Birthday Peach
◎ Qi Xuexian
The mother is also making birthday peaches for the elderly friends they meet and know. Construction began a week ago. Mother took out her toolbox, which contained small scissors, small tweezers, small combs, bottle caps, etc.; and took out space clay, mixed with flour, and made dough of various colors. Then, some roll out the dough cake and buckle the petals with the bottle cap; some use scissors to cut out the petals; some use their hands to knead into strips, pinch out fish, birds, cranes, peacocks, phoenixes and other animals; and then put the various flowers and various animals made in the box, waiting to be inlaid on the peach-shaped dumplings to make birthday peaches.
I remember that in the 1980s, when there were people in the family who got married or built a house on the beams, they would ask their mothers to help make peaches, lions, jujubes and other face sculptures. To build a house on the beams, it is generally necessary to make eight peaches and a pair of lions. The peaches are decorated with large purros and placed in the middle of the main house. The lions were placed on tea trays and placed on either side of the main gate. The lion made by the mother in memory is red, majestic, like an inviolable gesture. The shape of the lion is the shape of the current lion dance, the big red body, with the yellow tassel as a foil, surrounded by the lion, the guests who come to Hexi are greatly amazed after seeing it. Recently, I have searched for the face sculpture lion on the Internet many times, always want to find the appearance of the lion made by my mother, but unfortunately I have not found it until now, the face sculpture lion photo searched on the Internet, I always feel that there is no memory of the lion made by the mother, and the shape is not as good as the mother. I once told my mother about this feeling, and my mother said that what is made with the heart has spirituality, and now there are more commercial things on the Internet, maybe she did it with more intentions.
The pigments used to make dough molding, a long time ago, were to go to the market to buy some liquid colors, very cheap, with water, peanut oil, flour and together, kneaded into various colors of dough. Now, most of the mothers are made of space mud combined with flour, the color is much brighter, it is easier to do, and the storage time is also long. Unlike pigments, which are either deep or shallow, they need to be debugged many times to achieve satisfactory results. Once, my mother also made petals from wooden flowers. Wood flowers are scraps made by the village carpenters with planers when making furniture, thin, some rolls, most of which are used as firewood. My mother found that this was a good material for making flowers, so she collected them and immersed the wood flowers in various pigments to make them into various colors of flowers. The color is very bright and can be stored for a long time. Now, this wood flower can no longer be found. I remember my mother making a peacock out of a wooden flower, which amazed the guests who were celebrating at that time. The peacock is created by the mother herself, there are many animal shapes made by the mother herself according to the pictures on the wall calendar, and some flowers are thought out by the mother herself according to the actual object, so the mother's peach often conjures up new patterns. Some people say that life should have a pair of eyes that are good at discovery, a brain that is good at thinking, and a set of thinking that is good at innovation.
On the day before her birthday, my mother steamed peaches. In the past, steaming shou peach was a few people kneading the dough vigorously, which was a kind of hard work, the same as steaming the new year. Now, after making good noodles, you can press it to the dough press, and then make a big dumpling, pinch out the peach shape, and when the dough is ready, you can steam it on the pot. Steaming the big food needs to be hot, the fire is not steamed enough, and the big food will crack or shrink when the fire is large. Usually the father burns the fire, and the fire is just right. When the pot was uncovered, the white and chubby peach billet came out of the pot. While it was hot, my mother quickly planted the prepared noodle flowers. My mother arranged flowers for Shou Tao, and I helped out. While admiring, I gave Shou Tao a name or a poem, such as peacock opening screen, flower blossoming rich, double butterfly love flower, Mandarin duck playing in the water, dragon and phoenix Chengxiang, fish playing between lotus leaves and so on. Flowers of various seasons bloom here at the same time, peonies, lotuses, chrysanthemums, moons, etc., there are fully open, there are also semi-open, yellow flower buds clustered in the middle of the petals, bright petals layered on top of each other, beautiful. The serrated petals are buttoned out of the cap of a beer bottle, the vertical petals are pressed out with a comb, and the yellow buds and pointed lotus petals are cut with scissors. There are also fish, butterflies, phoenixes, dragons, mandarin ducks, cranes, peacocks, kingfishers and other animals on the peach, and various animals come together here and come alive.
I used to think it was easy to make these flowers, roll them, cut them, rub them, knead them, and make them. I also studied with my mother, but unfortunately, I have not learned it so far. First of all, using the most convenient space mud with flour to make petals, if you are not careful, you will stick to a piece. Then kneaded again, added more flour, remade, finally not sticky. When rolling the dough with a rolling pin into slices, it is either thick or thin and cracked, and I don't know how many times it is repeated to roll out the dough evenly. The strangest thing is that I also learned my mother to cut, rub, pinch, how my mother did, I followed how to do it, but what my mother did was vivid and vivid, and what I made was rough and stupid, ugly, fish is not like fish, butterflies are not like butterflies, kingfishers simply can't pinch out, really experience "easy to see flowers and difficult to embroider".
In 2012, Laizhou Face Plastic was awarded the Geographical Indication of China, and Laizhou Face Plastic won many awards in the competition and became famous throughout the country. In fact, there are many, many people like my mother who can make face moldings in life. Now, many families use our traditional Chinese peach as a birthday wish, green, healthy, practical, not inferior to birthday cake at all. I believe that China's thousands of years of cultural treasures will surely have a long history.
(The picture in this article is provided by the author, if there is any infringement, please inform and delete)
About the Author
Qi Xuexian, born in 1972, is a teacher at Zaocun Middle School in Laizhou City. He is a member of Yantai Prose Literature Society. Life is full of articles. I hope to use the pen to write all kinds of forms of life, and use the text to express the taste of life.
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