Text | Qin Yiling
The Year of the Ox is gone, and the Year of the Tiger is here. Regarding the topic of the Year of the Tiger, customs or stories related to the tiger, I made a special trip back to my hometown a few years ago.
One
Mom is 96 years old this year, and she has the most say. "The aunt plays (do) pants, the aunt plays the jacket, and the concubine plays the shoes and can't run." Talking about the topic related to the tiger, the old mother opened the conversation box, and she said: "As a concubine, I give the shoes made by your sister-in-law's dog egg and Xiaolan in Xixian Village, and the shoes made by your aunt Xiaohai and Xiaoshui in Caogou." "What shoes did I say you made?" She said: "Tiger head shoes. Then he said: "The appearance of the Yangshan family from Dashigou has been done well, and the child is afraid to wear it." I deliberately asked, what are you afraid of? She said that the child cried when he saw the tiger shoes and did not wear them when he was afraid. I laughed.
The old mother then said, "Your eldest aunt Tim Xiao Hai Ke, holding the child jiao, wants to give him the child padlock, our family sold a stack of wheat, and gave him a long-lived rich lock." You see, now a few nephews are good to me, so painful. Mom couldn't help but laugh when she said it. Also, at that time, so poor, there was not enough food to eat, the mother for the eldest nephew to seek a long life and wealth, really fought.
(Image from the Internet)
The old mother said, "Your eldest concubine made cat nose and cat eye shoes (tiger head shoes) for your brother, and I made a pair of blue pants for my nephew Laizhu." I said, "Why do you make it blue?" She said: "Duxing is blue, stop it, the coarse cloth is also blue, not yin and yang, take the child petite, feudal." Your big concubine made tiger head shoes for her brother, and the heel is also pulled with a piece of cloth to facilitate the lifting of shoes. "By the way, I remember when I was a kid, my brother wore it small, passed down, and embroidered tiger pockets." I remember my brother also wore a tiger hat with two small ears and two black eyes. The old mother said, "I've seen children wearing the clothes of little tigers, a small tail of yellow flowers in the back, and a bar with a grin of cloth." Hahaha, the hometown dialect sounds so kind.
Speaking of the little tiger's clothes, I remembered that there was an article in our primary school textbook "Jingyang Gang", which was written about Wu Song's courage to go to Jingyang Gang after drinking, and then met the tiger, dodged the tiger's three moves, and finally beat the tiger to death. We also rehearsed into a textbook drama, performed on Children's Day on June 1st, the boy who played the "tiger", put on the coat of tiger skin pattern, lived a tiger, danced with teeth and claws, and finally was beaten down by a black dressed "Wu Song" for several rounds. Of course, the current tiger is a nationally protected animal and cannot be beaten indiscriminately.
I think of a painting from forty years ago. The former neighbor of my hometown is the old sixth aunt's house, I often went to her house to play when I was a child, and her daughter Xiaoying and I are sisters of about the same age. Hanging on the wall of someone else's house is a landscape, and in the middle of the wall of her house hangs a majestic tiger, and the aunt says that it was painted by her brother. At first I didn't dare to look at each other, but then I thought it was a paper tiger, and I had the courage to look at it a few times, and then later, I thought it was well drawn, and the tiger had a king character on its head, hanging two eyes of yellow light, standing on the stone, shouting proud of the mountains and forests. I think that the paintings are all painted by great painters, and being able to paint tigers or the brother-in-law's brother-in-law is really remarkable, and I have admired it for many years. The reason for posting the tiger painting, I guess Ying Mei is not in good health, so sick, probably to ward off evil spirits, and later, she really recovered her health.
Just stunned by the kung fu of God, the mother took out a set of red new underwear, the fifth sister bought it on the Zhonggong set, big red underwear panties, red pants head red socks red scarf, big red flower pants, and a red belt, oh, the old mother belongs to the tiger, this year is the mother's life year, hehe, really festive. Regardless of adults and children, early in the morning of the first day of the New Year, they all wear new clothes and new hats, speak auspicious words, and their mothers are still so heartbroken. On the first day of the New Year, my mother said that Chinese New Year's Eve would put on new clothes, but it was appropriate, and then she smiled, and I could feel the happy smile on her face.
Two
The eldest brother told me that in the first few days, Qin Huzi's son got married and went to help write a couplet book, which was very lively. Many people in our village are called tigers, Qin Huzi, Li Huzi, Wang Hu sun hu Zhao Hu Jia Hu of the East and West Villages, three brothers in a family, two big tigers and two tigers and small tigers, especially in our rural areas, and we do not find people to name them, boys are called tigers, tiger heads and tiger brains, tigers and tigers are angry and very cute.
The eldest brother remembered that when he was in his thirties, the Spring Festival was also the Year of the Tiger, and the newspaper collected the idiom of taking the tiger in advance and spelled it out as a "tiger". What tigers and tigers are mighty, such as tiger wings, fox fake tiger wei, dragon leaping tiger leap, tiger roaring dragon groan, living dragon living tiger, for the tiger to do tricks... Tiger character head, and seven characters, horizontal and vertical cross with the same tiger word, he spelled it, as soon as he entered the Wax Moon Gate, he submitted. He looked forward to seeing the newspaper every day, especially looking forward to it, waiting for the first to wait and waiting for the second to come, and his heart was particularly anxious, thinking that it was yellow. His colleagues said that such an important manuscript had to be published in the supplement near the Spring Festival. Sure enough. What newspaper do I ask? The eldest brother said it was The Jinan Farmers' Daily. I said is there still that newspaper? He said to keep it, build a house and move and don't know where to put it.
At that time, he borrowed a bicycle, hummed a little song, and went to the Erqi Post Office to receive five yuan in writing fees. Then I went to the market to buy seven or eight pounds of pork, which was about six cents a pound at that time, and bought some other New Year's things, and I was happy to have a good year. I vaguely remember seeing that newspaper, reading the tiger idiom, admiring the great brother, which was a great joy for our family at that time, and it was also a happy topic for him to visit the new year.
My eldest brother was influenced by my father when he was a child and liked to write with a brush. When the old family did not build a house, the wall was plastered with the words he wrote, began to write seal books, my home earthen house on the south wall of two platforms, paste on the paper is the words he wrote, at that time I was in elementary school, also did not know those crooked symbols, like bugs crawling, nothing I will look at, now think about it, probably the sun and moon landscape and other hieroglyphs, the strokes are smooth and comfortable and very good-looking. Later, he became a teacher, participated in calligraphy competitions large and small, and won several awards, prizes that are enamel jars, notebooks, pens... Later, he was fortunate to join the Jinan Calligraphers Association.
His calligraphy is well known in the village, who has a red and white happy event, as soon as he is called, he will go, indispensable to his writing, he is willing to help, in the eyes of outsiders, is a good temper that responds to needs. Every year around the twentieth month of the waxing moon, he volunteered to write the Spring Festival League for the villagers, and has insisted on it until now, for more than forty years. Some of the neighbors brought one or two pieces of red paper, and some didn't have anything, so they put down a sentence and wrote me a couplet. The eldest brother simply promised, well, don't forget to take it.
When he was young, he worked a lot at home, pushing electric mills, steaming dry food, making tofu... During the day there is no time to write, near the Spring Festival almost wrote all night, red paper and black characters of the Spring League spread all over the ground, there is no place to insert the foot, the house emits a strong ink fragrance. Come to get the couplet's neighbor sister-in-law uncle, choose their own satisfaction, this pair is good-looking, that one is also good, and then happily go home to play paste paste.
The old and young masters of the New Year went door to door to visit the New Year, and there was a bit of estrangement, and they all resolved by taking advantage of the New Year. Groups of three or five, walked to the gate, first read the Spring League on the door, this word is beautiful, the content is also auspicious, praise in all words, the host listened to the face of the light, the heart is happy to blossom. There are also upside-down stickers upside down, after all, the picture is good-looking, no one cares.
Nowadays, villagers buy ready-made Spring Festival, but they still like to write it now. This year, the eldest brother wrote to his family the Spring Festival: the dragon is rich and noble, and the tiger is auspicious. Spring is on the rise, and the year of the tiger is full of power. The couplet of the second brother's family: song and swallow dance, tiger and dragon. Flowers are only a good day for flowers, and the Year of the Tiger is more powerful. On the gate of the little brother's house: the tiger roared and the mountains and seas moved, and the dragon and the three realms were auspicious. The eldest brother wrote the tiger into a pictographic tiger character, the tiger character head was outlined as looking back, the "factory" word apostrophe and the "several" skimmer formed the tiger body and the front foot, and the "several" bending hook was drawn as an ass and tail to lift up, sitting upright and screaming, and the majestic tiger was born.
Attending the community New Year's recital a few years ago, the staff gave each of us a little cloth tiger, a red velvet body, blue eyes, a smile, and a likable one. I put it on the back of the couch and hugged it whenever I was tired, tugged at its ears, touched its round face, looked at its smile, and swept away the annoyance and fatigue.
These warm memories and stories add some warmth to the Year of the Tiger, just like inserting two small wings into the tiger and taking off smoothly this year. May the Year of the Tiger, everyone be mighty and mighty, and the Year of the Tiger is auspicious!
About author:Qin Yiling, a native of Jinan, Shandong, retired teacher, member of Shandong Prose Literature Society, member of Jinan Writers Association, member of Jinan Wednesday Reading Club, citizen reporter of Jinan Daily, Jinan Tourism Woodpecker, Reading Promotion Ambassador of Licheng District. In his spare time, he likes to wander in the text, and his works have been published in Qilu Evening News, Shandong Workers Daily, Jinan Daily, Lianhe Daily, Writers Daily, Qilu Literary Works Yearbook, Licheng Daily, Old Friends Magazine, etc.
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