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Miss the flower lantern
Xiao Jian
In the first month, the festive atmosphere of the New Year is gradually calming down with the warming of the weather, and when the moon hangs in the sky, the Lantern Festival passes, and the Spring Festival holiday is successfully over.
The Lantern Festival is approaching, and a small lantern festival will also be held in the nearby park. The lantern festival is not yet finished, but whenever the night is over, looking out through the windows of the tall buildings, I can always be attracted by the faint light over there. Unlike the bright and bright lights on the street, the light there seems to be particularly soft, perhaps because the lantern there is still growing slowly like the stars in the sky, and after two days, the stars in the sky will float to the earth, and they will merge into the lamp, so that the lantern becomes a star on the ground, illuminating the night of the earth, and warming the cold of early spring.
I had no special feelings about hanging lanterns during the Lantern Festival until the epidemic struck, and the waves of the new crown broke the bridge for many people to return home during the Spring Festival, separating the family that should have been reunited in this happy festival. My father is a part of the migrant workers, for our safety, but also for his own responsibility as a social person, he chose to stay there, and we can only share the atmosphere of the Spring Festival through the Internet. But the little phone screen can't hold my father's worries, is he okay over there? Is the Chinese New Year's Eve meal delicious? Do you have a good rest when you are tired from work? Of course he would not say that he was the pillar of the family and would always show us the front of his smile, but I knew the exhaustion behind him and the pain of his work. Endless thoughts gathered but could not find an exit, it resided in my heart, so that I had a lot of sorrow in this supposedly joyful Spring Festival.
We had prepared a lantern ourselves, and we were going to go to the lantern festival as a family, but because of the epidemic, the lights that were originally planned to be held would be cancelled, and we could only be at home with the lonely lamp. I still remember that when I carried this lamp to the roof, there were not many stars in the sky, and the light of the lantern was like the stars on the ground, illuminating the darkness around me. The lamp looked at me, I looked at the lamp, and somehow I suddenly remembered my father. Although my father was not by my side, he seemed to cross thousands of miles, attached to this lamp, illuminating me with his own light and warming my cold hands. I felt the gentle gaze from it, looking at the sky, the full moon of the bright moon looking tenderly at everything on the earth, including me. I couldn't help but wonder: Is my father also watching the moon in the sky now? Grasping the handle of the lamp in my hand, its light is always shining, and I also hope that if my father over there has such a lamp in his hand, with my thoughts, help me to light the night road for me, and warm his rough and cold hand for me.
At that time, I understood that the lanterns of the Lantern Festival were the crystallization of people's thoughts, the bond between the families who were separated from the two places, and the symbol of family reunion and celebration of joy. Therefore, the flower lantern can become one of the symbols of the day when the Spring Festival ends, accompanying the Chinese people for thousands of years, and opening this new year's pursuit of a better life with its bright and warm light.
And this year, my father was reunited with us, and the lantern party would also be held as promised, only when the night came, the lights of the distant mountains were lit, and we carried the flower lanterns in our hands and went to the place where the thoughts gathered together, and spent this happy Lantern Festival together to welcome the new year.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author: Xiao Jian (Class of 2021, Chinese Language and Literature, College of Literature and Music And Arts, Yibin University)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan
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