Chapter 17 festivals and lights

My special impression of the Dragon Boat Festival Speaking of festivals and viewing lanterns, everyone has a different experience. China is a big country in the world, with a large land area, a large population, and a long history. The languages, cultures, and customs of the various ethnic groups in the country are different. Therefore, there are many festivals throughout the year in different ways, on the mountains, by the water, and in the countryside. , town held.Belongs to individuals and belongs to every family.These festivals affect all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation, enrich the content of people's lives, expand the historical and cultural outlook, and deepen the feelings of national unity.Generally eat such as rice cakes, rice dumplings, moon cakes, Laba porridge, play such as fireworks, fireworks, swings, kites, lanterns, spinning tops, rabbits, fat Fu, wear

Such as tiger hats, cat shoes, dresses, waistcoats, bibs and aprons for dragon boats and a hundred sons watching lanterns...they are all there. closely related to the season.The ancient festivals have been extended for two or three thousand years, and the later ones have a history of thousands of years. Its various origins and ceremonies have been mentioned in ancient books such as classics and history.Most of the festivals are usually related to agricultural production, and a small part are derived from celebrity stories or myths and legends. Therefore, although some festivals are nationwide, they still retain some regional characteristics.For example, to commemorate Qu Yuan’s May Dragon Boat Festival, wrapping zongzi, hanging Pu AI, and wearing pomegranate flowers has become a national custom, but the excitement and happiness brought by the southern dragon boat races to young people, women and children is by no means growth. People in the northern plains can only imagine!

To the south of the big river, wherever there is a river that can pass ships, no matter whether it is a big city or a small city, the Dragon Boat Festival must hold a boat race as usual.These specially-made dragon boats are narrow and long, and some are divided into five colors, with high heads and tails and very flexible rotation.It is usually placed on the shore, and before the festival comes, twenty or thirty specially selected young people will send you into the water amidst the sound of firecrackers, laughter and shouts.The fifth day is called Xiaoduanyang, and the fifteenth day is called Big Duanyang. The official competition is from the third day to the fifth day, or from the fifth day to the fifteenth day.The children of fishermen in the Yuanshui River Basin can't enjoy themselves during the day, and they continue to play at night. After midnight, when people who live by the river wake up from their sleep, they can still hear the sound of gongs and drums floating on the water.In recent years, my memory has been declining, but more than 40 years ago, I spent the Duanyang Festival in a 600-mile-long Yuan River and five tributaries in some big cities and small towns. It is still clear and clear in memory, without fading or out of shape.

Therefore, it can also be associated with many works of art with the theme of "Dragon Boat Row".The dragon boats that appeared earlier seem to correspond to the Dunhuang murals, in which the princes of the East sat on them to meet the Queen Mother of the West and traveled far away, symbolizing "driving six dragons to control the sky".Although the painting was completed by the hands of the Northern Dynasties, the earliest manuscripts may date as early as the Han Dynasty.The second is "Luo Shen Fu Picture Scroll", which also has a similar but different dragon boat, as if "driving a jade ball and passing away together", as a suspense of Cao Zhi's nostalgia for Luo Shen.Although it has always been regarded as the work of Gu Kaizhi, a great painter of the Jin Dynasty, it may have been produced later.There is also a copy of the "Afang Palace Picture Scroll" written by Li Zhaodao of the Tang Dynasty that is several feet long. There are also several ornately decorated dragon and phoenix boats, rippling calmly in the clear waves, echoing the magnificent architectural complex.It's just that some of these dragon boats are similar to wheelless carts parading in the water and clouds, and some are directly related to the May Dragon Boat Festival.From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the more famous paintings include Zhang Zeduan's "Golden and Ming Contest", Song Dynasty's "Dragon Boat Painting", Yuan Dynasty Wang Zhenpeng's "Dragon Boat Race", Song Dynasty's "West Lake Race", and Ming Dynasty's "Dragon Boat Race". ,... Although the pictures are not large, they are quite vivid and beautiful, reflecting part of the historical reality.The Forbidden City has a collection of the painting scroll "Dragon Boat at Duanyang in May" in the early Qing Dynasty, and the painting is extraordinarily gorgeous and lively.

In addition, the Ming and Qing Dynasties crafted dragon boats made of ivory, bamboo wood, and red carvings filled with lacquer.As for the application to daily life, there is no such thing as folk cross-stitch embroidery in the southwestern provinces.Quilt covers, tent eaves, door curtains, pillow handkerchiefs, aprons, handkerchiefs, headscarves, and children's vests, saliva, and flower hats are often themed with dragon boats, and various artistic expressions are used to make them extremely exquisite. outstanding.When local women make these embroidery, as a rule, they must interweave the memories of personal festivals, happy wishes of newlyweds and mothers for the family, love and concern for children, together with colored silk threads into the patterns.The multicolored prints of dragon boat racing are especially popular among women and children in rural areas and those who have lived on fishing boats and cargo ships for many years. They can arouse all kinds of happy memories and associations in them.The Yunnan Horse Racing Festival in my memory also has a unique local horse racing festival, which is held at the foot of Paoma Mountain in the countryside near Kunming, Yunnan.This kind of grand gathering gathers people from four townships within a hundred miles, and when the time comes, department stores will gather and a variety of arts will be displayed, which will be even more eye-opening to foreigners.Not only interesting, but also informative.The horse packs from the four townships carrying shochu often unload the wine jars and racks on the spot, stand aside to attract customers, and use small bamboo tubes to keep scooping wine for people to taste.Some older people, like generals in a military parade, walk around, nodding and shaking their heads. If they don't drink much, they go around the venue for a while, and they will inevitably be staggered by the smell of strong wine. Three minutes drunk.All kinds of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy food stalls are also full of local characteristics in Yunnan, which are rarely seen in other places.What makes the women happy is that the first-class silversmiths in urban and rural areas will bring all kinds of new jewelry, choose a flat and open place to build a small cloth shed, unfold all the scenes, open on the spot, cook, fry, beat, drill, blow , Plating, embedding, connecting, it is very lively.Those who sell homemade shoe upper pillow handkerchiefs, those who sell lace railings, five-color silk threads, and rouge, gouache, and fragrant soap are all specially prepared for female customers.Woodcuts and other old-fashioned primers can often be found at stationery stalls.

Everyone's main interest is naturally horse racing, and they are particularly concerned about the victory or defeat of the village, which is similar to the situation of dragon boat rowing.I'm not that interested in horse racing.Most horses in Yunnan have relatively short skeletons, similar to what the ancients said "get off the horse". They are usually used as mounts, and their waist strength is not bad when climbing mountains and ridges, and they are not easy to stumble when walking at night.Trotting in Pingchuan, the drill steps are well-proportioned and stable, and they seem full of energy.But at that time, I really had other ideas. I just hoped to discover a little "secret" from those horsebacks with different equipment.Because I have some general knowledge about arts and crafts, there are many problems in the history of lacquerware processing that have not yet been resolved.Reading the notes of people in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it is generally believed that the method of "rhinoceros lacquer" came from the Southwest, and it was made from the lacquer painted on the saddle for a long time. "Polo Paint"

It is a kind of rhinoceros skin, and "Polo" is known as another name of tiger from Fan Chuo's "Man Shu". From this we can know that the name of "Polo" is in the south.However, lack of physical evidence, it is still difficult to admit or deny.Because I have lived in the countryside by Dianchi Lake in Kunming for a long time, and I usually catch the train into the city, I once found various overlapping color spots on the saddle bridge of my horse, which proves that the records in "Yinhualu" and other records are not unreasonable.The so-called secret is to take the opportunity to explore more carefully on the horses with different equipment from the four towns.It turns out that there are not only rhinoceros lacquer cloud spots, but also five-color mixed cowhide patterns.

practice.As for Song and Ming iron and silver stirrups, they can be seen everywhere.Copper lacquer was originally produced in Yunnan, and it also has a traditional craftsmanship. The production of harnesses follows an older system, which is very common and natural.However, these small discoveries are of great significance to me, because I understand the method of "history from material evidence", and then use it to study the history of material culture and the development history of craft patterns, and I can get many new discoveries.At that time, I was very satisfied when I squeezed around in the crowd of people and horses. It really conformed to the ancient saying, "A horse is better than a male and a female."But after a while, newer discoveries lured me over, thinking that studying old problems from horseback would be close to foolishness, and it would be far less interesting to listen to the hymns of life from living people.

It turns out that there are many wonderful activities in the Horse Racing Festival. On the other side of the slope, in a relatively secluded area full of small ponytail pine forests and thorn bushes, clusters of young men and women are singing in antiphonal songs everywhere, which can also be called "emotional horse racing". ", the degree of enthusiasm is no less than some horseback somersault.Yunnan is originally a hometown of poetry, and the singing and dancing of Lunan and Yixi have long been famous throughout the country.This time it enriched my knowledge even more. This is a place with different faces, and people with different tunes come from all directions, squatting in the recesses of pine forests and bushes, although they are not far away from each other, they don't meet each other.Most of the songs are love songs for remuneration, but there are various ways.Or see the scene, that is, the rise of things, using various rich metaphors to compete wit and talent.Or use the method of asking questions and wait for the other party to answer.Or mock each other and praise each other, rhyme with everything, and the cycle is endless.He also sang other stories, running through ancient and modern times, citing scriptures and allusions.There are many experts present, and they can see the high and low when they open their mouths, and they can't be vague.So I am not a master, and I dare not speak up easily.That time when I heard a young woman defeat three opponents in a row, forcing the opponent to be speechless, she yelled softly, indicating that the victory was over, stood up from the thorn bushes, cut her hair, and patted her embroidery Dust on the apron smiled at everyone, as if to say: "Look, I won the song", looking relaxed and happy, and dragging his female companion, walked past the burden of glutinous rice wine to quench his thirst.

There are many young women of this kind in the villages near Kunming.He has a bright and lively personality, hardworking hands and feet, a black and red face, full of white teeth, wearing wool blue cloth clothes and pants, a green cloth apron full of small silver buttons nailed around his waist, and a pair of Yunnan clothes on his feet. The embroidered perforated shoes unique to the countryside, and the glossy braided hair on the head.Not only is he very good at singing, but he and his companions went to play swings in various villages on the first day of the Lunar New Year. They made three-foot-long swings out of horse hide and hung them on tall trees by the roadside. Travel leisurely as if nothing had happened!

In the countryside of Kunming, you can hear all kinds of beautiful and affectionate singing in the morning and evening all year round.From Chenggong to catch a train into the city, Xiang Li rode an old horse and walked slowly for ten miles.Sometimes the original rider has to be returned if it is too late.This road has to pass through some fruit forests, oak forests, bamboo forests and several small hillsides that are full of flowers for half a year.Immediately admiring the pink-blue primroses on the edge of the ridge, nodding in the light and breeze, it always makes people suspect that the blue color seems to be intentionally imitating the sky.On the one hand, I listened to all kinds of mountain birds calling for friends and couples, and all kinds of local sweet folk songs sung by girls driving horses around me.Sometimes, beside the road three or five steps ahead, a fluffy hoopoe suddenly appeared, with a corolla crowned on its head and bright eyes staring, as if it had become interested in singing. After the girl driving the horse drank it, it flapped its wings. Fly away.This kind of bird is usually very silent during the day, but every morning in the twilight, it happily sits on the ridge of other people's houses, calling "Guo Gong Guo Gong" repeatedly.The most interesting thing is the skylark, which often takes off from the grass not far in front of it, soars and circles up, singing continuously, and goes into the blue sky.As if to drill through the blue sky all the time.The group of larks crouching in the grass responded to each other with a little encouragement.After being blinded by poor eyesight, it suddenly fell into the grass at a very fast speed like a small meteor, and joined other companions, so the other larks took off again.The girls who drive horses are only fourteen or fifteen years old, and their voices are usually untrained, and some are hoarse and sandy, but in this kind of environment, they speak naturally, and no matter what they sing, they are full of simplicity and beauty. Everyone sang the most lively called "Jin Man Dou Hui". Once it was held in Longjie Village. At that time, the second floor of the living yard and the corridor of the long house gathered more than a hundred people from nearby villages, men, women and children. , six people sat around a low square table, which was full of thirty or so tables, and each table took turns singing "December Flowers" and other local good tunes in a low voice.Although the voice is extremely soft, it is like a piece of pine waves, unwinding and relaxing in the breeze, a bit like a dragon singing and a phoenix whispering. The singing alone is extremely interesting.Singing and singing continued, and it lasted for three days before the show ended.Most of the women who came to the meeting were like New Year's and festivals. They were neatly tidied up, and their heads and hands were full of silver glitter, which made people dare not recognize them.As a guest, I looked around the table, and many people looked like Mian Shan, but I couldn't name them.Then I remembered that here is a small stall at the entrance of the village selling pickled pears, and there are people who carry water and wash clothes by the city gate, the family of craftsmen who make iron hoops, the proprietress of a small grocery store, the country doctor and capon maker, and more. Most of them are girls driving horses, farmers of different ages, and old women who go to the market and sell needlework. It turns out that there are quite a lot of acquaintances!On the surface, the meeting said to prevent epidemics and disasters, but its main function was to spread songs. The old generation passed on the beautiful singing voice full of wisdom and enthusiasm in memory to the next generation.Sing it repeatedly until everyone is familiar with it.Therefore, the young people present were very excited and active, and often took turns walking around each table.Since the main function is to pass the song according to the rules, there is no taboo to sing without asking.The most outstanding one is a drummer from Longjie Village. He is over seventy years old and has lost all his teeth, but he can sing the whole set with great enthusiasm.In addition to love stories, it is also good at mocking smokers and scolding rich men. It really is a "song library".When I was young, I often heard the old lady saying: "It's rare to meet Jin Mandou in ten years", which means that the grand meeting is rare. After participating, I realized that this kind of meeting is only held in the year when Venus enters the Dou. It's the same singing, but there is also a lyrical atmosphere, and the background is also very clear and beautiful, that is, the kind of meeting songs held at the foot of the Happy Horse Festival during the Horse Racing Festival. Southwest was originally the hometown of poetry. I lived in the countryside of Yunnan for eight years, and what I heard was only a small part of it.After liberation, the people are in charge of their own affairs, their lives are getting better and better, and their mood must be extraordinarily joyful. The new generation of singers must be more lively and enthusiastic than they were 30 to 50 years ago.Singer and model worker, not five golden flowers, should be ten thousand golden flowers! Lantern Festival is mainly about viewing lanterns.Watching lanterns has become a kind of system, which seems to have been mentioned in "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji". More specific records actually started in the early Tang Dynasty and developed in the Song Dynasty.The lights are different sooner or later, some from fourteen to sixteen, and some from fifteen to nineteen. The "Lamp City" got its name and expanded its role also from the Song Dynasty. In terms of the magnificence of the lantern scene, people used to think that there was nothing like the Tang and Song Dynasties.Most of the records in the notebook novels talk about the extravagant and gorgeous lanterns in the palace and the nobles.There is a "Lantern Market" for viewing lanterns. Although it was recorded in the notes of the Tang Dynasty, it was officially held in Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty. It continued to develop in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it was concentrated in the Bamiancao area east of Donghuamen Street in Beijing.From "Tokyo Menghualu" and other records, we know that the lantern market in Song Dynasty lasted for five days, from fifteen to nineteen.In advance, a "Aoshan Lantern Shed" with a height of several feet must be built, with various lights arranged on it, and tens of thousands of lights are lit.On this day, the feudal emperor sat in an open sedan chair as usual, carried by several trusted eunuchs, and marched backwards.Or ask a few tourists to come forward and send some wine and food, which is where the "golden cup giving wine" commonly used in old dramas comes from.Although it is said to "have fun with the people", in fact it is just that the emperor has been secluded in the palace for a long time, very lonely and boring, and the ministers came up with some clever ideas to coax him to be happy and relieve his boredom. Song people’s notes also recorded many names of lanterns. “Glass lanterns” can be said to be a new variety. They not only appeared in wealthy families, but also began to be used in shops to attract customers. The light is like a full moon. "Wanyanluo" is made of red and white gauze.As for the styles of the lamp sheds and various lamp balls, there are "Song People Viewing Lanterns" and "Song People's Hundred Sons Playing Lantern Festival", which also leave some image materials for us.From this, we can know that since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has been reflected on the paintings such as "Xuan He Yu Shi" and various lamp scenes in the illustrations, and other handicrafts - especially preserved in the Ming and Qing brocade patterns, a hundred kinds of extremely beautiful and beautiful pearls and jade tassels Most of the multi-faceted ball lamps are basically the styles handed down from the Song Dynasty.In addition, many kinds of fish, dragons, cranes, phoenixes, artful lanterns, children's bamboo horse lanterns, and rolling lanterns spinning underground are also from the Song Dynasty.The "glazed lanterns" and "Wanyanluo" of the Song Dynasty, the "goldfish water-filled lanterns" of the Ming Dynasty, and the ingenious lanterns made of thousands of eggshells, and the ice lanterns made of ice, although the styles and methods are difficult to know in detail, as for the Ming Dynasty. The representative utility models, "Bright Corner Lamp" and "Filament Lamp", still have remains in the Forbidden City.The History Museum also has a "Picture of Fun in the Palace of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty", which depicts the New Year's Eve scene in the palace, leaving many beautiful strings and groups of palace lanterns.This palace picture handed down from generation to generation, there is also a pine and cypress branch tied into the Aoshan lantern shed hanging on the Eight Immortals to celebrate the birthday, and various acrobatics and acrobatics activities in the Lantern Festival, fireworks, and there is also a band, a "Hundred Barbarians Jinbao Team" , several scenes of riding bamboo horse lanterns to perform the drama story of "Three Wars against Lv Bu", drawing a lot of customs and customs of Beijing folk Lantern Festival in Ming Dynasty.The small carts pushed by the shopkeepers are similar to the pictures of shopkeepers drawn by people in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The carts are full of various small toys and lanterns, and the shopkeepers are dressed like ordinary small businessmen.The lighting man notes that this kind is specially prepared for court entertainment to imitate the scenery on the market.Seven hundred people were raised in the palace, which was prepared to make the emperor happy alone.It was not until Wanli that the ministers came up to play, and the number was reduced by half. In the new era, the Lantern Festival is completely owned by the people, and the lighting equipment is also very different from the past, and the requirements for the lights have basically changed. Even if the festival is still held according to the season, the meaning is quite different. In ancient times, the Lantern Festival was not only the Lantern Festival in the first month, but also the Mid-Autumn Festival in July and the Mid-Autumn Festival in August. There were also lantern events.After liberation, the "May 1st" Labor Day and the "October" National Day were celebrated with grand gatherings all over the country.The lighting scene in front of Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People should be said to be the most spectacular in the world.Not only is it rare in history, but more importantly, it is created by the people themselves, and they truly share and share all of them. There have been many good articles and reports about the Tiananmen Festival lights.In addition, what I remember most kindly is the brilliant lights in the square during the four months of construction.Because comrades working in all the government agencies and thousands of citizens in the capital once enthusiastically excited under the lights, together with workers, farmers, and the People's Liberation Army, they contributed to this historic square and the magnificent buildings on both sides. Speaking from personal experience, there were many other lantern scenes after liberation, which also had such historical significance, which left a deep and unforgettable impression on me.For example, the lamp on the eve of the completion of the Ming Tombs Reservoir Dam is one of them. During the construction of this reservoir, some comrades from the Writers Association and I visited it four times: the first time was the preliminary construction, and the command post was still set up in a small village at the foot of the mountain.The second time the bottom was dug, and the command post was moved to Xiaogushan in front of the dam. The fourth time was a week before the completion. Everyone was living in tents near the construction site, and the weather was surprisingly hot.In addition to visiting the model workers every morning and evening, they must go to the construction site to see the progress of the project as usual.The day before, I saw piles of earth and rocks of different sizes everywhere, vehicles and people moving earth and rocks everywhere, electric wires everywhere in the sky, and water pipes everywhere on the ground.The long-chain gravel conveyors and cement mixers under the embankment, as well as the road rollers and cranes on the embankment, rumbled together. Although the height of the dam is increasing, it still seems to be in a mess everywhere. It doesn't seem like it can be completed in ten and a half months.When I went to have a look with a few comrades that night, I was shocked. It turned out that the entire construction site had changed in just one day.All the machines were gone, and all the piles of earth and rocks were cleaned and leveled like a park. There was nothing under the embankment, and there was no one on the embankment. The whole environment was surprisingly quiet.The stars and the moon in the sky are embedded in the quiet blue sky, and they seem to be much bigger and closer. Just as we arrived on the dam, suddenly 120,000 five-color electric lights in the square under the dam were all lit up, making us seem to have suddenly entered a fairy tale fairyland.We floated on this sea of ​​twinkling stars until midnight.This magical and moving light scene is really not something that can be replaced by any other light scene at another time.On the second night, when the inauguration ceremony was officially held, about 200,000 workers, peasants, and the People's Liberation Army, as well as more than 300 professional art troupes and other folk art troupes participated, and performed under the lights.We first watched for a long time on the embankment, and then squeezed everywhere under the embankment among the crowd.All kinds of moving scenes under the lights cannot be replaced by other lights.For more than ten years, the country's basic construction has been carried out across the country. Under the leadership of the party, hundreds of millions of people have completed countless reservoirs, bridges, factories, schools, and thousands of high-rise buildings. There must be an equally enthusiastic celebration meeting held under the lively scene of lights and candles. Those who have experienced the event must have feelings similar to ours. The lights and scenes left in memory will never be forgotten even if they want to! At the end of the previous year, several comrades from the Writers Association and I visited Ciping, Jinggang Mountain, a holy place of revolution, just in time for the fourth anniversary of the release of young cadres to participate in mountain construction.These hundreds of young comrades are all new-type intellectuals who left school four years ago and responded to the party's call. They came from all over the country to build a new mountain area. In addition, there is the entire Jinggang Song and Dance Troupe, and the entire Song and Dance Troupe from Jingdezhen, the capital of porcelain.Director Zhu of the Administration Bureau grew up in a nearby mountain village. He joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in his teens and followed Chairman Mao’s Long March.In Ciping, which is more than 800 meters high, there used to be less than 20 households, but recently there are more than 30 large and small buildings.The newly completed seven-storey building stands on the hillside, looking far away at the peak of Jinggang Mountain, which is often in the clouds and mist.The auditorium is near the Revolution Museum. Under the lights, the young, healthy and ruddy faces all show the tenacity in the liveliness. They have the confidence to overcome the difficulties and complete the work to change the appearance of the mountainous area.Over the past four years, these young people have participated in the construction of roads, hydropower stations and other land reclamation productions together with the local people and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army. The achievements of the Communist Party of China, as well as the achievements of self-thought reform, are very obvious.After the conference, when we turned back to the guest house with a group of young friends from the song and dance troupe, it was snowing heavily, and there were white pounds in the distance.While walking, I thought of all kinds of situations when the Red Army just came up the mountain.Under such circumstances, linking the country's past, present, and future, all the scenes have profound educational significance for me.This kind of lighting scene is also something I will never forget in my life. After liberation, I had the opportunity to see such magnificent and solemn lighting scenes with different backgrounds. From these lighting scenes, I realized that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, after hundreds of millions of people were truly in charge of their own affairs, through planned and organized , How purposeful long-term labor is rapidly changing the face of an entire country.The society is constantly advancing, and the lantern scene of the Lantern Festival is becoming more and more magnificent and brilliant, and endowed with various profound meanings.Looking back at some other small local festival customs and small-scale lantern festivals half a century ago, it is really like going back to an extremely old historical story. My hometown where I grew up is a small county with less than 10,000 households in western Hunan, but the lion and dragon lantern fireworks were very famous in the counties of western Hunan half a century ago.During festivals, every neighborhood has its own lights.From the first day to the twelfth day of the lunar new year, it is called "Sending Lanterns", and the whole city just goes around playing with drums and gongs.During the day, there are many gongs and drums performing water play on the bridgehead, or hovering up and down on eight or nine square tables.At night, they play clam shell essence under the lights, accompanied by fine music.Thirteen to fifteen is called "burning lights", and the main competition is turned to the other side to see who has the best fireworks.As usual, with my urchin qualifications, I followed the team to various places inside and outside the city with a hundred urchins of all sizes, spending time with everyone in the firecrackers.Those who play with lanterns need not only strength, but also bravery. In order to show the hero's fearlessness, when the fireworks rise in the field, the white light falls for several feet, and some even roar like thunder. "The tiger goes down the mountain", as usual, he has to go into battle shirtless and go forward bravely.We are too young to participate in such strenuous activities, so we can only take advantage of the excitement and cheer.Sometimes volunteering to help, promising to take a pine torch or carrying a drum, is not bad luck.Because they were always able to follow the team, and the horses did not leave the herd until the sky was turning gray, and everyone was burnt out and exhausted.The team is accompanied by an old fisherman and a clam shell spirit, and the clam shell spirit usually chooses a handsome boy of twelve or thirteen years old to act. ridiculous.The drums and flutes of the band are also often beating at will in a weak and sloppy way.Sometimes, in order to cheer up everyone's spirits, the band suddenly played "Kicking Eight Banners" melodiously. The lion's ears only shook a few times, and the old fisherman and clam shell spirit had to follow the rhythm of the drums and flutes, and walked around in two random circles on the street. Before the finale, he collapsed as usual, which made everyone laugh!In the end, we gathered in front of a guild hall to check out the guys. On the main street, the Nanhuo stores and cloth stores opened by Jiangxi people, and the cigarette shops opened by Fujianese people, had already set off firecrackers and burned the door papers to welcome the God of Wealth. The young Miao woman who lived across the river also Carrying a burden of shredded bean drum and radish to sell on the street. With this foundation of experience playing with and burning lamps, when I grow up, I feel quite familiar and have a deeper understanding when reading poems about lantern festivals in the Song Dynasty.For example, the first half of the poem "Jade House Spring" written by Wu Wenying: The furry raccoon hat covers the eyebrows and the forehead, the golden cicada Luo cut the Hu shirt to be narrow, and the shoulders are used to compete for the small waist, and the tiredness is strong and the drums are beat at leisure. Although it is written about eight hundred years ago on the first night of the Yuan Dynasty, the situation of a young woman in a small music and dance troupe returning home in the middle of the night when the lights were dim, is not too different from what I saw and heard half a century ago.Because although the three dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing passed through during those eight hundred years, only the political system was transferred, but the social changes were not too great.As for the fact that society has undergone fundamental changes even though it was only a decade or so after liberation, my little childhood experience has in fact become a historical relic, a kind of genre painting of the past society.Young people in small remote areas may have similar but different experiences. It can be confirmed that it is not easy for young people who grew up in big cities to imagine various situations. March 1963 Beijing