The annual collection of the hometown
Author | Ju Tong Ai
As a child, as soon as I had a winter vacation, I looked forward to catching up with the New Year's market. Every second and seventh day of the lunar calendar is the Panyang collection in the hometown, and the twenty-second day of the Waxing Moon is the largest annual collection in Panyang. People need to buy New Year goods years ago, so early in the morning the market is bustling with shouting, rubbing shoulders and flowing endlessly. The sound of shouting and bargaining is mixed together, which is particularly lively.
In the early days of liberation, the market site of the hometown was located in the Old Mother Temple in Xipanyang. The three old mother halls were converted into cooperative stores, mainly dealing in daily necessities. There are foreign shortage items such as foreign oil (fire oil), foreign fire (matches), foreign wax (candles), foreign cloth (cotton cloth), foreign socks (wire socks), and foreign oil nails (iron nails).
The front and back streets of the Old Mother Temple, left and right alleys, have various kinds of goods trading venues. There are grain markets, vegetable markets, mountain fruit markets, cloth cities, department stores, strip weaving markets, poultry eggs markets, pigs and sheep markets, ironware markets, porcelain markets, and broken markets, as well as shoe repairers, umbrella repairers, iron strikers, curium pots and bowls, storytellers, singing operas, pasters, fortune tellers, monkey tricks, tricksters, plaster sellers, donkey hooves, pigs, fish sellers, and there is a large cauldron on the side of the road, specializing in mutton noodles.
For us little kids, these stalls are less attractive and rarely visited. I am more interested than the New Year painting walls on both sides of the street.
Stalls selling New Year paintings are next to each other, hundreds of meters long. Some hang on the wall, and some lie flat on both sides of the street. The flowers are green and the content is different, which is dazzling. My friends and I saw from this end to that end, from this side to that side, I wanted to buy more, but I was shy, and finally I had to buy a copy of "More than a Year in a Row". The doll in the picture embraces a carp and holds a lotus flower in her hand, which means that life is rich. Some of the other small partners bought "Rat Marrying Relatives", some bought "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", and some bought "Bangs Drama Golden Toad" and so on. The paintings are brightly colored, the composition is wonderful, the carvings are exquisite, lifelike, and the local atmosphere is strong.
Just after buying the New Year paintings, the sound of "crackling" firecrackers attracted us to the willow forest on the south bank of Panyang West Bay. I saw carts or donkey carts with stacks of firecracker boxes on them. Samples were hung in front of each firecracker stall, row after row, with a wide variety of varieties. "Bursting Battle", "Firecrackers", "Two Kicks", "Throwing Cannons", "Mud Mounds", "Turning Flowers", "DrillIng Monkeys", everything is available. Firecracker sellers stand tall on the car, shouting at the top of their throats, followed by a fireworks race, whose firecrackers are loud, it will cause people to applaud, followed by a rush to buy. The other one, unconvinced, will take out its own pressure box boutique and compete to set off. In this way, the sound of firecrackers rose and fell, the roar was deafening, and a thick "red carpet" was laid on the frozen top of the entire Great Bay. This can make our loyal little audience miserable, following the crowd from this end to that end, and from this to that house, exhausted, dry mouth, although the north wind is cold, but we are sweating.
Holding a large number of squibs in our hands, we wanted to find a place to rest, so we trotted to the front of the old mother's hall and entered the storytelling field. She sat on the ground with a handful of dry grass and sat next to the thick cypress. At this time, I saw that there were sitting and standing in the field, and there were many people around. A group of old men were carrying coats on their backs, smoking dry cigarettes, and tilting their heads to talk to each other about something; three or two middle-aged women wrapped in turbans, carrying baskets full of collected goods to their arms, with their hands in each other's cuffs, stood quietly in a corner. At this time, the storyteller coughed dryly, the leather drum "bang bang" sounded, and the commentary "Yang Jiajian" began to broadcast. The noisy storytelling field is suddenly silent, only the simple and desolate melodious rhyme reverberates in the air, making people mesmerized. He sang to the point of sorrow, and the song of the nine ileums of the lingering grudge and his mournful and hoarse voice like a cry were heard in tears. Singing to the critical point, the strings are tightly pulled, the drums are beating urgently, the singing voice is excited and high-pitched, the listener is holding his breath and pinching a handful of sweat; singing to the happy place, witty words, interesting, laughing people lean forward and backward.
After a while, we entered the state of listening to the book. One after another, until the sun was west, the storyteller said: "To know the details, and listen to the next episode decomposition," I reluctantly left the listening bookstore.
Coming out of the bookstore, the market is still crowded, and the shouting and selling are endless. The 22nd year of the Waxing Moon market not only has a larger market than usual, and the number of people rushing to the market is larger, but the trade lasts longer and does not disperse until dark. Although a few of our friends have no money in their pockets, they go to the market two or three times a day to join in the fun.
Time flies, years pass. The source channels of new year goods are more and more extensive, the major supermarkets and shopping malls are lined up one after another, all kinds of goods, readily available, even without leaving home, as long as you click the mouse, the logistics delivery man will be sent to your door, no longer have to rely solely on the New Year collection to buy new year goods.
Today's annual collection is smaller, and it is far less lively than it was then. Despite this, at the annual market, the market is still crowded and busy. Over the years, I still like to go back to my hometown to catch up with the New Year's fair, and only there can I find the joy and good memories of my childhood.
Photo/ Ma Yujiang (Copyright belongs to the original author)
Ju Tong Ai, a retired teacher in Xinzhai Street, usually likes to write.