The clamor was preached, and the butter lamps were silently blessed
The lantern will be my cheeks silently counting the time, riding on the warm breath of spring.
You really don't have to deliberately calculate the time of the various festivals in your life, people with their own intentions report for you in the morning, weChat group forwarded "Today you go out to look up at the sky, what you see is not important, the important thing is that you have completed a feat - the dragon looks up" and do not forget to add a sentence at the end of "Happy February 2nd". This day is also the time of the ancient lantern meeting in Liujiata Town.
February 2, also known as "Spring Ploughing Festival" and "Agricultural Festival", seems to have customs everywhere, and my hometown is on this day to pinch out the shape of the dragon with the noodles, and squeeze out twelve or thirteen small nests on the back of the dragon, representing the month of the year. Then put it into the steamer basket to steam, and when the steam is not exhausted, open the lid of the cage drawer and probe your head over, carefully recording the amount of water in each nest. Listening to my mother say that the amount of water represents the amount of rain in that month, and then to plan what grain to grow this year, the agricultural work began to prepare from this day. Customs in various places have similarities, mostly praying for a year of peace and smoothness, and everything is renewed.
When I stumbled into Liujiata's Mouzu Village on a starry night last year, I was attracted by some of the old bricks and tiles and gatehouses here. Then there was a wave of shocked exclamations from friends - February 2nd has not come! Lanterns have not been seen! Ahhh, that's spectacular! Ahhh, that's great! Ah, those old people pinched the lamps and still raced! Well, well, it's good! Check it out next year! I blinked my eyes in amazement and nodded. Determined to come and see.
The drizzle of the day before washed away the haze of many days, and on the day of the "dragon looking up", the sunlight brushed through the clouds and gently caressed the earth. The breeze is gentle, and a cool breeze refreshes the heart. We drove all the way from the county seat to the village of Liujiata, and enjoyed the infinite beauty of the loess - deep ditches or amiable cave dwellings on the mountain, mountains with many ravines and winding mountain roads like jade belts, harmoniously melted into the yellow-brown hue, and occasionally an orange-gray color added vitality to the loess mountains that were not yet lush in early spring.
The sound of ancient music and opera gradually became louder, and the big red lanterns on the hillside became more and more colorful, swinging in the wind, as if to welcome the arrival of distant visitors. At the foot of the mountain, there are already many vehicles parked. When our cars were crowded all the way up to the mouth of the village and stopped, there was no noise in front of us. The people in the big red arch are boiling, and the opera gongs and drums are deafening. Outside the archway, the village committee personnel who evacuated the vehicles drew their hands, let the needle-like vehicles pull away some distance, and then turned the front of the car one by one and went back to the foot of the mountain to find a parking place.
Walking into the middle of the noisy square, there is a drummer's stage on the right hand side, and in front of it is an ancient stage, on which there seems to be two people chattering and comparing, and the audience is smiling. We went straight around the stage and into my friend's old courtyard. On the seven stone steps are a house with one entrance and two openings. The people in the room stood shoulder to shoulder, probing their heads and squeezing inside to watch the kneading process of the butter lamp. My purpose, of course, is also this lamp. Not only did I squeeze in, but I also learned to pinch a few small flowers, although it was even incompatible with the folk taste, I was also happy.
Unconsciously, it was already the time of the lights, and after dinner, the long square outside the gate was set up with twelve square tables covered with red silk cloth. Several houses have wooden and mottled red lacquer plates that have been decorated with zodiac butter lamps. Subsequently, twelve tables were filled with plates filled with lamps. Place a vegetable oil jug on the side. On the plate are various zodiac signs made of cake noodles, and ghee lamps with different moods, which are not cute. It is purely a folk traditional skill and is difficult to imitate. The spectators were amazed, shuttling between the tables to take pictures and fill the oil, silently praying something in their hearts.
After the stars and lanterns lit up one by one, the real blessing ceremony began. An old man carries an oil lamp surrounded by simple glass similar to a horse lamp, leading the way in front, followed by a drummer, that is, a melody that is not sad or happy has been rhythmically and regularly beating and blowing. They followed the old man from each table and back, followed by a group of people who followed and circled around, repeating it nine times before ending the ritual.
It is really a trumpet of the lantern festival, and the butter lamp silently prays for blessings.
During the period, photography and art lovers from all over the world, as well as provincial and municipal newspaper reporters came to see the lantern meeting that has been passed down for hundreds of years.
I watched each of the works, and one of them, a woman with a bright smile, introduced her work to me, there was a chubby, flower-headed pig zodiac, a dragon zodiac with teeth and claws, covered with flower thread, and a lively and cute monkey zodiac with a thin golden stick in her hand, and all kinds of flowers and plants created by herself. Every work here is the painstaking effort of the peasants, and every lamp that is lit up has the wishes of the farmers.
We followed the drum band for half a circle, and we heard that stealing a lamp can "give birth to a son", not only to have a son! Stealing a lamp and coming back will probably be a great luck in a year. We are also looking for opportunities to steal the lamp. Toward the end of the ceremony, a friend walked up to a farmer and asked loudly, "Can we steal a lamp and go back?" I laughed dumbly, stealing, can I do this? When his friend tried to reach out and steal the lamp he had already liked, he was stopped. I laughed and said, "I've been discovered!"
I was attracted by a different lamp, not handmade with cake noodles, but a round vessel similar to ceramics, next to the matching oil pot, I was looking carefully, she probably heard people want to steal the lamp, anxious to say, this can not be stolen, this is the age. She also introduced it to me, which is the lamp singing in "Two-Person Stage". Then the oratorio sang "The lamp is lit half kang kang ming, the wine cup is not poor for the brother." In the first half of the night I think you can't light the lights, and in the second half of the night I think you don't know."
The lanterns illuminate the character of this villager and pass them on from generation to generation. The lamp can't be stolen, then I can hide the spirit of the lamp in my heart and bring it back.
