#My Hometown My Year#
The End of the Year (9)
For the sake of the big paper and the exquisiteness of the ancestors
For the heaven and earth card, the old ancestors, and all the gods and immortals must be completed before noon on the last day of the year, the women prepare dinner but can no longer simmer the pot, the swill produced by cooking can not be spilled to the livestock, the face washing water is used as little as possible, and then poured in the large vat prepared in advance, in the two or three days for the ancestors, everyone tries to make wastewater, the water is considered to be wealth, and when the ancestors are supplied, the water is poured out is to pour money, every night the water tank must be filled with water, and the firewood heap is prepared with enough firewood (wealth).
Everyone eats dinner, the time is slightly earlier than the normal meal time, because there is Chinese New Year's Eve meal, before eating when the family should be incense everywhere, the whole family from the eldest to the youngest in order of generation to kowtow to the ancestors, the girl does not kowtow, pour wine on the three wine cups on the table for the ancestors, and from then on until the gods have to kowtow and pour wine every time they eat, the other gods are incense three times before the morning, afternoon, and evening, but the incense burner on the ancestor's offering table cannot be broken, everyone in the family pays attention to the timely incense, and someone at night specifically looks at the incense. In order to reduce the number of incense to buy high incense for the incense burned by the ancestors, wash your hands before incense, and the whole family must kowtow three times in the morning, noon and evening.
At that time, the dishes eaten by the rural people in winter are local winter storage vegetables, and the New Year can not do much tricks, all of which are stewed in a large pot a few days before the New Year and put in the basin, this practice saves the firewood of the kang, and also eliminates the centralized burning of the kang heat of the sleepless people, when eating on the pot, the pot is hot, so the wastewater generated after the ancestors is less, the New Year can buy some fungus, yellow cauliflower, sea vegetables, peanuts and rice people's homes are superior people's homes, this situation continued until the early eighties of the last century, and there were 6 or 8 dishes on the New Year table. From the beginning of eating this meal, the hostess must put staple food into the pot after each meal, such as a bowl of rice, a few dumplings or a few bean buns, etc., until the end of February 2, this custom is called "pressure pot", please a good color, there is always food in the pot, and it disappeared after the Cultural Revolution.
After offering the heaven and earth tablets and ancestors, all kinds of exquisiteness will increase, and those who want to pay accounts will not be allowed to open their mouths, and the same is that their own family cannot borrow all kinds of goods and money from the outside. Speak also to say auspicious words, for the family tree period can not be poured out of the garbage, sweeping kang from the kang edge to the kang, sweeping the door of the house to the house sweep, the yard of paper to put firecrackers confetti can not be swept, the pot stove fire mouth can not be filled with garbage like the same filthy things, this is the old rules that rural people used to abide by, said that the stove pit door is the mouth of the stove king, filling the garbage the same thing is disrespectful to the stove king, the onion and garlic skin can not be burned, burning the boils of the family life. In the first month, those who have sows at home cannot wash their hair at home, and sows who wash their hair at home will have a miscarriage, cannot wash their feet, and are afraid of making sauce and smell.
The time for providing family trees is also different because of family customs, and the local area is divided into three types, the first one: the family tree is offered on the last day of the year, and the sixteenth day of the first month is sent to the cemetery to send lamps to return to eat dumplings and withdraw the offerings, and the offerings are removed to remove all the items and family trees on the table. The second kind: commonly known as not receiving or sending the first six to withdraw the offering, but also on the last day of the lunar year for the family tree, to the first six days of the first month of the sun will set after a while to withdraw the offering, put away the family tree, the Lantern Festival is no longer for the family tree, the word pick-up and drop-off here refers to the two links of receiving the god and sending the god, the above two kinds of ancestor customs Of the old order is relatively less. The third form is to receive and send god again, as follows:
On the last day of the lunar year, before the sun was about to set, the male masters of the family carried the children to their own cemetery with lanterns and burnt paper, first on the ancestral grave began to burn paper in turn at each grave to kowtow, the mouth beckoned the old ancestor to go home for the New Year, the candle in the lantern lit got up and walked home without looking back, after arriving at home, open the door to put firecrackers, open the door to avoid the way into the house, throw a wooden pole on one side of the house and sprinkle a little grain grass symbol for the ancestors to tie the horse, feed the horse, close the gate and the door of the house, Place a long wooden bar horizontally under the gate, commonly known as the stall door bar, symbolizing the external ghost outside the door, some people also have to burn a little fire under the table for the family tree, symbolizing the old ancestors to burn kang, the whole family from the eldest to the youngest to the family tree kowtow (the girl does not kowtow). This process is called receiving God. The ancestral grave is far from home, and the family goes to the southwest crossroads outside Tunzi to meet the gods.
On the second day of the first lunar month, some people's homes are the third day of the first month to send the gods, cook dumplings at about seven o'clock to make offerings, light three pillars of low incense and wine, wait for the incense to burn to the remaining three or four inches high, the whole family is the same as the god to kowtow to the family tree, open the door of the house, the door, burn some paper in front of the offering table (to give the ancestors a road fee), put firecrackers in the courtyard and close the gate and the door of the house, remove the offerings on the table, remove the family tree from the bottom up and roll it up and put it on the right position of the offering table, the two sides of the screen are not withdrawn, the incense burner, incense tube, candlestick are not in place.
On the fourteenth day of the first month, the gods were received again, and the sixteenth was sent to the gods again, and after this time, the family tree was to be put away and the offering table should be removed.
Receiving the gods came back the women to prepare to wrap dumplings, at that time the dumpling stuffing is sauerkraut meat, naturally with meat oil live stuffing, the family population is large, the eldest lady and aunt will greet the young man who is not engaged to move the meat oil jar, saying that he can't move it, let the young man move the meat oil jar to take the meat (marriage) good mouth, hoping to get married in the new year.
After the girl gets married, she can no longer celebrate the New Year at home, even if she is divorced, she must be picked up by her aunt's uncle's cousin's family before the New Year, and the married girl cannot look at the ancestors of the mother's family, which is said to be a poor mother's family. The ancestors of the mother's family did not withdraw the confession of the girl and the aunt could not come back to visit the New Year, for fear that the aunt would see the family tree and scold the ancestors.
Paper time in the age of no clock is to look at the stars, there is a constellation we call here "three stars", is composed of five stars a long diamond constellation, the diagonal intersection of the diamond has a star, to Chinese New Year's Eve night this constellation runs to the south, the long side of the diamond vertical earth, horizontal three stars horizontal, commonly known as three stars at noon, began to send paper, I pay attention to observe for many years This time is close to the sub-hour of the new year after 10:30 p.m. (23:00 to 1:00 the next day), When we enter the new year after various stylized ritual activities, the subsequent activities are basically the same throughout the country and will not be repeated. (To be continued)
