The fun of Huazhou Yuan's old customs

New Year's Eve

Author: Xue Tianbao

The Spring Festival is the grandest, warmest and grandest festival in the countryside every year. When I was young, my days were very poor, and we dolls always looked forward to the coming of the New Year, and we could eat well and wear well and earn money.

On the 23rd day of the lunar month, starting from this day to worship the king of the stove, the prologue of the New Year slowly began. My family began to sweep the dust cobwebs in the house, dismantle and wash the bedding and clothes; paint the stove and indoor and outdoor walls with yellow and shiny clay gouache; go to Chongning and Gaotang Erzhen to purchase various New Year goods; wash the wheat grinding noodles and grind rice steamed flower buns; write the Spring Festival and hang the ancestral god axis tablets, light wax and burn incense to set the table...

Chinese New Year's Eve is approaching, and after our children run forward and run, we happily help the adults clean the hygiene of the front and back yards; give the millstones, lukes, wells, cattle pens, grain tuns and courtyard doors to paste the Spring Festival; and offer meals, fruits, pastries and other offerings to the ancestral kings and kings of the ancestors, heaven and earth, and the gods, burn incense, light wax, and prostrate their heads. Firecrackers are set off outside the gate, two thunderbolts drive away ghosts and evil spirits...

After everything was done, the family sat on the hot kang in the upper house to taste the food made by their father: fried hemp leaves, fried twist flowers, fried vegetables, fried steamed buns... The house was filled with joy and a strong smell of oil. I haven't eaten well for a year, my father fried me while eating, and ate my stomach round and beeped, until the night was quiet, and people were sleepy and tired and fell asleep.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, just after dawn, I wore a new cotton jacket, wore a long-life lock, and ran outside the gate with many small red cannons, one moment to set off firecrackers, the other to drop small bombs. Then go back to the house to pay homage to the ancestors, make a bow, and prostrate. Then kowtow to the adults according to the generations: "Mother! Kowtow to you! ”

"Da! Kowtow to you! ”

"Mom! Kowtow to you! ”......　After prostrating my head and returning to the upper room, the adults each gave me two cents of pressed money, and I jumped out of the door happily.

Breakfast is fragrant meat dumplings, I haven't eaten meat in a year, I smell meat, my appetite has increased greatly, I have a relish, and my stomach is bulging. After dinner, I dragged my younger sister to the front of the temple (three churches) to watch the liveliness. Every year during the Spring Festival in the village, a set of gongs and drums is placed in front of the temple, which is put until the Lantern Festival for the villagers to beat at any time to enjoy themselves. Sometimes I also go up and pick up the drumsticks and knock them for a while, and then play with the gongs, cymbals, and have fun. There is a lan stadium in front of the temple, a pair of mulan ball racks were erected, during the Spring Festival, the young men in the village often played lan ball here, there were many onlookers, I often squeezed in with my playmates to see the liveliness, sometimes it was time for dinner.

On the fourth day of the first month of February, Gangchon held a traditional lantern festival as usual, and my playmates rushed to the lantern party to buy toys such as monkey flipping heads and glass crunching with the age line. The juggling of monkeys playing magic tricks also fascinated me.

Since the fifth day of the first year, my ten Ganda have successively sent flower lanterns and hanging lamp fish. I also went to Ganda's house to thank you for the New Year. Every time I went out, I would carry a basket of flower buns, and as soon as I entered the gate of Ganda's house, I knelt down at the ancestral offering table to light incense, and while prostrating my head, I shouted: "Ganda, I will kowtow to you!" Shout again to kowtow to the mother. Then, after being greeted by Ganda to the upper room living room, leaving a gift bun and giving back to Zaoshan (a flower bun for the child in the New Year), I happily resigned and went home.

Around the fifteenth day of the first month, a grand and enthusiastic social fire performance was held in front of the temple in the village. There are people playing in the front, grass rope fire snakes flying in the crowd, followed by the team of high hooves, dry boats, rice songs, and core playing, stepping on the gong and drum ideas, passionately and rhythmically performing. I weaved through the crowd and watched with fascination.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, the round moon shows a silver-white smile, and the adults hang more than a dozen flower lanterns sent by Ganda next to the stone mill at the gate, and the flower lanterns flicker, reflecting with the moonlight, bringing a warm spring to the earth. It was my happiest night, carrying a lantern and a spark twister in my hand, colliding and playing with the children. See whose lamp is on fire and falls to the ground, everyone kicks, steps, makes noises, laughs, and the loud laughter echoes in the night sky.

Later, I went to the city, went to school, joined the work, and could no longer enjoy the folk fun of the new year in the countryside. Happily, in the lingering nostalgia, the New Year's memories in the dream can still be faintly seen.

Source: Huazhou Literature and Art

Original author: Xue Tianbao

Finishing editor: Huazhou literature and art, Huazhou literature and history