Chapter 7 Talk about Chinese New Year

In my life, through several dynasties, more than eighty "years" have passed!The times are advancing, and the way of celebrating the New Year is also very different and improved. From the age of four or five I can remember to the age of eleven (that was in the former Qing Dynasty) I lived a small family life.At that time, my father was the principal of Yantai Naval Academy in Shandong. During the annual vacation, there were several cousins ​​who came home to live.My father bought them some musical instruments: gongs, drums, erhu, flute, etc., let them play, and also bought some firecrackers and fireworks.I don't know how to play, and I'm afraid of setting off cannons, so I only pick up a few "Didijin" to play.It was a small twisted paper with a little gunpowder rolled in it, and when you swung it in your hand, it released a little bit of scattered gold stars.It's not too loud, and it looks great.

According to the custom of that time, from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, slaughtering was prohibited.Therefore, before the Chinese New Year, my mother bought some elbows, trotters, chickens, ducks, etc., cooked them, marinated them with soy sauce, red grains and many condiments, stuffed them in a large jar, and ground a lot of glutinous rice powder to make red and white. rice cake.These very delicious things, we have been eating until the Lantern Festival! On New Year's Eve, we lit candles and burned incense, and prepared a table of sumptuous food and wine for our ancestors. We kowtowed one by one, and after the two offerings, it was our New Year's Eve dinner.

On the first day of the lunar new year, we put on new clothes early in the morning, kowtowed to our parents and elders to pay New Year's greetings, and got lucky money wrapped in red paper, which contained a shiny Mexican "station man" silver dollar! I don't know how to play, and I don't dare to set off cannons. What I am most concerned about this day is the arrival of the "Flower Fair" in several nearby villages.These "flower fairs" are all organized by the villagers, some run dry boats, some pretend to be "Aunt Wang's curium pot", and those who pretend to be women are all young people in the village. They wear powder and eyebrows, very beautiful!The gongs and drums lead the way, followed by many children, making a lot of noise.When I arrived at my house, there would naturally be a large circle of people around, and they stopped to sing, the lyrics were very funny, and there was constant laughter from all around.At this time, we hurriedly took out tobacco, wine and snacks to comfort them. This flower party left, and that flower party came again.The flower fair in Jingouzhai is always the first to come.

In 1911, we went back to Fuzhou, Fujian (it was the era of the Republic of China at that time) to live with my grandfather, uncles and parents.The Chinese New Year in the big family is very lively.From the day of offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, everyone has been busy.The first is to stack "ingots", which are made of gold and silver paper foil, folded into ingots, and then threaded into strings with ropes, ready to be burned when offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors; Use a duster to sweep away the cobwebs and dust from the corners of the room, and polish all the copper utensils, such as the wax table, the incense burner, and the copper locks on the chests and chests.New bright red Spring Festival couplets are pasted on the gate.My grandfather also used red paper to paste auspicious words such as "Start writing on New Year's Day, happy new year" and so on next to the desk.Of course, these are the affairs of adults. We children are only going to wear new clothes, set off fireworks, pay New Year's greetings, and get lucky money.Because there are many brothers and sisters in the big family, in the red paper bag of the grandfather, there are only one or two dimes of new silver coins, but because there are many elders, plus the new year's money given by each grandmother's family, almost each of us gets several dollars!

After the New Year, the Lantern Festival is another climax.Our hometown is in Nanhou Street, Fuzhou City, and that street has always been a city of lights.Before the Lantern Festival, it was already "the lights of the flower market are like the day", the lights and the moon are shining, and the flow of people on the street is endless all night.It is a custom in Fuzhou that the lanterns played by children during the Lantern Festival are all given by grandma's family.In Fuzhou dialect, "lamp" and "ding" are homophonic. "Adding a child" is an auspicious word, so the grandma's family gave us five lamps for the four of us!My younger brothers are much younger than me, and they are not good at playing, so I took advantage of it at this time. I hung on the wall a revolving lantern of "Three British Fighting Lu Bu", and I held a goldfish lantern with moving eyes in one hand. Holding the rabbit lamp that can walk on the ground with one hand, I feel very proud.But the most fun thing is to follow the brothers and sisters to the gate to see the lights.Many relatives and friends came to look at the lamps on the street of my house, and we happily lit up torches made of bamboo strips and sent them away.

In 1913, when we arrived in Beijing, we started a small family life again, and we no longer burned ingots for the New Year offerings to our ancestors.When paying New Year's greetings to parents and elders, I only bow, and I am ashamed to take the New Year's money.There are no older children in the family, and no one is beating gongs and drums.The younger brothers will only set off some small firecrackers, and the New Year will look much deserted. The New Year is not lively in the family, but the collective festival celebrations have expanded year by year. There are New Year gatherings in offices and schools, there are lanterns and festoons at the gates, and there are various entertainment programs.Now, the Chinese New Year celebrations are even more centered on the collective, and it is really a universal celebration!Take the "Ditan Culture Spring Festival Temple Fair" in the past two years as an example. There was everything at the fair, and the participants were full of feasts for their eyes, ears, and mouth.Friends who had been to the Yingchun Temple Fair last year were all very excited when they came back. Although I was unable to participate because of my limited mobility, from the news in the newspapers, I had already imagined the jubilant grand occasion and participated in it mentally.