Chapter 242 childhood spring festival

In my childhood life, I was not only lonely and alone on the seaside and mountains, but there were also times when there was a lot of gongs and drums. That was the "New Year" in the past, but now it is called "Spring Festival". At that time, my family lived in the southeast mountain nest behind the Yantai Naval Academy, and there were only a few villages nearby. To enter Yantai City, you have to cross a Dongshan Mountain. In the first few days before the new year, the busiest thing is the mother.She was busy arranging new clothes, shoes and hats for us to wear during the New Year, as well as meat for half a month for the whole family. Because of the custom there, from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first month, pigs were not slaughtered for meat.I saw my mother tie up her apron, roll up her sleeves, and put large pieces of fragrant meat covered in "red grains" into the big jar, as well as stewed pork cooked with soy sauce, sugar and various spices, and steamed. Serving several baskets of brown sugar rice cakes... When my mother was doing these things, there were not only our young children standing beside us, but also the chef and Mama Yu who were helping.

As for the father, he prepares New Year's entertainment for the children after school.Not only my cousin but also my cousin attended the Naval Academy.It's really "one meter is three thousand miles", there are at least seven or eight cousins, uncles, cousins.My father bought a set of wind and percussion instruments from Yantai City, including gongs, drums, flute, flute, erhu, yueqin... and played it, it was really lively.It's just that I can't squeeze into their band!I can only set off some firecrackers that my father bought for us during the day, and set off some fireworks at night.The big ones are put on the ground one by one, the fiery trees and silver flowers are very bright!My favorite is the smallest and simplest "Drip Gold".It was a small strip of paper, rolled with a little gunpowder, which could be lighted in one's hand with a hissing sound, and sparks would burst out.

I remember we got up early on the first day of the new year, put on new clothes and new shoes, and worshiped our ancestors first—we don’t offer gods and Buddhas at home—there are only ancestor tablets, incense, candles and sacrifices on the table. This table of wine and food is our New Year’s lunch—— Then I wished my parents and elders New Year's greetings. Most of the New Year's money in the red paper bag I got was a round of shiny Mexican "station man" silver dollars. I asked my mother to put it away for me. The most interesting thing is the "Flower Show" from various villages. The actors are farmers from various villages during the winter. They are all young people from the village, wearing a thick layer of makeup.The drums lead the way, and there are many children behind them.When I arrived at my house, a large group of people surrounded me, so they walked through and sang, accompanied by musical instruments. Most of the songs were funny and made everyone laugh.After playing, we comfort them with cigarettes, wine and snacks.The flower fair in this village has just left, and the flower fair in that village is here again, and the flower fair in Jingouzhai, which is closest to us, is naturally the first to come!

When I was eleven years old, I went back to my hometown, Fuzhou, Fujian, where the Chinese New Year was much more lively.In our big family, four rooms live together and eat separately, and my grandfather eats with our room.From the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, everyone has been busy cleaning the house, scrubbing doors, windows and copper and tin utensils, and preparing marinated chicken, duck, fish, and meat.Grandfather was only busy writing Spring Festival couplets and pasting them on the polished door or side door.On the morning of New Year's Day, he himself wrote a note on red paper: "Opening on New Year's Day, Happy New Year..." I don't recognize or remember any other auspicious words below.

During the New Year, each of us got a lot of good things from our "grandmother's house". The first is stove sugar and stove cake, which are boxes of sugar and snacks.It is said that it is used to worship the Stove Lord. The sugar and snacks are very sweet and sticky, in order to smear the Stove King's mouth so that he can't report bad things about this family!The best thing is lanterns. In Fuzhou dialect, "lamp" and "ding" have the same pronunciation, so the number of lanterns given is always more than the number of children, which means adding children.At that time, my younger brothers were still young and would not fight with me, and they always gave me the extra one.These lamps: paper ones, gauze ones, and glass ones... So the "revolving horse lanterns" hung on the wall of my house, and the characters on it were "Three Greats Fighting Lu Bu", and the ones in their hands had movable eyes. Goldfish lamp, the other hand is pulling a "white rabbit lamp" with wheels under its feet.At the same time, Nanhou Street, where my home is located, was originally a lamp market, and most of the streets on this street are lamp shops.The "Wanxing Barrel and Stone Store" in front of my house usually sells various kinds of lamps in addition to various red-painted and gold-rimmed wedding buckets.Those are not the lanterns that children hold to play, but large glass lanterns, gauze lanterns, silk lanterns, horn lanterns, etc. painted with delicate figures of flowers and birds on them. They are all lit up on the night of the Lantern Festival. Like the day", tourists are like weaving, and the streets are full of laughter!

After the Lantern Festival, the annual glorious day is over.When the adults asked us to put many lanterns together and burn them, they said: "From tomorrow onwards, take it easy and go to school." We listened silently, looking at the embers of stars in the lanterns in the courtyard, reluctantly carrying an indescribable feeling of melancholy and loneliness. When we went to bed, this What a bad night!January 30, 1985