The fifteenth day of the first month of those years in the small town
Text/Old Monkey in the Mountains
At the beginning of the fifteenth day of the first month, the teams in the four townships singing flower lanterns, playing lion lanterns, clam shell lamps, and stepping on stilts, as if they had been so discussed every year, lined up, banged on large gongs and small gongs, and along the winding athletic trails, one after another flocked to the small town.
In each line, people who set off firecrackers and beat gongs and drums lined up at the front of the line, and those who picked baskets and carried baskets on their backs lined up at the back of the line. Flower lantern pairs, mussel shell essences and stilt walkers are in the middle. The mountain people's watchmen ran behind the people in front of the mountain, and let people kick lightly, "Wang! woof! "A few low barks.
When it was almost time to get to town, the team began to fight.
The frontmost post-son hung an army-green canvas bag hanging around his neck, and the cloth bag dangled in front of his chest door, containing a terrifying "explosive cannon lump". With a cigarette in his mouth, he lit two of them and threw them far away into the uncultured fields on the side of the road or on the brown-yellow hillside on the side of the mountain, "Boom! Bang! The sound of the explosion startled the wild finches from the "thorn gang" and shot arrows upwards.
Big Gong Small Gong "Gong! Boom! Boom boom! Knocking loudly, under the magnificent sky, the gong and hammer seemed to be wrapped in a rag, and the gong could not make a very loud sound, and the echo from the mountain side sounded extremely dull.
The flower lantern pair, both men and women are thick with a face of rouge, in the cold gray morning light, the red cheeks are like the ass of the monkey on the yellow lion village mountain, the red is particularly dazzling. The mussel shells came and went back and forth, and the mussel shell essence in between, the powder was fragrant and greasy, the hair of the dark oil was hanging down to the waist, the hair in front of the forehead and the sideburns was coiled high, and the silk flowers at the end were inserted, and the female goblin looked like a flower. One by one, the stilts stood up high, the rice soup syrup was beaten hard with a stick head, the red and green old costumes were worn on the body, the style was old and funny, and when I walked, the hem of the clothes behind the ass was far away.
The basket in the back was filled with cold clothes and everyone's food for the day, and the flat burden on the shoulders should be the idea of the gong sounding one vertical and one vertical, and the small steps under the feet followed the limp and upside down, like a dry duck walking.
When they entered the city, all the teams ran through the streets and alleys surrounded by bustling crowds, sending a new year greeting lyrics door to door, and the noise in front of large households and shops was longer. The paper seals begged for in the basket, melon seeds, peanuts and rice dumplings gradually filled up. The little dolls wearing the "drama face shell" and the "old shell" giggled and shoved, all squeezed into the line, walked back and forth in the alleys of several old streets, and then rushed from the West Street, North Street, East Gate, south gate, to the big exercise ping.
The large playground in front of Puguang Temple was built in the 1950s and can hold a lot of people.
In the afternoon, the large playground, the land play and the luohan play, the lion lamp and the dragon lamp... Taking turns to stage, people huddled in a pile of east and west, and the whole playground was crowded with thousands of heads and shouted.
The gongs and drums are beating vigorously, the lantern woman is twisting, the dragon and the lion are leaping in the air, and the gongs and drums and ringing are chirping.
Flower lanterns, mussel shell lamps, look a little tired, people put enthusiasm and curiosity to the extremely eye-catching "double dragon play beads", "lion grab hydrangea balls", on weekdays extremely rare "chest crushing big stone" Tujia people shocking earth tricks.
In the middle of the crowd was a long bench, unkempt and dirty, and the teenage boy slept on his back on the bench, wearing a worn-out cotton coat, and a large strip of rock on his chest. A middle-aged post-graduate stood next to the bench, with a nervous look on his face and a pretentious look of fear in his eyes, and raised a large iron hammer with both hands, trying several times not daring to smash the iron hammer down. The sister who was watching turned her head and did not dare to look, the little daughter-in-law was too nervous to speak, and the male dolls crowded in front of the crowd stared intently at the high-flying hammer. In the distance, there was a bang of "exploding cannons", and the old queen pretended to be frightened, with a frightened face, his hands were weak, and the hammer fell! With a muffled sound of "boom", the large rock head of the strip cracked into several sections on the chest of the little boy and fell to the ground. For a moment, there was silence in the clearing, there was silence, the little boy on the bench was motionless, and people's faces showed an unbearable look. Suddenly, the little boy turned over and stood up from the bench, grabbed two messy hairs on his head, patted the dust and stone chips on his body, and kicked the broken stones on the ground with two feet, "Uncle And aunt, uncle and aunt, the New Year, 'broken peace'!" "Pick up a gourd from the ground and go to the crowd of onlookers to beg for money." In the midst of consternation and applause, well-meaning adults would pluck out a few "silver seeds" or small paper tickets from their arms, although they did not hesitate to throw them into the scoop.
In the distance of Dongmen Creek, the native dogs brought into the city by the villagers also gathered into groups, different colors and sizes, it was a fight for the wind and jealousy, the male dogs chased the female dogs, tearing each other apart and barking wildly, and the dogs with crotches were beaten in circles in the flat by the dolls with firecrackers and rock heads.
……
In the evening, the flow of people watching the lights filled several old streets, cross streets are even more crowded, not very spacious small squares can hardly withstand the surging flow of people and want to burst, people exhale hot air and sweat sour smell to form a gas shield, gathered over the cross street, people breathless. The front porch of the department store is lined with a vault between six large columns, under the eaves of the post and telecommunications building, on the porch of the food company, there are rows of big red lanterns, and the orange-red light of the red candles illuminates the street brightly and dimly, flashing on people's sweaty cheeks.
Big red lanterns hang high. Photo: Liu Taiping
The flower lantern pair sang for a day, the makeup on the cheeks was already miserable, still entangled, constantly twisting the waist, shaking the convex breasts and hips, waving the folding fan and flower silk in his hand, hoarsely singing: "In the spring, the flowers are blooming..."
The wooden stick topped the dragon ball, lit up with a fiery red light, like a burning meteor, in the flow of people, high and low, suddenly shaking back and forth, the dragon lamp lit the candle installed in the body, the fire dragon chased the dragon ball in the narrow world and danced wildly, the descendants in the dragon's body, shouting in unison, like a dragon roaring.
The old ancestor left the "Taishi Chair", which was very high, as if it would fall down at any time. The descendant on the square table tossed a clanging hydrangea ball in his hand, and his eyes glanced at the obedient sister below. The "lion" got on the square table, shook his head and tail, jumped vertically, and jumped to the high stool step by step, opening his teeth and dancing his claws, and his eyes rolled over and stared at the ball of the sister's choice aunt, as if he was about to spew out two fires.
Men protect women, women drag small dolls, small dolls carry lanterns, squeeze and insert, seize a position, stretch the "neck trunk bone" very long, tiptoe, to the ever-changing lights and flow of people, eyebrows flying and dancing, looking like crazy, with their usual, deep water, thick soil, simple folk customs, the expression of "ha egg" in the mountains, half frowning and half smirking.
The sound of firecrackers and gongs and drums, shouts and whistles, cries and curses, one after another, fell and threw themselves into the sky without interruption. The full moon in the sky was covered by a halo of light, hiding in thin clouds, afraid that the noise of the town's soaring sky would collapse itself.
After midnight, the red candles in the lanterns on the street burned out one after another, and the remnants of the candle wicks of the Sparks continued for a short time and became extinct, and the town gradually darkened. The twinkles of candlelight drifted out into the pitch-black wilderness, and the barking of the dogs gradually faded away. The frenzied atmosphere and the swirling smoke still tangled with each other in the small town, and it seemed that it would never dissipate, in the leisurely years.