Those old traditions of Sanyang
When I was a child, I spent the New Year in Sanyang's hometown, and when I first entered the Waxing Moon, I felt the atmosphere of the New Year early. The air is filled with the smell of fireworks from burning piles, the tempting aroma of food wafts from the stove, and the fiery red couplet reveals a strong festive atmosphere, mixed with the clear cold of the winter air. As soon as the Chinese New Year's Eve zero firecrackers sounded, the lively New Year began.
In the New Year, eating and drinking is the first priority. The old woman and daughter-in-law prepared New Year goods as early as the winter month, eating, drinking, and everything. The men were busy with the work in the fields and fields, serving the livestock, and then pouring manure on the vegetables in the vegetable garden to make the vegetables better for the winter. Near the end of the year, clean the house inside and out, mix the dead grass leaves with sticks and soil residue on the edge of the field and set them on fire. I saw a wisp of green smoke rising in front of every house, burning uninterruptedly for three days and three nights. Dad told us that this is called "getting rid of the old and welcoming the new" - burning off the mold and bad luck of the old year will usher in a good fortune and good luck in the new year.
Those of us who had a winter vacation were immersed in the joy of the New Year, chirping like magpies, flocking in groups, and running from the beginning of the village to the end of the village like a gust of wind, and then from the end of the village to the head of the village. Every time they ran over a place, they would frighten the chickens that were foraging in the shade of the trees on the edge of the field, screaming and flapping their wings and running away. In the evening, we would guard the stove and watch my mother prepare the New Year's food, so as not to miss the freshest bite that had just come out of the stove.
At that time, for the New Year, every household had to boil hemp candy, cut sesame leaves (sesame seeds and boiled sugar), beat tofu, and mash rice dumplings. At that time, money was valuable, and every household had no money in their hands, and almost all the New Year goods were handmade at home. Beans, sesame seeds, glutinous rice, etc. harvested in their own fields and hillsides are soaked in water, milled, filtered with gauze... Re-steam, boil, beat and cut. Slightly more abundant families will also kill a new pig, and fill sausages and bacon.
In this way, in the preparation of housewives day by day, the new year is approaching day by day. We babies are surrounded by this delicious smell every day, dizzyingly hoping that Chinese New Year's Eve will come soon. Because only after Chinese New Year's Eve, we can open our stomachs and eat enough without being reprimanded by adults.
Because they are all handmade products, they are particularly particular about the mixing ratio of materials, the grasp of fire and knife work. Whoever housewife is skillful, as long as they look at their family's New Year products, how they taste, they will be high and low.
I remember a kind of New Year painting when I was a child, similar to a comic strip. Two large paintings, divided into a small grid and a small grid, a total of twelve grids, with pictures and texts, telling a classic story. Such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essence", "Eight Immortals Across the Sea", "Yang Guifei", "Xiangxiang Princess", etc., are my favorite to watch, every time I go to a family, I can't wait to look at the New Year painting story posted on the door first, and food has become secondary. But I don't know when, this kind of new year painting custom in the hometown has not been popular, now it is a small square red paper, written "Fu", "Spring", "Wishing you prosperity", "Zhao Cai Jin Bao" and so on, very simple.
In the past, women in their hometown would knit sweaters, embroider flowers, hold soles, and make insoles in their leisure time. Making shoes is the most difficult manual task. First of all, the old clothes should be disassembled into pieces, washed, dried, and then the cloth was flattened on the door panel with a paste made of wheat flour, pasted several layers, and then dried for three or five days until it was dry. Compared with adults and children's shoes, cut into pieces, thousands of stitches and threads. Such shoes are breathable, comfortable and do not stinky feet. Those girls who are about to get married will embroider Mandarin duck pillows, and when they are newly married, they will take them out and spread them on the big red bed, symbolizing a hundred years of good union, white heads and old age. (Liu Hongmei)
The year of Pingba
Author: Sun Lixia
When people reach middle age, they do not know more and more what the year is, or that there are all kinds of conditions, which gush into their hearts, but they can't say it. I can't help but think back to the traditional Taste of Pingba.
New Year goods
Regarding the New Year goods, the "History of Pingba" is introduced as follows:
Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, people begin to do New Year goods, cured meat, pickled fish, pickled chicken, pickled duck eggs, sausages, fried rice bubbles, fried melon seeds and peanuts. In the countryside, it is also necessary to beat tofu, boil hemp candy, cut hemp leaves, and pinch hemp candy. Some kill pigs and beat glutinous rice sticks. In addition, you have to buy yellow flowers, fungus, bamboo shoots, tea, tobacco, wine, pastries, incense candles, paper, cannons (bamboo), make new clothes, and buy new hats. Some wealthy families and merchant shops are very exquisite and more extravagant.
On the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the New Year's Eve came, and the New Year's meal came. On this night, the gods of Vesta were all offered with candy, saying that it was good to stick to the mouth of the Bodhisattva of Si Ming, and not to say bad things about the world when they went to heaven, hoping that the gods would send good luck and dispel disasters.
couplet
What is usually written on the couplet? The History of Pingba has this record:
On the 30th of the lunar month, red couplets are posted at the gates of each house. For example, the merchants on the street are: the business is prosperous all over the world, and the source of wealth is lush up to The Three Rivers. The cultural family is: article Western Han two Sima and economic Nanyang one Wolong. Rural people's homes are: the wind and rain are smooth, the country is tai and the people are safe; the days increase the number of years and the people increase their longevity, and the spring is full of happiness and happiness. If an old man dies, write it on yellow or white paper: Look at the spring colors of the world, but we have a unique style. The walls of the house are also plastered with red signatures, merchants write "business is prosperous", "a million profits", rural writing "six stores of prosperity", "five grains and abundance", as well as "the old man is safe", "the young are pregnant", "no taboos", "children's words are not taboo". On the window ledge is "Taigong here". It is rumored that Jiang Ziya slashed the gods, and finally he had no place, so he sat on the window, and the gods and ghosts had to avoid seeing them. On the water tank is written "Mercury Town House", on the pig pen chicken pen is written "slot head Shunshun", "chickens and ducks are flocked", and the door of the cow house is posted: "Fat and fat and will walk, a male and a female a large group." ”
In the past, when I went to my grandmother's house, I saw that the pig cage and chicken pen were all pasted with red paper, and I thought it was ridiculous to write a few words in a serious way. Now that I think about it, these livestock animals are the best partners in the life of the farmer, in a sense, they are equal to people, so in the New Year, people and livestock should be happy with the world and receive the same blessings.
Pasting a red paper couplet, in addition to the meaning of blessing, is also a kind of reverence for the gods of heaven and earth, not only in the couplet, but also in many ceremonies.
The hall house has a god cabinet, with a big red paper in the middle of the writing "Heaven and Earth Kingdom Relatives", on the top of the horizontal cloak "sacrifice as in, sacrifice to the gods as gods in (Confucius). The two sides are coupleted: "Baoding is auspicious and fragrant, and the silver annunciation candle is full of flowers.". On one side are the "Nine Heavenly Decrees" and on the other side are the "Ancestors of the Past Dynasties". Some are also offered to the "God of Wealth", "Guan Gong", and "Guanyin". There are also incense burners, candlesticks, copper, iron chimes, and oil lamps. There are also many homes hanging in the middle hall and couplets. In the middle hall, there are paintings of "Songhe Yannian" and "Plum Pile", and there is a big "Shou" character written... Below are bar tables, square tables, and offerings.
Since I can remember, this new year's ceremony has become more and more simple, but no matter how simple, the basic ritual is still there, such as pasting couplets, lighting lamps at night to observe the New Year, but when I go to the field, this ceremony tends to be close to zero, then the year will not be a year.
Let's review the grand New Year customs of Pingba that year.
Chinese New Year's Eve night, hanging in front of the door, burning candles; inside the house, lighting red candles, burning long incense, outside the house, bright lights, cigarette smoke, a happy, solemn scene. There are generally offerings on the god's cabinet, such as snow dates and silk cakes. Poor households are not so particular, but also as much as possible to embellish it to show respect for God. The children also put on new clothes, hats, small lanterns, and set off firecrackers. Legend has it that the Thirty Nights is the "Nether realm of the gods", people have to bathe and change clothes, incense five times a night, insert three pillars of incense each time, prostrate their heads, raise their whips, and after the second incense, they cross the door with money paper, people do not go out, the whole family guards the age, drinking tea around the brazier, bumping melon seeds, eating candy, and speaking auspicious words. Burn until the fifth incense (about 4-5 a.m.) and start to come out. First of all, the two Taoist monks from the Daedokan Temple went to the street from west to east, went door to door, slammed the door with a wooden stick, and shouted in their mouths: "Da deokkan festival!" "The house heard the knocking of the door, the whole family gathered at the door, the child carried the lantern, opened the door, brought out a pair of lit large red candles (about 4-5 cm thick, about 80 cm high), the red candle was pasted with the four golden characters of "Out of the Way". The red candle is inserted on a clay seat or wooden shelf, and when lit, the candle is sparkling and radiant. The outgoing party also lays out offerings, kneels in prayer, observes the weather, and fires long whips. Usually, one by one, some of the delays will be put into the dawn. As the saying goes, the total attack during a war is likened to thirty nights out of the sky, and the sound is in unison, shaking the earth, and the bustle is extraordinary. Out of the heavens, that is, into the house, in front of the god's cabinet to bow to the old man for the New Year, exhale titles, blessing words. The children in the family worship purple, and then the relatives wait for you to come and go, from small to large, and worship each other.
On the second day of the first month, it is the street leader who runs the New Year, and when he prays, he will leave, and go door to door until he finishes worshipping. During the New Year's greeting, the honorific to the elderly is: "The older the more advanced!" "Fu ru DongHai, Shoubi Nanshan!" To business suppliers: "Wishing you prosperity! "A million profits!" For farmers is "wind and rain!" "Grains and abundances!"
In the New Year, children should also be given "pressing money", some of which are issued when Chinese New Year's Eve, and some of which are Chinese New Year's Eve later.
The New Year is also called the New Year's Pass, and there was a saying at that time called "the rich people celebrate the New Year, and the poor pass the pass". Because at the end of the year, not only do you have to try your best to make a living, eat a full meal for a few days, and it is even more difficult to hide from the "Yama King Debt". Some poor people have no money to pay their debts, so they hide in the east and the west, and wait until they Chinese New Year's Eve, and then sneak home, and their miserable state is shocking!
It seems that the story of Yang Bailao's New Year is everywhere, and the poor are sad in the Year, so in the old society, and in this era.
Admire the lights
Compared with the 30th of the Waxing Moon, the 15th day of the first month is considered to be a big year. As the saying goes, "Thirty fires, fifteen lights", the lights of the fifteenth day of the first month are more festive and lively in memory. Carefully carrying a lantern, the lantern is woven with thin bamboo, covered with a thin layer of white paper like a cicada's wing, and sometimes printed with a large "Fu" character. Inside the lantern there is a wooden base with a candle inserted on it, and the red candlelight reflects the small face, and there is endless happiness and joy.
Carrying lanterns, while touring the streets, watching the various liveliness of the streets.
The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month is another entertainment climax after the Spring Festival. That night, the streets were brightly lit and crowded. The play with the dragon lantern begins, the gongs and drums, firecrackers sound in unison, the three-eyed sound is like thunder, scattering fire (a flammable powder), like fireworks, illuminating the sky. Four people carried a dragon gate more than ten meters high, archway-style, flying eaves, stopping when walking in front, and the dragon lamp danced with it. Other children held up various fish lanterns and rode bamboo horses, following behind. Some of the doors are also hung with marquee lights, and the image is the story of "Journey to the West". Wherever the dragon lantern plays, this family will burn incense, whip, toast tea, and offer tobacco. If there is a son, the dragon lamp will also enter the hall, and the master will bow his head to the dragon head and burn incense.
After the dragon lamp left, it came to the mussel shell essence. Inside the mussel shell essence, there is a young man who smears rouge, draws eyebrows, wears a woman's flower dress, dresses up as a delicate beauty, holds the mussel shell in both hands, one by one, twists and laughs at the fisherman (clown horn) outside, this fisherman casts a net to pounce on the mussel shell essence, but is caught by the mussel shell essence and cannot break free. As soon as the mussel shell opened, the fisherman turned over and broke free. The people watching laughed.
Pull a donkey. One person dressed as a donkey, several people holding the rope to pull, this is played by the boys who can "step on stilts". There is a set of difficult actions such as jumping, jumping, rolling, and flipping. It's also very funny to be wonderful.
Row a lotus boat. A boat shape is tied with a bamboo grate, and there is a colored building, and the colorful flower paper is attached according to the shape. By a young man dressed as a beautiful woman with flowers, wearing a long skirt, sitting in the building, lifting the side of the boat with both hands, walking quickly in small steps, a boatman outside with a bamboo pole playing the boating action, followed by an old woman with a broken fan in her hand, with a set of people playing gongs and drums, everyone cooperates, performs a farce, walks to the square or in front of the big door and "runs flowers" (circles), after stopping, singing the word "New Year auspicious", or flower drum play, the host will give money to give things.
In addition to the above cultural and recreational activities, the Lantern Festival also includes playing with lions and playing the "big-headed monk" (made of paper and put on the brain shell of the person. Acting in "Yu Laosi Cart", "Chen Blind Man Haunting the Shop", etc., are all amusing and laughing. During the Lantern Festival, households invited relatives and friends to the street to watch the lights. There are also farmers in the four townships who automatically come to see the liveliness.
Spring Festival in Ruangou at Yanmen Gate
Author: Hao Fengqing
Recently, I read several reminiscence articles about the New Year customs of my hometown by friends from my hometown, which aroused my deep nostalgia for my hometown ruangou.
It has been more than thirty years since I left my hometown, and although I have gone back many times in the middle, I have only left after a few days every time I go back, and with the passage of time, the feeling of a short stay and what I have seen and heard are very different from the past. Ruan Gou, the hometown of Ruan Gou in the depths of memory, is still the impression of childhood.
Ruangou is an administrative village in the southern part of Jingshan County, formerly the Ruangou Brigade, bordering Shihe Township and Fozishan Township in Tianmen County. There is a small street, located on a small river, which is the distribution center for the exchange and distribution of agricultural and sideline products in the village, and the small river is Ruanjiagou. Due to the border with Tianmen in the Lake District, in the era of extremely underdeveloped commodity economy, there are also some fish and shrimp that can be bought here, so Ruangou Street is also famous. Of course, Nguyen Gou Street was rebuilt and expanded in front of the Nguyen Family's Lower Gate, which is a later story.
New Year is what children look forward to the most, because the New Year can eat delicious food, can have a set or a new dress to wear on the New Year's day, can completely rest for a few days, is to hang hands for a few days without doing any work, can be treated by everyone, will not be arranged to do that, all the people around each other have become polite and polite to each other. Of course, you can also visit relatives and friends, receive warm hospitality at the homes of relatives and friends, and if you are lucky, you can also see some theatrical performances, or have the opportunity to participate in self-entertainment activities such as playing gongs and drums and playing games. At the time of the New Year, the home is clean, the house and the outside have been cleaned, and the environment is pleasant. The faded old couplets on the door frames were torn off and pasted with new couplets, red and red, and the new couplets had to be pasted on the door frames of each room in the house, and no matter how the words were written, the red color felt good. There are also several New Year paintings on the walls of the house, which adds to the joy. Our New Year's goods, red paper, pencil and ink, are purchased at the Nguyen Gou Supply and Marketing Cooperative and the Nguyen Gou Street Free Market, of course, more things, especially food, are grown by ourselves.
I remember that there were two or three years when my family did not post the New Year League, not three consecutive years, and there was a gap between these three years. Not pasting the Spring Festival should be the most difficult year, there is no money to buy red paper and pen and ink, and there is no mood to paste the Spring League. In times of difficulty, the hemp sugar was not boiled, nor was the hemp page (mixed with fried rice and hemp sugar and pressed into slices); because of the lack of cooking oil, the lotus leaf peel and the dumplings were not fried. But most years boil hemp sugar, cut hemp leaves, and fry dumplings and lotus peels. Although there is very little oil for stir-frying, there are also some New Year goods before the Spring Festival. Usually there is no meat to eat, the Spring Festival to eat meat, because the pig that has been raised for a year can kill themselves at the end of the year to leave some meat to eat, or several jointly divide a pig, and each family can get some pork and ribs and so on.
Speaking of pasting the Spring Festival, I would like to say a few more words - I like calligraphy from the beginning of writing the Spring League, and it is only when I write the Spring Festival League every year that I get improved. I remember the first time I wrote the Spring League, it was the first grade when I Chinese New Year's Eve, the spring league at home was originally written by my aunt, I and my sisters were watching next to me, and suddenly someone asked me if I wanted to write a picture, I tried to write a picture, and everyone said that I learned well, and I wrote it later. In fact, I wrote a very blunt letter, using the method of writing pencil words to write brush characters, but the writing is more Zhou Zheng. Every year after that, I wrote the Spring Festival, and the content was on the lunar calendar book. The family's house was "three heads", and later due to the increase in population, the kitchen was changed into a bedroom, and the kitchen was built outside the back door. Later, the population increased, and we converted the cow house and the pig house into a bedroom, and built a cow house and a pig house outside the gate. The doors of all these houses have to be pasted with couplets, so write more than a dozen pairs of spring couplets. In addition, I also wanted to write several Spring Festival Leagues from my neighbors and neighbors, and then several relatives and families also wanted me to write them, and I wanted to write three days of Spring Leagues every year. For the first two years, my father helped me cut paper, and then I learned that I did it myself. Of course, several sisters and brothers also helped me, and I posted the Spring Festival, all of which were pasted with rice soup with a broom.
Chinese New Year's Eve that day's lunch is a New Year's meal, generally around twelve o'clock, there is no clock at home, are based on the position and experience of the sun shining under the patio to judge the time. The family sat around a generous table, prepared the best meal of the year, put it all on the table, and tasted bowl by bowl. The New Year meal usually has at least twelve bowls of dishes, all steamed vegetables, including tamales, steamed pork ribs, steamed lotus root, tamales taro, tamales potatoes, tamales, steamed eel pieces or loach, steamed tofu tops, steamed chicken nuggets, steamed egg rolls, and even steamed vegetables, steamed rice flakes, and steamed rice dumplings, which is actually to cut the steamed bun into slices and steam, and like other steamed vegetables, everyone eats a slice. In some years, there is also steamed beef and pork liver soup. These dishes have been missing for a long time, and they all feel delicious when they think about it!
Before eating, it is usually necessary to put a firecracker, called the regimental new year cannon. When you hear which firecrackers are sounding, you know that this family has begun to eat a reunion dinner, and the family that has not yet opened the meal will be tightened. When eating, the juniors should greet the elders, say blessings, and toast. Elders should also pay homage to and bless their juniors. Dishes full of tables, when eating, but also pay attention to a certain order, generally eat tamales first, then eat ribs, tofu lumps, etc., and finally eat fish pieces, if there is a whole steamed fish or braised fish, then this fish is the last dish to eat.
Go to relatives' homes to eat for the New Year, but also these steamed dishes above, pay attention to such rules, fish left until the end, sometimes eat, sometimes do not eat, leave for the host to entertain the next batch of guests to eat. Because the standard of living was not high in those years, the supply of materials was insufficient, and fish was not easy to buy. Sometimes the economic conditions can not keep up, can not afford to buy big fish, had to use two or three small fish to form a bowl, some families even have no fish to eat. Therefore, guests should act opportunistically, do not move chopsticks to eat fish casually, and wait for the host to make up his mind to eat fish before he can eat it.
The cultural and entertainment activities of the Spring Festival include playing with dragon lanterns and playing with lions. A few young adults in the village used bamboo and wooden sticks and white cloth to tie a dragon and paint some Dao Dao on the white cloth dragon, which was a dragon lamp. Then, six or seven people raised the dragon and danced in front of each house, everyone looked at the liveliness, and the host went out to give the dragon dance team some food, usually cakes. Playing lions is a similar game.
Sometimes, a young man does a lion dance, to ascend to the top of the object, that is, to place a red envelope at the highest roof of the hall, which is usually a snack of tobacco and alcohol, and in difficult times, there is only dim sum, that is, "cake", this activity is called "taking red". A big guy took a ladder up, trembled and took the red packet down, won a round of applause from everyone, and succeeded.
There is also a custom that Chinese New Year's Eve night, take some incense and firecrackers and go to the ancestral tomb to worship. Zu's grave is in the back mountain, before dark to reach the mountain, burn incense as firecrackers, come back after the incident, to return with a flashlight, without a flashlight you have to walk in the dark.
The terrain of Ruangou Village is mainly hilly, and there are several mountains in the west - Muniu Mountain (also known as "Jiezi Mountain"), Yuanjia Mountain, Fozi Mountain, Longwei Mountain, Xiaojia Mountain, Hongqi Mountain, etc. These mountains only belong to the first two of the village, the other half belong to the village, and the other half belongs to other villages or Tianmen County. Between these mountains there is a reservoir, the Tieyan Dam, which is the reservoir of Nguyen Gou. I have personally seen the villagers carry out two times of reinforcement of the dam, relying entirely on manual digging to pick up the earth and compacting the dam foundation. One year, there was no rest during the Spring Festival, and in the morning a militiaman blew a loud assembly number, and everyone heard the noise from various villages to the reservoir construction site and threw themselves into the battle to strengthen the reservoir dam. This is where I herded cattle, cut firewood, and collected firewood when I was a child. In the case of pennilessness, go up the mountain to cut firewood and collect firewood, sell firewood to the lime kiln under fozi Mountain, generally one penny a pound, half a penny a pound of newly cut thatch, a few days of busy can earn three to five yuan, pay tuition and miscellaneous fees. I remember that for several years, firewood was not allowed to be sold, and those who sold firewood were found out and fined.
In my hometown, it is inevitable to walk in the dark at night. From the mountains to the village, there used to be a lot of cemeteries on the side of the road, and these cemeteries collapsed, there were holes, and there were rats sneaking around inside, which was terrible. I remember passing by the cemetery at night, and I was very nervous. After the construction of farmland infrastructure in 1975, many cemeteries were converted into farmland, and many tombstones were carried to the river as building materials to build bridges. The small wooden bridge becomes a stone bridge, and the board trucks and tractors can cross the bridge.
The landscapes and rivers of my hometown are also changing. When I was a child, the mountains of Nguyen Gou were inhabited by hares, wild boars, jackals, jackals and pheasants, and there were several hunters in the village, occasionally going up the mountain to hunt. I remember seeing wild boars running behind our village when I was a child, and I saw pheasants flying through the grass and trees when I was herding cattle on the mountain. Then for a while there was indiscriminate logging, the woods disappeared, and the wild boars disappeared. One year after the Spring Festival home for the New Year, my brother-in-law drove me to the road, from Ruangou to Jingshan County, and actually passed through the primeval forest in my memory - Zhongnan Mountain, which was engaged in work-study and wood cutting in junior high school, where there was a winding mountain road, almost crossing the top of the mountain, and then passing through Huiting Mountain near the county seat to reach the county seat. Later, the county began to engage in ecological agriculture construction, planting fruit trees, wild boar meat and pheasant meat can be eaten in restaurants around the county, the ecological environment is good, and wild animals are back. In recent years, the county's bird watching activities have been booming, with all kinds of rare birds roosting in the mountains, international bird watching activities held in the county seat, and bird lovers from all over the world coming to visit, causing quite a stir. And, a good friend of mine is a donor and advocate of bird watching, and I'm proud of it!
Cao Wu: Childhood Chinese New Year's Eve
Author: Cai Shiming
As a child, the concept of time was defined in the late fifties and early sixties. At that time, the family was very poor and poor, and the rations were provided by the collective monthly hair, meat and sugar by ticket. There was no money in his pockets, and he could not buy supplies, but he did not feel poor at all; the living conditions at that time were very difficult, taking dirt roads and lighting kerosene lamps. No music to listen to, no TV to watch, but not to feel bitter at all. When I was young, I was looking forward to the New Year, so excited, so happy, and the New Year's flavor was particularly strong. That's called the New Year!
Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important day of the New Year, the day with the strongest flavor of the New Year, and it is also a particularly busy day.
An old street paved with bluestone slabs in the center of the street, there are hundreds of families living in the old tile houses of the "car barrel" adobe tiles. I lived here as a child. In the early morning of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, the sky was just dark, and almost every adult got up and opened the door. Because Chinese New Year's Eve there is so much work to do.
First, fight foreign dust. In today's parlance, hygiene is done. Tie a broom to a long bamboo pole, cover your face with a towel, put on a bucket hat, and brush the roof and surrounding walls over the place. Black ash fell all over the ground, cleaned the floor, and wiped the ash off the utensils with a cloth. Because the house was a flat, there was no need to move a mop, and there was no mop at that time.
Second, carry water. There is an unwritten old rule: from the first to the third day of the first year, you cannot carry water from the outside into the house, which will bring disasters; from the first to the third day of the first year, you cannot throw the garbage out of the door, so that you will send the money out. My family is going to Yangjia Dayan two miles away to fetch water, and there is a water tank in the kitchen that can hold six quintals of water. Chinese New Year's Eve, the tank must be filled with water. After I went to junior high school, I also picked up water a few times, and each time I was too tired to do it. Just think, not to mention the burden of more than a hundred pounds on the shoulders, the distance of running six times alone is more than 20 miles.
Third, paste the door god paste the pair. Most of them asked the cousin next door to write, he was a cadre working in the district, and he wrote well with a brush in one hand. When I went home from junior high school for the New Year, I also wrote a pair or two times, without hand intelligence, and the words were always not good. Remember to write many small strips, such as posting "six animals thriving" and "flocks of chickens and ducks" on the cow house and chicken coops, "opening the door and opening the door" at the gate, and "there is room for the back" at the back door.
Fourth, eat the New Year's dinner. Every year, it seems that the mother made the New Year's meal, and after it is done, she first "calls for rice" and invites the ancestors to go home to eat the New Year's meal. Wait until you go to the gate to set off firecrackers before going to the table to eat, usually there are local chicken soup, garlic stew, chicken cake, fish, and a few small dishes. Although it cannot be compared with today's standards, it is no exaggeration to say that the New Year meal eaten at that time was the most abundant meal of the year. The smell of the garlic stew is still in my memory, and I haven't tasted it again.
Fifth, play lanterns. Lanterns are sold in the waxing moon, and the cage people use bamboo poles to carry colorful lanterns full of auspicious words to go to the countryside to sell them, adding to the atmosphere of the New Year. There are many children on our street, of course, there are more lanterns! Crazy until twelve o'clock, really tired to go home. Wash your face and go to bed. My mother had cleaned up the clothes (sometimes new) for me to wear. Tomorrow is the first day of the Chinese New Year, I still have to get up early to pay my aunt a New Year's greeting, maybe I can receive two yuan of pressure money!
Filled with hope, I quickly fell asleep...
Sun Qiao: The Year of land reform was a Lantern Festival
Author: Wang Chunren
The Lantern Festival is an indispensable activity of the Spring Festival and a symbol of the climax of the Spring Festival. As the saying goes, Hanako also has three days to pass, and from the fourth day of junior high school, it is a good time for various folk artists to show their talents. They either go to the streets or go from village to village. Every time they arrive at a house, the head of the household will set off firecrackers that have been prepared for the reception, what they say, sing, and do is the content of blessings and auspiciousness, whoever puts more firecrackers, the more energetic they perform, the more the audience. When leaving, whether it is a red envelope or a cigarette, a side dish, or the owner of a side dish, it is necessary to express it.
Speaking of watching the lights, that was the only time I still remember it vividly. It was the first Spring Festival after the land reform, and some well-known people on the street and merchants discussed a lantern play. They asked the florist huang shirch on the street (nicknamed Huang Jigong) to spend a long time tying a lot of colorful lights, and on the day of playing with the lights, even a hundred or twenty miles away from the countryside came a lot of people, and Sunqiao Street was crowded. Walking in the forefront are a variety of colored lights, including phoenix lights, carp lights, sun and moon palm lights, hydrangea lights, fairy lights, domino lights, pegasus lamps, lotus lights. Followed by the performance team, what colorful lotus boats, mussel shell essences, lotus flowers falling, stepping on stilts, twisting songs, playing waist drums, ground flower drums, lions, dragon lanterns, as well as playing gongs and drums, blowing trumpets several teams in the back, that is lively, making people's ears tingle. More and more people watched the liveliness, and it was all the way to Guanqiao Street, when someone on Chen Ji Street came to ask for it, because time did not allow it. Especially those colored lights, at night to light the candle and insert it in, it is really colorful, all vivid. And some of those performances have now been lost, such as stepping on stilts to pull a donkey, it is not easy to perform some actions on the ground, not to mention the foot is tied with a 50-80 cm wooden stick jumping and jumping and flipping.
Sun Qiao's gong and drum family is a literary and artistic wonder, composed of gongs, drums, cymbals, hook gongs and stick gongs (also called horse gongs), five people play, the drummer directs, all depending on the drummers using drum sticks on the drum surface to knock, hit, stop, paddle to complete the change of the repertoire. Unfortunately, there was no written record at the time, and with the death of the older generation, it is now lost. There is another kind of cultural and entertainment activity during the first month, that is, the grass stage drama team spontaneously set up a stage and sang for several days, and those elderly people and theater fans who are not very convenient for their legs and feet go home every day to watch the digging of the stage nest, and sing until the fifteenth day of the first month.
The fifteenth day of the first month is the half of the month, the year is small and half large, people eat early, not waiting for dark, the lanterns in front of the doors of the houses are lit, the firecrackers are ready, and in the village, in front of the doors of the houses, a fire has long been lit. After the Lantern Festival, the incense paper candles placed in front of the shrines of each house were moved to the front of the gate and burned. The crackling of bamboo and cypress branches, the aroma and the exploding firecrackers are another scene and atmosphere. At this time, the owners will bow to each other to show off the old year to welcome the new year. Then, everyone eats the Lantern and drinks fine wine, and the family plans how to welcome the arrival of spring ploughing production in the new year.
Guanqiao: Chinese New Year's Eve Shou Nian is brightly lit and incense is knocked on
Author: Huang Hai
On the thirtieth day of the waxing moon on Guanqiao Street, the sound of firecrackers began to rise and fall. We eat the reunion dinner here is not in the evening but at noon, very exquisite, the task of the women is of course to prepare a rich feast, the host is to first paste the Spring Festival on each door and some "heaven and earth yin and yang, no taboos" type of red posts, and then do the work of worshiping ancestors and gods. Two red candles were lit on the god cabinet, interspersed with tianzhu and red and green, and the solemn and solemn atmosphere was immediately revealed. Three sticks of incense are inserted into the incense burner, and three plates of offerings are placed, that is, a chicken, a piece of meat, a piece of tofu, and three glasses of wine, and then they kneel down and prostrate their heads. My father also made me kowtow. Then my mother and sister brought out a hearty meal, my father and I went to the gate to set off firecrackers and then closed the door, and then I had been waiting for the New Year meal. From this point on, the whole family will be forbidden to say something unlucky, and our children will not scold us if they do anything wrong. The money of the adults was also given to us at this time. When eating the New Year's meal, the door must not be opened.
When I heard the sporadic sound of firecrackers outside the door, I knew that my friends were waiting for me to go out. Adults have long prepared a lot of firecrackers for us, small partners together to put whips, ask each other how much money the family has given, and then see whose family has not yet eaten the New Year's dinner, the partner has not yet come out. At this time, every household on the small street has posted a big red Spring Festival, and everyone is happy, and everyone has a smile on their faces. A festive atmosphere.
It was getting late in the evening, and the adults of each family had to call their children to take a bath, which was also a must-do thing for Chinese New Year's Eve, and the brazier had been lit at home, and after I had taken a bath by the brazier, I had changed my whole body from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside, all changed into new clothes, new pants, new shoes and new socks. Then bring firecrackers, light new lanterns, and go out to play again. Dozens of little kids to see whose lantern looks good. At this time, the adults rarely came out, they had to keep watch at home, and two large lanterns were hung in front of every house, and the streets were bright, and we said here "thirty fires, fifteen lights", and these two days are to be lit all night. The whole family gathered around the fire, eating melon seeds, golden fruits, hemp fruits and so on, while chatting, to the tv program, they all smiled and watched the Spring Festival Gala. Laughter and laughter.
Although I had an all-night date with my friends, I still couldn't resist the onslaught of drowsiness, and I fell asleep on my mother's lap, who woke me up and my sister and me and went back to our rooms to sleep, and I went to rest myself. My father was alone by the fire, and from time to time the incense was knocked out, until he went out to the gate when it was almost dawn. In addition to setting off firecrackers, the heavenly party also needs to burn money paper, if it happens that the person on the other side is also out of the sky, he will gently retreat back to close the door and wait for others to enter and then come out to operate, at this time, if you meet people who are familiar with each other, you can't greet each other and talk, that is, the family can't talk. At this time, firecrackers sounded in full swing, and behind the street, outside the village continued until dawn. It doesn't matter whether it is early or late, it is not like the deafening deafness of scrambling before midnight now, it seems that the sooner it is, the richer it becomes, for fear that the god of wealth will go to another house, selfish. After my father left the sky, even if he completed the vigil, he could go back to his room to rest, and the sky would slowly light up.
Source: Kyoyama Story