course a pastry in everyday life.