Lantern Festival
Text: Zhou Zheng
The night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the world of lights.
The bright moon in the sky is round and bright, like a white jade lantern, sprinkling a soft clear light on the earth. In this village and that village, in the streets and alleys sprinkled with moonlight, the lotus lamps, goldfish lamps, rabbit lamps, bud rice lamps, sweet potato lamps, and red star lamps swaying in the hands of the villagers are colorful and sparkling, like stars in the sky. At this moment, when you ascend to the top, you really can't tell which is the stars in the sky and which is the lamp on earth.
The Lantern Festival, pay attention to a noisy word, the most noisy tricks are the children in the village, but they only make those radish roots, cabbage roots, pumpkin belly lamps, these are also made by themselves. The mothers-in-law in the village, pinch the bean noodle lamp to make fun of the lamp, pinch the zodiac, holy insects, goldfish, plug in the lamp, pour soybean oil to light. The zodiac lamp is placed on the kang, the holy insect lamp is placed in the grain hoard, and the goldfish lamp is placed in the water tank, seeking peace and auspiciousness, and the grain is abundant. The adults in the village make a noise to give this full moon night a more magnificent color. However, they are not making trouble with the children's pattern lights, nor the bean-faced lamps of the mother-in-law, but the more imaginative and spectacular dragon running lights!
The running dragon lights of my hometown of Stone River are famous. I remember when I was a child, after the eighth day of the first lunar month, after drinking the porridge of Lapa Ba, the adults in the village operated the dragon lantern and made a Lantern Festival. Most of the dragon lanterns in other villages are made of bamboo to tie up the dragon's body and dragon's tail, and then use cloth to connect, paint the dragon scales with color, and choose an auspicious day to open the dragon's eyes, and the dragon will live.
The dragon lantern in the village was made of iron by my father and uncles.
My father and several uncles were blacksmiths, and the family opened a blacksmith furnace to make farm tools. Daddy's iron dragon, the body of the dragon is as thick as a bucket, nine feet long, interconnected dragon body, really like the iron cigarette bag in Grandpa's hand. The dragon danced with eighteen young men, and the waist should be strong. The iron dragon can dance up and down, left and right, the dragon head can bite the dragon's tail, and from time to time the mouth will spew fire, reflecting the cyan scales. When dancing, a mighty gong and drum, a large pole trumpet, eighteen young men holding iron rods, holding iron dragons, stepping on gongs and drums, iron dragons sometimes take off in the air to ride the clouds, sometimes overturn the river and the sea, sometimes straight into the clouds, and the auspicious light of the heavens and the earth dancing around.
These dragon dancers, each one of them has a good kung fu, a solid waist and hips, flexible legs and feet, and cannot dance this iron dragon without more than ten years of kung fu. But the second uncle said: The dragon dance is the strength of four or two strokes of tai chi, and the qi is not strong! Later, when I danced the dragon, I realized that the second uncle was right.
The second uncle is the dragon-holding hand of the dragon dance lamp in the village, a good kung fu, and the dragon dance skills are like swallows pointing water. Difficult actions such as head and tail, tail plate head, two dragon play beads, two dragons and other difficult actions are completed in one go. More than sixty pounds of fine iron dragon balls, relaxed and free, playing in the palm of the hand, teasing the iron dragon alive and vivid. Won the applause of the villagers, everyone in all directions called him "Living Dragon King"!
The village is bustling with the red fire of the Lantern Festival, and there is also the iron lamp of Daddy, which can go to heaven like the "Kong Ming Lantern". Iron lanterns hung on firecrackers in the sky, a string of sounds, colorful, like a goddess scattered flowers, like a village woman in the river rinsing flowers and clothes. What a fascinating sight to behold!
This childhood light, like a short tune, disappeared in life.
The life of the people in my hometown is like a small river at the head of the village, which meanders and twists and turns...
That year, the second uncle ran from the township to the li family and said to the father: Brother, the land is divided, and the dragon lantern can be made again.
The second uncle asked his father to go home and fight the iron dragon!
That day, the old brothers drank two bottles of cow pen mountain with radish shredded stewed shrimp, blushing, and their eyes flashed with tears.
It's the Lantern Festival again, and the iron dragon of the village is born. Half a day later, people from the four miles and eight townships poured into the square in the village, the big red lanterns on the field were hung high, on the towering pine doors, the red was the red flag lamp, the interesting was the eight immortal lamps, the Tang monks and apprentices were noisy, and there were those who were a bunch of qi and wealth lamps, the two dragon play bead auspicious lamps, the three-star high-light rich and noble lamps, the four seasons of peace and health lanterns... The flower lanterns form a sentence: thank you for the party's good policies!
Look at the lights!
Someone shouted.
I looked up, and a dozen iron lamps took off, the red, green, blue, purple, white, and yellow lights, in the starry night sky, it was just a group of graceful village women, carrying baskets to Tianhe Huanyi.
Look at the dragons!
People surged and two iron dragons danced from the main road in front of the village. The dragon's eyes on the dragon's head were shining, and the mouth was sprayed with bright flames, and the iron dragon was majestic and vivid, turning the river and the sea in the sound of the heaven-shaking gongs and drums, and taking off into the clouds.
It seems that today the second uncle found himself again, the dragon ball in his hand was thrown up and down, thrown left and right, a high throw, more than sixty pounds of dragon ball thrown into the air, only to see the second uncle swallow into the clouds jumped up, grabbed the dragon ball on the spot a lion rolling hydrangea ball, standing firmly in front of the pine gate, two iron dragons jumped up in the air, jumped over the pine gate!
The whole audience was momentarily silent, followed by thunderous shouts and applause like the thunder of the sea tide.
A few old men couldn't help but marvel: Living Dragon King, God!
Let's talk about liangba next year.
The second aunt interjected and asked: Liangba?
A few old men rushed forward: The Lantern Festival. It is indispensable to ask the Living Dragon King to dial the dial.
Second aunt: He clicked, jumping the dragon gate this trick is what I taught him!
Hahaha! The old men laughed and said, "No wonder, the Living Dragon King was trained in Kangtou."
The gong and drum sounded, and laughter broke out. The laughter that came to the hearts of the peasants boiled in the flow of people in the River of Lights, and the Lantern Festival was in full swing.
One point number Zhou Zheng literature column