Text/Zheng Yongtao
The Lantern is a traditional Food made from steamed Noodle Noodles that can be used to light up and pray for blessings and eat. The New Year cake, on the other hand, is a fragrant, sweet and soft dough cake fried with steamed huangzi noodles wrapped in sugar, and is an indispensable custom during the New Year. In Chinese folk, there are not a few people who give food artistry and ornamentality, but it is rare to integrate food with lamps, which shows the uniqueness of the Lantern. The reason why the New Year lantern is called the New Year Lantern is mainly because it is steamed during the New Year. While enriching the Flavor of the New Year and giving people a yearning for a better life, it also forms a delicacy in the memories of the Spring Festival in the hometown together with the New Year cake made of the same Huangzi noodles.
The New Year's lantern is lit during the Lantern Festival, but not only one night, but on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth nights of the first month. Fourteen nights is a test lamp, fifteen nights is a new year lamp, and sixteen nights is called a lack of lights. The Lantern Festival, a traditional festival about lights, is also called Xiaonian in the ji'nan area. In my hometown, during the Lantern Festival, not only fireworks and lanterns should be lit, but also New Year lanterns. Because the fourteenth night is to try the lamp, so the steaming of the new year noodles and the making of the new year lamp are usually carried out on the thirteenth day of the first month, and the thirteenth day is to steam all the annual lights used for three days. The people of the hometown say that the thirteen steaming lamps and the wind in the field are a proverb that urges people to be diligent and diligent. The women mix the noodles with warm water and mix them well, and then knead them into a nest and put them into a steamer basket, which steams for half an hour to become an adult noodle. But this is not the finished product of the annual noodles, you must sprinkle some white noodles and even on the semi-finished noodles, otherwise it will be soft and sticky, and the noodles will become extra hard after cooling. After the noodles are steamed, it is time to make the noodles into a lantern. Drag a piece of Nian noodles into a cylindrical shape, cut it into sections with a knife, and then use one end to make a base, and the other end is kneaded by hand to hold the groove for oil, and the Nian Lantern is made. In addition, the women also use their dexterous hands to make a duck-like annual lamp, a chicken-like annual lamp and a dog-like annual lamp, all three of which also have oil tanks, but only at night during the Lantern Festival.
When it was time to try the lamp on the fourteenth night, the women rolled cotton wool into a wick and inserted it into the oil tank of the lantern, then poured vegetable oil into the oil tank and lit the wick, and then put this bean light in front of the gods to worship the gods and pray for good fortune. On the night of the Lantern Festival, people will light the most Lanterns, not only before the throne of the gods, but also in all places and corners of the house, but also with the Lanterns carefully illuminated around, because the people of the hometown believe that the light of the Lanterns can get rid of scorpion diseases, ward off evil spirits and pray for peace and auspiciousness. People put the duck lantern in a bowl and put it in the water tank, put the chicken year lamp on the pot table, and put the dog year lamp on the kennel. The old saying was that when the duck new year lamp was extinguished, the head was facing which direction, where the wind and rain would be smooth in the coming year, the chicken year lamp could prevent the pot from attracting ants, and the dog year lamp could protect the safety of the family dog. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the lights and shadows outside the houses in every house flicker, and from a distance, there is a peaceful and warm scene. This flickering dim light, gentle and calm, makes people feel warm and feel solid. In particular, the duck lantern in the water tank, riding a bean light quietly floating on the water surface, reflects a full of light, clear and serene, making people nostalgic. When I was a child, I was extremely happy to participate in the annual custom of lighting the New Year's lantern, and I also believed in the sayings handed down by my ancestors. With the Lantern in my hand, I would carefully illuminate the corners and corners of my home, even in the hut. Regarding the New Year lantern, there is also a saying in the hometown, that is, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the first New Year's baby should see the seven New Year lanterns, and it is seven families with different surnames, it is said that after seeing the seven New Year lanterns, the children will be more discerning and intelligent. Therefore, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the scene of young mothers holding their children and hurrying to visit the Door to see the New Year lanterns has also become a flowing scenery in the Lantern Festival in their hometowns.
After returning home after watching the fireworks, most of the annual lights have been extinguished. People would put away the lanterns they had finished and use them in the early sixteenth morning to bake miscellaneous diseases. Grilling miscellaneous diseases is also one of the annual customs of the hometown, that is, in the early morning of the sixteenth day of the first month, light a campfire outside the house to roast, it is said that after roasting the campfire, the body will be healthy and healthy, away from the suffering of disease. In the process of roasting miscellaneous diseases, baking New Year lamps is indispensable. Take out the wick of the New Year lamp and throw it into the fire, then put it next to the campfire and bake it slowly, and when the skin is baked to brown, you must reach out and quickly retrieve the New Year lamp. At this time, the New Year lantern is a very tempting delicacy, the outside is tender and the taste is sweet, and the children are scrambling to enjoy it. Pull a piece into the mouth, or put a mouthful into the mouth, that pride, no less than getting a red packet. After eating the New Year's lantern, the children's mouths were all black, and none of them were clean, like a small bag. The reason why I want to bake the New Year lamp and eat the New Year lamp is mainly for the purpose of eye protection. It is said that after eating a roasted New Year lantern, the eyes will be brighter and there will be no eye disease. For these statements about the New Year's lanterns, there is no need to explore their scientific nature, it is just the hometown people's prayer for health and peace, the prayer for the new year, and the yearning for a better life.
After talking about the New Year's lantern, we can't help but talk about the New Year cake. It is not practical to make New Year lanterns for many years, and most of the steamed half-basin noodles are still used to fry New Year cakes. In their hometown, pancakes are a specialty of women. Pull a piece of dough from the dough, then wrap it in brown sugar with a pair of dexterous hands and knead it into a child's palm-sized cake, then fry it in a frying pan. When the new year cake turns brown, this sweet and hot new year cake is fried. The fried New Year cake is tender on the outside and tender on the inside, and the originally sweet New Year noodles are combined with the sweetness of the fried incense and brown sugar, which is what a delicacy. Use chopsticks to clip a piece of freshly cooked New Year cake to the mouth and tentatively bite it, when the cake touches the tip of the tongue, the ultimate sweetness will drill straight into the bottom of the heart, deeply buried in the memory of the Spring Festival. This New Year cake, which can only be enjoyed during the New Year, the scene when the family shares the New Year cake together, will be deeply buried in the memory of every hometown person with the simple sweetness and the warmth of reunion.
In recent years, with the growing of the migrant work force, more and more families can only be reunited during the New Year, so this New Year cake has a deeper and stronger feeling with the mother. Mothers in their hometown, before their children return home for the New Year, are eager to eat a few pieces of New Year cakes that they fry by themselves, although they cannot eat more than they can eat. It seems that only by eating this New Year cake can it be regarded as a complete year, and only then can it be regarded as a real trip home. She always wanted to fry her worries, worries and reluctance into the delicious New Year's cake, but the increasingly dizzy old eyes and trembling clumsy hands, coupled with the restlessness of the child, always fried the New Year cake over the fire. After eating the New Year cake and embarking on the road of long journey, my mother began to pray for the next time...
New Year lanterns, New Year cakes, the year of the hometown...
(Image from the Internet)
【About the author】Zheng Yongtao, pen name native, male, born in 1984, from Handan, Hebei, graduated from the department of Chinese of Jiangxi Dayu University, a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, a member of the Hebei Writers Association, a member of the Hebei Provincial Essay Literature Association, a director of the Handan Writers Association, and the chairman of the Handan Feixiang District Writers Association. His works have appeared in many newspapers and periodicals such as "People's Liberation Army Daily", "Rule of Law Daily", "People's Public Security Daily", "China City Daily", "China Women's Daily", "Language Learning Newspaper", "Composition Weekly", "Hebei Daily", "Hebei Legal Daily", "Hebei Farmer Daily", etc., and published the essay collection "Born and Raised". He served in a certain unit of the Air Force stationed in Beijing.
Sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society, Contemporary Prose is a bimonthly prose journal, which mainly publishes the works of members of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and welcomes Shandong prose writers to apply to join the Shandong Provincial Prose Association. The Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association holds various prose activities throughout the year to provide book publishing services for writers. Submission email: [email protected], [email protected]
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