The year I remember began like this, and as soon as I entered Layue, my mother, like all mothers, began to be busy with the New Year, when materials were scarce, and dozens of pounds of rhubarb rice were soaked in small vats, and sometimes soaked in clay pots (a type of pot made of clay). After seven days of pulping, the water control is fished out, and the mill is ground into yellow rice noodles, and sometimes a pot of rice cakes with large rice beans is sprinkled with a little extravagance. The rest is fermented, and the bean paste prepared in advance can be steamed and glued in it, and the steamed bean bun is put outside to freeze, and then stored in the woven grass hoard, this process is very tiring, this process will pass in half a month. Next, I began to wash the quilt at home, the quilt can not be fully washed, the winter is too cold to dry in a day, there is no quilt cover at night, you can only disassemble and wash the quilt head, the quilt is covered in the direction of the head quilt has an extra layer of cloth, remove this cloth and wash, pillow skin, and all kinds of eight immortal table curtains, curtains, curtains on the door of the inner room. I also have a narrow curtain under the opposite cabinet in my house. It's all washed. At that time, it was all hand washing, boiling a large pot of water, putting the disassembled and washed batches into the iron laundry basin according to the color depth, putting a little alkali block, and rubbing it vigorously with a clothes pokerboard. The washboard was made by my father, who was a grade 8 carpenter and belonged to the engineer level, could read drawings, and had written about my father before. Iron laundry basins are not available in every household, so these two objects were rare in those days, and by the end of the seventies, these two objects were basically popularized in every household. Every year, almost half of my family's two items come to borrow them, and they are passed down from family to family, and they must be recovered on the twenty-ninth day, and it is said that it is not good to borrow things from abroad during the New Year.
On this day of my hometown's twenty-third year, there is no sugar melon sticky, and the ritual is simple, that is, eat dumplings, ascend the stove, and Wang Ye will say good things to the heavens to keep the nether safe. Glass ball candy (fruit sugar) can only be divided into several pieces by a child on the New Year's Day, and then it is to sweep the house, sweep the house early in the morning to burn the outhouse (kitchen) large iron pot dry pot, equivalent to the role of the stove, because the cleaning is to open the door, and it will be cold when the door is open for a long time in winter. At that time, there was no shed paper in the house, and they all used bamboo brooms to clean the dust from the roof beams. After cleaning, my mother tied a rag to a wooden stick and wiped the beams and rinzikong thoroughly. This big project takes about two days.
It's time for the man to shave pork. Twenty-eight sent a large tile basin noodles, and twenty-nine this day on the side of the pork. While steaming steamed buns, steaming steamed buns is also exquisite, the first pot of ten large steamed buns offered to the ancestors, must not be steamed and bloomed, because these ten large steamed buns point a pattern similar to the shape of plum blossoms, the gadget to point plum blossoms is generally the mother folded back after the autumn hemp fruit fruit put into the warehouse to dry. Sometimes sorghum stalks are also cut into five small segments tied together to form a plum blossom shape. The paint used to order steamed buns is ghost red, and in the past, children used to use it to apply it well. At that time, I was very envious of my mother's skillful hands.
On the thirtieth day, my parents got up when it was dark, because on this day they were to prepare offerings and dishes for the ancestors. Father tied the horse stakes and lanterns of his ancestors and the god of wealth outside. When there is no rice, millet is used to serve rice, and two bowls are buttoned to a bowl, and the tall round form a steamed bun. I remember that the serving dish is five bowls, why is the five dishes I didn't ask my parents at that time, there is a proverb: the pork belly is inserted into the onion heart to pretend to be like, my family really has this dish, my mother cooked the pork belly well, took two oily green onion hearts and inserted them on the pig's belly, I still don't know why I gave my ancestors such a domineering dish, and a square piece of pork with three layers of pork. A bowl of cabbage hearts topped with fried vermicelli flowers. A bowl of fried fish. Because of the age, I can't remember what dish it is, and it's not good to talk nonsense.
These preparations must be completed before twelve o'clock, because the ancestors and the God of Wealth must be picked up before twelve o'clock. First, the father cleaned his hands, and then at the top of the north wall of the main house, he solemnly took off the ancestral hanging paintings wrapped in brown paper. Then empty the contents of the cabinet in the middle of the main house, and hang the ancestor hanging pictures above the cabinet. The material of the hanging paintings is generally thick kraft paper, and the red sun at the top of the hanging painting looks like it is rising outside the courtyard gate, followed by the high father and the high mother. Further down is the name of the tablet of the deceased, the male left and the female right order, the right side of the man corresponds to the X clan is his wife, the women of that era did not have names, at that time I often wondered how they were all ancestor level or no name. At the bottom is still a clean courtyard, and on both sides of the door, there are a few urchins with waddling on their heads setting off firecrackers, which is very happy. The hanging painting is about 0.8 meters wide and about 1.2 meters long, and the back of the ancestral hanging painting is a large blessing character. I still marvel at how such a clever man could write this great blessing so full and profound in that poor era. Well-being lasts. The couplet dedicated to the ancestors is very well written, the upper link: honor the heavens and the earth to honor the three guang (sun, moon and star), and the lower link: filial father and mother filial piety family hall (ancestor). Horizontal criticism: ancestral business for thousands of years.
The ceremony of enshrinement to the ancestors officially began, and the father of the head of the family placed five pairs of red lacquer chopsticks in front of the ancestors' hanging paintings. Then the mother brought five bowls of food in turn, and placed a bowl of gold on each side of the front of the food. Large steamed buns in the shape of plum blossoms are placed on both sides of the front of the rice, the bottom three of the steamed buns are placed, and the remaining two buckles are placed together on the top, realizing the real meaning of prosperity. In the middle is an incense burner, a box of incense, and a pyrotechnic box. The incense burner was filled with cereals. When everything was ready, the father led the brothers and brothers outside to pick up the ancestors and return home. Tying up the horse in front of the stake, Yan Fang set off firecrackers to warmly welcome the ancestors home. At this time, the father entered the house and began to pour incense, and all the men in the family had to bow down to worship their ancestors. Girls are not allowed to bow down. I have always liked to see them these days, and sometimes I feel that they are watching me. After the ceremony, the family went to the table to eat, and a sumptuous dinner began, and the indispensable chicken stew mushrooms, clear carp stew, etc. on the table.... Generally six to eight dishes. After eating, the water tank should be filled with water, symbolizing the long flow of water throughout the year. Holding more firewood in the house symbolizes the rolling in of wealth.
At that time, there was no entertainment to play, and the children would go to the west house, and the generous people would give a sugar ball to eat. If you're lucky, you can even eat frozen pear akiko (frozen pear).
The mother was still busy, busy with the dumplings that she ate when the buns were handing out paper (burning paper money for the ancestors) at night. It is generally stuffed with sauerkraut pork. At that time, there were no greens out of season. So there are no dumplings with a variety of fillings such as leek filling, celery filling, etc., my family has never included coin-based dumplings, and my father said that whoever can't eat it will be unhappy, and the big New Year is not happy for a year. After the mother wrapped the dumplings, she would put on a card with her father for a while, and the card was made by his father, and the Liangshan hundred and eight generals painted on the card. I know that the good man of Liangshan was enlightened from cards.
We all slept in our clothes before midnight. Generally, at ten o'clock began to put firecrackers, at this time the mother reheated the dish, boiled water to cook dumplings, boiled dumplings are also very particular, dumplings can not be said to be finished or gone, this is not lucky, cooked dumplings to serve two plates to the ancestors, eat dumplings can not be stained with garlic sauce, to prevent being calculated by villains, to eat green onions, smart and surplus.
Then my father woke us up one by one to hand out paper and set off firecrackers. The so-called firecrackers are small firecrackers with hundreds of sounds. At that time, there were no firecrackers in the countryside. Even if there is, I am reluctant to buy it. At that time, the old people said that they would put a few whips a year, put a few second kicks, listen to a sound, and be exhausted. But there is still a sense of ceremony, and firecrackers must be set off in the morning, noon, evening, midnight, the first day of the New Year, the second day of the new year, the fifth day of the first year, and the fifteenth day of the new year. Chinese New Year's Eve night after setting off firecrackers and washing your face before returning to the house to eat dumplings. When washing his face, his father would always say: "One night in two years, five years in two years." It means another year longer.
This is the year when I was a child, joy trumped poverty, and I have been remembering, a long time, with a thick smoke and fire.