The same taste of the year
Text/Zhou Lanhong
(Web Photo)
At the beginning of the new year, everything is renewed. The Spring Festival is the most grand and lively traditional festival in mainland China. Looking at the land of Kyushu, looking at all corners of the world, where there are Chinese sons and daughters, there is the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival is the unique mark of the Chinese, and it is also the most concentrated expression of Chinese civilization. She originated from Yin Shang, began in the Western Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and continues to this day. Every Spring Festival, the flowers bloom, the dragon dances fly, the laughter ripples, the Spring Festival is lively in China, and the Spring Festival is going to the world.
Spring Festival is commonly known as "New Year", "Year" is the end of the four seasons, but also the opening of the next reincarnation, there is a beginning and a tail is the consummation, the beginning and end of the year is the best sacrifice to worship the ancestors and thank the Year. The breeze of nature makes salt, sunshine, villages and fields collide with each other, interacting with each other, brewing a tradition of the same lineage and eternal customs, and casting the eternal faith in the spiritual world of the sons and daughters of China. For thousands of years, people have made the celebrations of the New Year extraordinarily colorful. The lively crowds, the tables full of food, the brilliant fireworks, the deafening firecrackers, these trivial details buried in the memory, have become the "New Year's taste" that we linger and miss.
Nowadays, people always say that the taste of the New Year has become lighter, and the Spring Festival seems to have gradually faded the warmth and color in the memory. The taste has become lighter, in fact, the light is not the "new year's taste", but the "human heart". The increasingly superior material living standards, eating, drinking, wearing and playing every day like the New Year, people's hearts gradually indifferent to the Expectation and Freshness of the New Year. The progress of current cultural cognition has suppressed the naivety and lack of the past years, making people's spiritual needs more and more difficult to meet. Perhaps, this is why people feel that the "taste of the year" has become weaker. Indeed, the taste of the New Year is not only the abundance and abundance of materials, but also the fullness and enrichment of culture. Only by keeping pace with the times can the taste of the year highlight China's unique cultural totem. Thinking about it carefully, what we lack is not the feeling for the "year", but a new way and a new carrier for the "year". The "taste of the year" is always there, just quietly changing the old appearance.
The "taste of the year" meanders deeply in the hurried footsteps of hundreds of millions of people on the great migration. Every waxing moon, wanderers from all over the world will stand in the gap of time and freeze nostalgia, quietly looking at the way home. So, with anticipation, running, and busyness, they poured into a place called "hometown" from all directions. Then, with the aroma of rice, ink, sweet wine, wax, and a strong sense of humanity, they sat around the old man of time, solemnly condensing the calendar to be turned. The pointer of life, in this kind of unspoken piety, will not hesitate to make a solemn leap forward, planning a new round of departure in the good memories that have faded away.
The "taste of the year" blooms gorgeously in that brilliant color. At the end of each year, whether it is the city and the countryside, whether it is a deep house compound or a cold farmhouse, without exception, they are dressed up in red and festive. The New Year is red, and the red symbolizes the festivities, and people spread this festivities in all directions, corners and corners, the red blessing characters on the windows, the big red envelopes in the pockets, the children's red cotton jackets, and even the small traders have changed into red bags, stuffed with festive candies. It is also the big red lantern that fills the street, just like the red robe, hanging the festivity and peace on the high branches of the gate tower and the big tree, and raising its hands and feet to support the red expectation. Strings of bright red Chinese knots, rows of red background couplets, hanging red firecrackers... Festive celebrations fill the land of China, and the festive celebrations dazzling the unique "Chinese red" on the earth, forming the warmest memory of the Spring Festival.
The "taste of the year" quietly flows in the faith and wisdom of Chinese. Every New Year, on the windows of every household, on the lintel, they are decorated with various window flowers and Spring Festival, which are wonderful at a glance. The red spring league, thick ink, exquisite calligraphy, flowing with thousands of years of Chinese love, stretching continuously. Walking through the streets and alleys, through thousands of years of calligraphy art, just like wandering in a grand calligraphy exhibition, making people linger. Classical solemn carved window ledges, pasted with exquisite and beautiful window flowers, like a delicate pattern, exudes a strong classical atmosphere; bright polished glass windows, pasted with red window flowers, like a child's blush, beautiful and moving. The window flowers inlaid with various characters, animals and flowers are even more vivid, reflecting each other, setting off the words that express blessings and festivities, and are cut between the square inches in various forms by skillful folk artists, cutting a bland day and cutting a period of good times. With the slightest line, the days of the year after year are connected, woven into a peaceful and warm festival, brewing into a thick and mellow New Year's flavor.
The "taste of the year" is deeply imprinted in the memory images of childhood. The most rustic taste of the year has become a beautiful background of childhood. When I was a child, the New Year's flavor was the piece of pork that my father bought back, the new clothes made by my mother, the string of sugar gourds shared by my friends, the pride of sweeping the street with handmade lanterns, the small whip that crackled and splashed with gold flowers, and the few cents that I was reluctant to spend in my pocket. The taste of the year when I was a child is so sweet! There is no need for too much desire; no need for the luxury of too much wealth; no need for too many beautiful words. Simplicity is the precious source of happiness, and happiness is true simple satisfaction. When I was a child, the taste of the New Year was the most ardent expectation in my heart, and there was always endless joy and warmth.
The taste of the year has never gone away, but we have grown up, shouldering more responsibilities and expectations, and it is difficult to enjoy the carefree, simple and pure happiness. The taste of the year has never changed, it has long been deeply imprinted in the blood of the sons and daughters of China, stretching for thousands of miles and walking through a thousand years of history.
【About the author】Zhou Lanhong, teacher of Nova Primary School in Dongchangfu District. In his spare time, he likes to accompany classic books, loves to travel, and has traveled to most of China.