Author: Liao Weixu
The atmosphere of the New Year in the countryside is definitely a very exquisite and very lively special day. Time flies by like a white colt passing through the gap. Although decades have passed since now, I still often think of the happy times of my childhood in the countryside. At that time, what we were most looking forward to was the New Year. At that time, the rural people usually lived a very hard life, and only the arrival of the Spring Festival could improve their living conditions. Because every household attaches great importance to this traditional festival, it is better to eat and be frugal in peacetime, and to try to arrange it during the Spring Festival. In the countryside, every year after the twenty-third lunar month, every household begins to worry about the New Year. On these days, there is a lot of housework to be done at home. For example, sacrificial stoves, sweeping dust, cutting New Year meat, making tofu, steaming steamed steamed buns, and so on. My family basically goes to Shangnan County every year from the 26th to the 29th of the Waxing Moon, and my parents have to go to Shangnan County to buy New Year goods, and there are too many things to buy. As soon as they went to the street to buy New Year goods, people were full of energy and smiles. My father wanted to buy incense stick paper money to worship his ancestors and cannon bamboo. From Chinese New Year's Eve to the first day of the first year, every morning and evening, ancestors should be worshipped, incense candles should be lit to burn some paper money, and firecrackers should be hung. My mother bought vegetables to entertain relatives who came to visit her. At that time, although I was not rich, I still paid attention to cold dishes, hot stir-frying, and stewed soups. I can eat celery, coriander, steamed buns, steamed buns, peanuts, and dumplings that I don't normally eat. Treats are mainly melon seeds and peanuts, with persimmon cakes, sesame candy, biscuits and oranges. On new Year's day, the children in the village put on new clothes for the New Year and had a special time, running around, laughing and playing. Become the happiest and happiest person in the world at that time. Under the care of their families, they spent the Spring Festival carefree and joyfully; day after day, year after year, this most beautiful time accompanied the children to grow up.
At the end of the year, clean up the inside and outside of the house and clean the courtyard. By the twentieth day of the Waxing Moon, the tofu had been beaten, raised in the basin with water, the firewood and grass were prepared, the twist flowers and steamed buns were fried, the flower and fish steamed steamed, placed in the ventilation, and the tobacco and alcohol snacks for the guests were ready. My mother took our two brothers and sisters to Shangnan County to get haircuts and buy clothes. At that time, there was no shuttle bus from Shangnan County to the countryside; my father had to carry a large basket of New Year goods on his back to get off the bus from Qingyouhe Town, and then carry the New Year goods over the mountains and mountains for dozens of miles before returning home. Chinese New Year's Eve was the busiest on that day, and the people in the village were full of festive smiling faces. Make dumplings, make Chinese New Year's Eve rice, paste the Spring Festival, paste the New Year paintings, etc., and then serve the dishes to the dinner table, and worship the ancestors before eating. Especially the Shangnan people, eating the table is very exquisite, no wine and no banquet needless to say, there must be a "thirteen flowers" delicacy at the table, which has become a custom for a long time. The family slowly tasted Chinese New Year's Eve meals and drank liquor, we drank wine, my father drank liquor, and we could eat for an hour or two. I remember one year Chinese New Year's Eve night, the little friends in the village called me to go to the neighbor's house with a lantern to watch the Spring Festival Gala, and my father took out the lantern of the paper paste; the red candle lantern was lit, just walked to the courtyard and encountered a breeze, the red candle lit the paper paste lantern, I looked at the burned lantern, I wow wow and cry, and then my father made a small lantern of paper paste, lit a red candle before carrying the lantern with the little friend to the neighbor's house to watch the Spring Festival Gala. Eating dumplings was the best meal I remember as a child for the Spring Festival in the countryside. Rural people love to eat dumplings during the Spring Festival, and they believe that among all the food structures, dumplings are the most delicious. During the Spring Festival of those years, every household in the countryside had to wrap a lot of dumplings, including meat stuffing, vegetable filling, and meat and vegetable mixed stuffing. On the first day of the first lunar month, the fifth day of the first lunar month, and the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, you should eat dumplings. Therefore, it is generally necessary to wrap before Chinese New Year's Eve, and a bag is a dozen dumplings with a curtain. Start chopping the minced meat and noodles in the morning and wrap them until the evening. When making dumplings, the whole family works together, there are rolling dough skins, there are meat fillings, there are those around the brazier, there are sitting on the bed, men and women, young and old, the scene of making dumplings is very spectacular.
Setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival in the countryside is the happiest thing in childhood. The countryside pays special attention to the strong atmosphere of the Spring Festival, celebrating the festival and happy New Year, so a lot of firecrackers should be set off during the entire Spring Festival, and the boys of each family like to buy firecrackers and set off firecrackers. It is still very early from the Spring Festival, urging parents to go to Shangnan County to purchase firecrackers, according to customs and customs, on the day of the New Year, men have to go to their ancestral graves to set off firecrackers to worship their ancestors, the first morning of the first month of the first morning to eat dumplings before the party to put firecrackers, the first five, the fifteenth day of the first month to put firecrackers, if on the day of the Lantern Festival, the father is the main force of firecrackers. During the Spring Festival, each family has to buy a lot of firecrackers, including throwing cannons, hanging cannons, fireworks and so on. Chinese New Year's Eve night before eating Chinese New Year's Eve meal, before eating dumplings on the first day of the New Year, the boys lit all kinds of firecrackers, deafening and loud, all kinds of fireworks, splashing everywhere, colorful, very beautiful, the whole rural village is dotted with colorful and beautiful. Paying homage to elders is one of the most important activities of the Spring Festival in the countryside in childhood. Chinese New Year's Eve generally stay up late, and Chinese New Year's Eve the lights for one night, and cannot turn off the lights. That's the custom, so Chinese New Year's Eve night house is brightly lit. Our family sipped melon seeds and chatted around the brazier. At midnight, firecrackers are set off outside the house, called outgoings. On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, adults began to give their children pressure money, and after handing out red envelopes, adults went to sleep. The village has become a paradise for children, showing the pressure of old money, finding firecrackers on the ground that have not been fried and re-igniting them, and spending money to buy a few fireworks. The ground was full of crumbled firecracker crumbs, and the smell of the year spread in the thick smoke of gunfire. Some of the children in the village played with the "big red" small firecrackers, some played with the "throwing cannons", dismantled the remaining small firecrackers in the family, put them in the pockets of cotton pants, and lit the small firecrackers with matches one by one, and the bold children lit the small firecrackers and let them go as soon as they were thrown. Timid children generally put small firecrackers in the cracks of the wall to set off, and some put the lit small firecrackers in empty wine bottles to fire, only to hear a "bang" to explode the empty wine bottles. In order to play tricks, naughty children will change the law to put small firecrackers; sometimes they will insert small firecrackers in the corner of the courtyard wall, and when someone passes, they will light the prepared small firecrackers and quickly run to the hidden place to watch. There are also mischievous children who insert small firecrackers into the snow piles on the side of the road, and when passers-by pass by, the small firecrackers also explode, and the result is that the blown snow piles make pedestrians snowy, and then these children will run to the corner where no one is laughing.
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, it is the peak period of the New Year, and it is generally necessary to go to the homes of relatives, friends and neighbors to visit the New Year, congratulate the arrival of the Spring Festival, and congratulate and greet each other. I wish the coming year a good harvest and a happy and peaceful life. After the first day of the Chinese New Year, it is the day to visit relatives' homes for the New Year. I remember that every year I had to go to my aunt's house and uncle's house more than a dozen miles away to visit the New Year, and once I went, it was a day, and my relatives took out good food and drink to entertain guests. Very happy, very happy, the New Year's Greeting at that time also fully showed the family, friendship and the happy and harmonious festive atmosphere of everyone getting along harmoniously. With the development of the times, this year's promotion of the Spring Festival holiday is not necessary and non-mobile, the custom of visiting the Door during the Spring Festival has undergone new changes, and "Cloud Worship New Year" and "Cloud Guest" have become a new trend. To say that the happiest and liveliest new year is the first day of the New Year, when there is no street lamp in the village, the children get up early, light the small lanterns that the adults give paper paste, go to the elders' home, and say a word: "Give you a Happy New Year, wish you a happy New Year"; The elders will give a few dollars or some melon seeds and sugar to make the children especially happy. After the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, basically relatives and friends are gone, and the adults have nothing to do, so they gather together to play poker. Some children play, some write about their unfinished winter vacation homework, and on the fifteenth day of the first month, every household sets off firecrackers, cooks lanterns and eats them, and then eats dumplings in the evening. On the sixteenth day of the first month, every household took off the lantern on the roof, indicating that the New Year was over, and the villagers in the countryside began spring ploughing activities; in retrospect, the New Year was also a festival of respecting the old and loving the young.
The memories of my childhood in the countryside for the New Year are only during the New Year, when every household sets off firecrackers, and the joyful atmosphere and strong nostalgia of the New Year are woven. Every New Year's Day, I hear the deafening sound of firecrackers outside the window, and look at the colorful festive flowers that rise up in the air, and the dazzling colors that bloom out. From time to time, I still recall the scene of the New Year when I was a child in my hometown, and I miss it the most, although it has been a long time, but everything is still fresh in my memory, so beautiful. Today, I have lived in Shangnan County for more than ten years, and I have grown to be in my thirties. The mood of looking forward to the New Year has long been less urgent, and I feel that the atmosphere of the New Year has not changed, and with the spring breeze of reform and opening up blowing into the rural areas, the peasants' lives have undergone earth-shaking changes. The current Rural Spring Festival is no longer much different from the city. People have lived a well-off life, the most encouraging thing is that their food, clothing, and housing are not what they used to be, and many people have lived in buildings, upstairs and downstairs, TELEVISION, telephones; they have caught up with the good times of the country's economic development and growth, and have become rich farmers in the new era. I am proud and proud that the hometown of my childhood has undergone a great change in history! In fact, the New Year reflects a strong sense of family affection and the traditional culture of our Chinese nation. With the rapid development of China's economy and the continuous improvement of living standards, the atmosphere of the New Year will become stronger and stronger.