A radish bowl lamp
The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals of the Chinese nation and the first important festival in the spring after the New Year.
In addition to eating tangyuan, watching flower lanterns, rowing dry boats, dancing dragons and lions, and making gongs and drums noisy lanterns, there is another tradition in my hometown - that is, making bowl lamps.
Since I can remember, every year's Lantern Festival, my mother would wash and cut the white radish into several pieces, and use a soup spoon to hollow out the white radish heart and make a delicate small radish bowl. Then find some small bamboo skewers, and rub a small ball of cotton evenly on the bamboo skewers, so that the bamboo skewers become a wick. The wick is inserted in the radish bowl, and then the radish bowl is poured with rapeseed oil along the wick, so that a delicate radish bowl lamp is made.
Legend has it that in ancient times, on the day of the Lantern Festival, people lit a bowl lamp to predict which crops would be suitable for planting in the new year, because each wick would burn into a different shape, some like a full millet soybean, some like a fruitful corn sorghum, and some would appear a large cloud,which my mother said was a symbol of the cotton harvest. Childhood memories are always full of mystery and curiosity!
Looking at a small radish bowl lamp, the burning wick from time to time heard the sound of nourishing fuel, and the smoke rose up into the sky. The night is dotted with stars, and a round of bright full moon hangs high in the sky, reflecting this round bowl lamp on the ground, as if this bowl lamp can really penetrate the heavens and the earth and predict the future.
The mother would also carry a bowl lamp to illuminate every corner of every room, which she said would drive away and reduce pest bites during the upcoming hot summer.
The night is late, the oil is running out, the bowl lamp is gradually dimming, and many patterns symbolizing the harvest have appeared on the wick. This autumn must be a fruitful and bumper season. Although these traditional folk customs may not be close to science, they are full of expectations for the harvest season and the yearning for a better life.
These traditional cultures are the same as the "Chinese Dream, roll up your sleeves and work hard" as we see it today. She makes our hearts full of imagination and passion for the future life, urges people to forge ahead, and does not forget the original intention.
With the dazzling fireworks rising in the distance, we will embark on a new journey in the new year.
About author:Yuan Ciguo is a member of Zibo Writers Association. Head of Boshan Tengyi Water Pump Factory and Boshan Yujinxuan Planting Professional Cooperative. In addition to being busy, he likes to record his life with words, and strives to interpret the ordinary life into a colorful life course.
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