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The most memorable thing of the year is Qingming
Wang Mantang
Wind and rain pear blossoms have been eaten coldly, how many graves have come to the children?
It's another year of Qingming Festival, and another year of tomb sweeping. It is time to clean up the weeds at the graves of relatives, and have accumulated so many heartfelt words to tell them, and on the occasion of the Qingming Festival, they can tell them eloquently...
Qingming Festival has a breeze, the so-called "blowing noodles are not cold"; Qingming Festival sometimes rains, the ancients said "wet clothes do not get wet". This year seems to be an exception, from March 30 to April 1, for three consecutive days, cold rain has been falling, which is expected to be steep and cold to welcome the meaning of the festival.
However, "where there is no smoke in Qingming, the suburban breeze sends paper money"... On the Qingming Festival, the Cautious End pursuit of the distant and the Tun Kinmu clan seems to be recognized by Thanksgiving again.
No, before the people have set out, are not the field paths that must be passed through countless times to go to the graves of their parents? Isn't there a tall mountain, not the "Flower and Fruit Mountain" that you have to climb before you reach your parents' grave? Isn't it the barking of dogs on the side of the open dam of the farmhouse next to the path? When you sit in the courtyard dam of your old watch during a nap, don't you see the magnificent mountain of fruit trees and flowers?
At this time, it is early to grow eagle flying, the cherry should be ripe, and the Tarocco blood orange has long been yellow, right? Is the moon in front of the old watch yard dam messy?
Every year on Qingming Festival, we children go to our parents' cemetery to make offerings. Clean up the grass on the tomb, burn incense and paper, carefully lay out the offerings, and prostrate the greetings in the green smoke... In recent years, the promotion of smokeless fire festival sweeping has been replaced by flowers and paper flowers. Although facing a pile of grassy graves, the gods are like gods, and the thoughts of relatives are followed. Because, the sacrifice process caused by sincerity of the heart is always accompanied by a faint mourning in the heart, and there is always the sound and smile of the deceased relatives appearing in front of the eyes...
I remember that when my mother was alive, she set an example for us by example. She was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and chronic stomach disease at that time, but every Qingming Festival, she always had to personally take us to visit grandma's grave despite the pain. Grandpa, not knowing what kind of consideration he was in at that time, chose his cemetery in a place called "Stone King Creek". Too far from the city and the traffic is very inconvenient. Even if the mother is in good health, it is very difficult to go to the Cemetery once a year, not to mention that the mother's sick children and grandchildren at that time were young. When there is more than enough in the heart and insufficient strength, the only way to sacrifice is to sacrifice with the heart, and to be sincere in the heart is to think spiritually.
Grandma's cemetery was located outside the imperial capital gate of the small city, there was no bus at that time, and every time I went to visit the tomb, I walked. Our home was originally in a north-south alley on the cross road of Shangzheng Street in the small town, and in the late 1950s, it was once relocated to a temporary house in an alley near the East Gate.
Therefore, on the Qingming Festival that month, we inserted from the East Gate to the Imperial Capital Gate, and then turned over a long slope along the stone road, passed the Guanyin Temple, crossed the road, and then walked down the ravine along a curved path, and saw Grandma's grave standing still at the bottom of the ditch. At that time, even if life was difficult, every year to visit the grave of Grandma, in addition to burning some paper money, lighting incense and candles, the mother had to bring some cooked food as an offering. Before and after the Qingming Dynasty in my hometown, it was the time when the young beans were listed. Therefore, each time the sacrifice is made of new vegetables such as "roasted beans" (raw beans are boiled and rakeed in oil), and in the absence of a "knife head" as a sacrifice, it can only be done as a last resort. At that time, perhaps because of the lack of brain blankness in the teenagers, to this day, my mind always vividly imagines that at that time, my mother was holding a cane in one hand and a bamboo basket in the shape of a "pig loin", and the sacrifice inside was covered with an old blue cloth, followed by the "Qingming Tomb Map" of several of our young children. And as the years passed, the picture was always fixed in my mind, and whenever the Qingming Festival arrived, it appeared so clearly and mournfully, and it came to life in front of my eyes...
When my father died in 1970, I didn't know anything about it. Maybe it's because in the ten years I was two or three to thirteen years old, my father always came home as a guest. As a result, his illness and death seemed to have only generated a childish sadness in his heart.
By 1984, when my mother died of illness, I really mourned that the sky had fallen. For a long time, it was spent in self-blame and regret. Blame yourself for being stupid and stubborn, hate yourself for all kinds of rebellious behavior... My mother pulled me up with one hand and loved me so much. In order to make me grow up and "have a good time", I have been teaching my ignorance and ignorance all the time. However, I often went against my mother's wishes and confused me. When there is a little self-examination, but the mother does not resign for a long time, the regret of "helpless flowers like a dream", how can it be a good word of regret!
Sometimes I think that my parents are here, and there is still a way to go. Now, with only the way back left, how can we continue the filial piety culture that has lasted for more than 2,500 years, and guide future generations to emulate and be a "descendant of the grave" when the Qingming Festival arrives, and pass it on from generation to generation?
Is it only to remember that the tree is thousands of feet tall, no matter how it branches and leaves, it is the maintenance of the roots?!
Alas, the most memorable Qingming Festival of the year!
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author: Wang Mantang (Member of Yibin Writers Association, Member of Writers Association of Nanxi District, Yibin City)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan
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