The alarm clock rang at 16:30 on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which was soaked with family affection and warmth in his hometown, and he had to endure the fatigue of staying up late and getting up from the bed. Because I still have to drive thirty or forty kilometers back to my hometown to give to the deceased

Hometown is soaked with the customs of family affection and warmth

At 16:30 on the first day of the New Year, the alarm clock rang, and I had to endure the fatigue of staying up late to get up from the bed. Because they still have to drive 30 or 40 kilometers back to their hometown to go to the graves of the deceased old people, because they are waiting for their children and grandchildren to "send money" to pay tribute! Moreover, this simple but quiet ritual must be completed before the sun rises, so it is necessary to get up early.

The car is close to the hometown, and the sky has gradually brightened. There is an endless stream of people who have already gone to the grave and who are going to the grave. The sun has not yet emerged, but it can already feel the clear weather, the cool and cold air of early spring is like water like ice and jade, and the clarity and clarity are unbearable to be close. And because there is no trace of wind, the smoke of burning paper after going to the grave, the rise of the head, gradually melts into the existing mist, and slowly drifts away like a ribbon, winding the poetic countryside of the two worlds that are quite a bit hazy.

The old people explained that the prepared burning paper must be lit in a semicircle drawn according to the grave, which should be the meaning of demarcation protection, otherwise it may be snatched away by the lone ghost. Then he also called on the old people to rise up, collect their money and drink, and enjoy the wine and meat tribute of their children and grandchildren. Because the old people have generally been gone for a long time, so basically there is not much sorrow, so you can talk to the old people without talking, and even joke about the abuse. I believe that at this moment, every person who goes to the grave would probably prefer to have another world, and the old people who have passed away must be in that world, looking at themselves kindly and quietly, smiling and squinting at themselves! All this has nothing to do with superstition, only about warm affection! Because that piece of loess actually gives us too much remembrance and remembrance!

Decades ago, there was more to be done. At that time, every Chinese New Year's Eve night, the uncle would go to the grave and prayerfully ask his grandfather, my great-grandfather, to go home for the New Year. Crouching by the grave to make a piggyback, carefully the old man home. And the family has already prepared a large chair, waiting for a vacant seat in the noble lord's seat. After the old man in his heart sits down, this chair can no longer sit! Enjoy the worship of your children and grandchildren, including the "pouring" of the necessary dumpling soup, and the New Year with your family. Then, early in the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, I carried the old man on my back to the grave. This practice, after the uncle went to settle in Zhoukou, was basically abandoned. However, when my grandfather and father were alive, every year they respectfully wrote the ancestral tablets, prayed after burning incense by their grandmothers and mothers, and invited their ancestors to go home for the New Year, but this ritual was never missed.

After the paper money burned out slowly, the sky was basically bright. When Grandma was alive, she must have been urging her to eat breakfast quickly, because the clan relatives of the New Year would soon arrive home! Our family is relatively large, and because from the first generation of full-time doctor Mr. Yin Fengpao, as the eldest son of the longhouse, all the ancestral tablets are kept by my family, so the family is going to my house to worship the ancestors at the beginning of the New Year. This ritual persisted until all the ancestral tablets of the Cultural Revolution were burned down. However, the flesh and blood affection of the family is in the second form, that is, the "New Year's Greeting" ritual of visiting the elderly in each room at home after "worshiping the ancestors" as another kind of bond, and continues to be tenaciously circulated. Therefore, all those who have elders and elderly people in their families will prepare candy to eat and wait for the younger generations to come to the door. The younger generations will form groups and visit the elders of the family for the second time, and in the past, they would prostrate themselves and bow down, but now they are mainly greetings and telling the family. Warm blessings are constantly heard, and warm affection is spread on the limbs of hundreds of skeletons.

It wasn't until nearly noon that I finished visiting all the elders of the family. Declined many retentions and drove back to the county seat. This is why I insist on repairing my ancestral home, and I will return to my hometown to add graves every year during the Qingming Festival. These two insistences seem to be yin and yang, there is no connection, but they are actually the source of my spirit and blood, because I and my children and grandchildren need to know where we come from! Even if you don't care or even resist when you are young and ignorant, when it comes to maturity and calmness, in fact, everyone will need it! Because man cannot always live in matter!

Next, it's the fifteenth day of the first month. After incinerating the ancestral tablets that have been enshrined throughout the New Year's Festival, and after sending the ancestors away from the yangshi home, the "scattering of lights" on the grave is also a ritual that the descendants must take.

When I was young, I went to the grave to "scatter the lamp", which was usually a special lamp made in advance, called "high light". Made of a sorghum straw about a meter high, one end split and propped up and pasted with white paper, shaped like a trumpet, and a candle was placed at the bottom of the horn to light it, and the fork stood in the wilderness to protect itself from the wind, in order to illuminate the dark and difficult road in the underworld for the deceased relatives. Therefore, every grave will have children and grandchildren inserting a small number of "high photos". Later, many people dug a pit in the leeward place of the grave and put a lit candle instead, and now it is replaced by a craft electronic candle, but the feeling in their hearts is the same. After nightfall, the eyes are extremely wild, and the candlelight is like a vast starry sky. With this starry sky, I believe that even if there is a hades, the darkness and coldness there will be gone, and our relatives will also bathe under this little warmth and will not be lonely!

It is actually difficult for Westerners to understand why China has such a magnificent "Spring Festival" that has almost swept the whole country. How many dying elderly people travel thousands of miles in order to burn a handful of paper money in front of their parents' graves? In fact, family affection is the most characteristic cultural gene of the Chinese nation into the bloodline! This includes feelings for loved ones in the real world, and does not ignore the feelings of relatives in other worlds! The affection in the real world is relieved through reunion. And if there is no pile of loess in the wilderness, there is no new year's tomb worship, how can we release the strong family affection in our hearts after the old man has passed away? Under the flow of materialism, in fact, we all need a clear and clear spiritual home to seek even a moment of peace and warmth!

Cautiously and finally pursue far from the ancestors, and continue to die as if they were alive. So thank you, this culture of melting hearts and unquenchable salaries, this full of love and warmth everywhere!