At that time, every farmer raised pigs, and the wheat bran and rice bran processed from grain were given to pigs. When the feed was not enough, the children beat pig grass to make up for it. When I was a child, after autumn, I came home from school every day, carrying a sickle and a hanging basket on my back and mowing the grass in the country. This grass has a high sugar content. Crushed and made into paste with water, which is the favorite of pigs. I can't tell you how happy I am to see the pig lying quietly in the fence after eating. But one day in the twelfth lunar month, before dawn, we were still immersed in a dream, and my father invited the butcher to kill the pig. I vaguely heard the pig's cry, but as soon as he turned over, he fell asleep again. When I got up in the morning, I found that the pig shed was empty, and I saw pig blood in the bamboo basket and meat hanging under the eaves. Only then did I know that the pig had been killed, and I suddenly felt very sad. Near noon, my father came back from selling meat in a nearby market town, counted colorful tickets and brought back cloth to make new clothes for my sister and me, but I was not happy.
In the past, cloth was supplied according to the plan, and it had to be bought by ticket. Some families are really poor and can't afford cloth, so they exchange some cloth tickets on the black market for money and buy the rest. Families with many children will prepare winter clothes according to their children's size. If the boss wears it, the second child will wear it; The second child is also left to the third child because of physical development. Every year is new, every year is old, and every year is sewed, which is a true portrayal of the clothes of poor children. What can we do? Their parents are busy all the year round, not only have no balance, but also owe food money to the production team, so they are called "upside down households". My family conditions are slightly better. My father is paid, but he doesn't make new clothes every year. Every dress has to be worn for several years, and it is usually a little bigger to meet my growing body shape. In order to save money, my mother will ask a tailor to make clothes in the twelfth lunar month. A skilled tailor often needs to make an appointment because his business is particularly prosperous before the Chinese New Year. At this time, farm work was idle, and my mother also helped with needlework; In 2008, pigs were killed and meat dishes were given to others. Sometimes, in order to save money, my mother put the cloth in her arms and took me to the tailor's house to let him cut the seams himself. I remember an old tailor named Shangguan, who had a good craft. He wears a pair of glasses, which is very gentle and kind. Master Shangguan once measured my pants length and waist circumference, and smiled and said to his mother, "The child has grown taller again and will be ready to marry him in a few years." At that time, I was very naughty I usually wear homespun clothes that my mother weaves casually, but once I put on the new clothes I bought and made myself, I feel uncomfortable. With the growth of age, the awareness of beauty is constantly enhanced, and wearing new clothes in the New Year has become an inner need.
The weather is getting colder and colder, and Laba is just around the corner. This morning, my mother took out a small pocket from the cupboard like magic, which contained lentil eggs, soybeans, peanuts, chicken head rice, white lotus seeds, old water chestnut, red dates, longan and so on. Mother poured these ingredients into a small dustpan one by one, carefully checked for insect bites and mildew, and lifted the dustpan after each inspection, so that the ingredients accurately fell into a wooden basin filled with warm water. Wash these soaked ingredients near noon, pour them into the iron pot with the washed rice, add the cut vegetables, add the right amount of salt, and boil them with high fire first. Firewood is generally tofu, which has high combustion value and strong vitality. When the water in the pot boils, burn them with straw. To prevent porridge from sticking to the pot, mastering the heat is the key. The fire in the hearth only ensures that the porridge keeps boiling and does not evaporate too much water. There is a sigh from time to time, which sounds like someone coming from the pot. This is the sound of foam bursting when sticky porridge boils. It takes about two hours to cook porridge. After cooking, there is an attractive smell of porridge in the kitchen. We jumped up with joy: "Drink porridge, drink Laba porridge!" "Everyone picked up the bowl, scraped the hot porridge to the left with chopsticks, then pulled it to the right, then blew on the porridge pile to cool down, and then put it in your mouth to chew slowly. After a while, every child ate hot and blushed.
After Laba, the flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger. Every household is cleaning, commonly known as "dust removal". "Dust" and "Chen" are homophonic. On the surface, dust removal means cleaning the house, but in fact it also means going to the old and welcoming the new. My father contracted all the dust removal work in my family. When dusting, he held his head with apron cloth and looked like a masked warrior. My father took a bamboo pole with a feather duster tied to the top, and dusted the dust on the roof beam and the spider web between the rafters and the net bricks in turn. Mother burned a pot of hot water, wiped the relief on the big bed, pedal, silver table in the bedroom and wardrobe with gauze, and then wiped the incense table, square table and all the chairs and stools in the hall. My sister picked wintersweet in the courtyard, put it on with copper wire and hung it on the bedside. The room was full of fragrance. I whipped the "old cow" (a kind of wooden gyro) outside the door, and the raised dust blew into the house with the wind, which made my mother complain: "You debt collector, you are too busy to help and destroy!"
During the Spring Festival, all farmers' families have a bowl of braised fish on the table, which means year after year. As the year is approaching, the villagers begin to fish in the pond. The electric pump behind the house screamed tirelessly, and the river gradually fell. The children just think that pumping water is too slow, so they wander around the river bend from time to time. They were happy when they saw the stone pier under the water couch sticking out of the water. At dusk, there are only a few deep ponds and stagnant water left at the bottom of the river, where all the fish are concentrated. Several strong men armed to the teeth, wrapped themselves in rubber coats, pulled up fishing nets, put all the fish in a laundry list, and finally picked them up in the country and distributed them according to the heads. I remember that there was a broken boat docked under Sanyang Bridge in the east of the village all the year round, and there lived a couple who escaped from marriage. They are a black family with three children and have a hard time. In the evening, the production team divided the fish. My mother felt sorry for them and asked me to send one.
After the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household is busy steaming steamed bread, praying for a good sign of prosperity. The night before, my mother mixed the wheat flour with warm water, and then my father mixed the yeast slurry in, and then kneaded the dough hard to make the yeast disperse evenly. Mixing dough is a technical activity, which requires adding yeast mud in moderation. If there are too many, they will be sent before they are put in the steamer. Too little, when the steamed bread is ready, or the noodles are still dead, you can't steam them in a cage. The next morning, my mother put a circle of straw on the edge of the pot, so that the steamer could be placed firmly on it, and then boiled the water. Father scraped the yeast paste dough from the clay pot, slammed it on the panel, added alkaline water and kneaded it evenly. Finally, he tore a piece and sniffed it. He thought the pH was almost the same, so he made it into different shapes. The round stuffing is called steamed bread; A long cake is called a "stick cake". The steamed bread made by my father has a good grasp of pH value, just like a young woman's breasts. It's round, it's good, it's delicious, and it's all eaten up after the Chinese New Year. After the cake cools, cut it into pieces and dry it outdoors. It can be kept forever, and it will not go bad when it is busy next summer. In the spring of the third year, when guests came to our house, my mother boiled two eggs in water, added salt or soy sauce, put three or five pieces of stick cakes in a bowl, picked a lump of lard, sprinkled a handful of garlic leaves and served a bowl of delicacies.
My hometown delivers stoves on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month. It is said that the Kitchen God Bodhisattva was sent from heaven to earth, and every family has it. The Kitchen God Bodhisattva seems to have a good conscience. She only takes a week off every year, that is, she goes to heaven on the night of the twelfth lunar month and comes back on New Year's Eve. The kitchen god bodhisattva squats on the kitchen stove every day to look at the candles of this family. As soon as the firewood in the kitchen stove was turned out, she quickly gave her host a dream to ensure that every household did not catch fire. Therefore, every year for half a month, my hometown people will light incense sticks to worship him. On this night, every family will cook fish and meat for the kitchen god. Good wine and good food were placed on the table. After a while, it is estimated that after Mr. Kitchen finished eating, his father dusted himself, adjusted his clothes and solemnly bowed to the kitchen. Then he asked us to worship with him. After the worship, please take the Buddha statue of Kitchen God off the stove and put it on the chair in the kitchen. Note that the word "please" is used here, not "tear", which shows the banker's respect for the Kitchen God Bodhisattva. The kitchen chair was just bought from a nearby town this afternoon. It is made of paper, and it is a very beautiful handicraft. There is also a couplet on both sides of the stove and sedan chair. The first couplet is "Ascending to Heaven and Doing Good", the second couplet is "Landing safely" and the horizontal couplet is "Worship God". My father put some cypress and holly branches on both sides of the kitchen chair, hung a string of gold ingots made of tin foil on the chair, and put a layer of sugar mud on the mouth of the kitchen Lord Bodhisattva. It is said that in this way, the kitchen god met the jade emperor in the sky, and everything he said was sweet words, and he would not tell all the evil things on earth. Finally, my father took the stove sedan chair and burned it outside the door. When burning the stove and sedan chair, you must grab an ingot from the fire, take it home and sacrifice it on the incense table in the hall, and pray that there will be a gold ingot coming next year. After the kitchen god was sent to heaven, the family sat down to eat. After drinking a few mouthfuls of soju, my father turned red and coughed for a while. He pointed at me and said with a smile, "Your boy will sleep in the kitchen hall tonight instead of the chef watching the candles. He raised you for a year, so he should be useful? " I patted my chest and proudly said, "Don't worry, I want to be a fireman when I grow up. I promise I won't let you worry about candles all day." After hearing this, my father smiled with a bright smile.
In the days near New Year's Eve, the temperature rose, the ice under the eaves had fallen off, and the wintersweet in the yard was golden. Several ducks are paddling in the river, flapping the water surface from time to time, sending out the breath of spring. In the morning, the dense fog seems to be endless and everywhere. When the fog cleared at noon, someone came to the village with a basket. Take a closer look. It turned out to be a flower girl. The flower girl in the neighboring village, surnamed Zhang, has fine features and looks like a flower. Her family's ancestral flower-tying technique has both form and spirit. In spring, magpies, carp fly, plum blossoms and peony flowers bloom. Big girls and kannika nimtragol chattered around Miss Zhang to choose flowers. Some people buy them and stick them in their heads. Walking all the way back has become a flowing landscape.
Every year at noon on the 30th, my family will hold a ceremony to worship ancestors and pray for blessings. This is one of the most interesting activities. Mother put the food on the table first, put the chopsticks away and light the lamp. Just when we were salivating, my father lit incense on the incense table, bowed to the Buddha statue, and then burned money to make paper. While burning, he also muttered: "Grandpa, grandma, parents, please take the money. Don't save money in the underworld, we will often burn money for you, as long as you keep the whole family healthy and safe. " At that time, the smoke curled up in the hall and the paper was dusty. Then my father led us to bow to the empty square table in turn to show filial piety. This habit has been passed down from generation to generation, and the children of farmers have been influenced by filial piety since childhood. After the 30th anniversary of ancestor worship, my father began to post Spring Festival couplets and hang them. Spring Festival couplets are pasted on both sides of the doorframe and hung on the lintel. The spring breeze blows, hangs, and makes the sound of Haloxylon ammodendron, which seems to tell people that the Chinese New Year is coming, so you can't talk nonsense and your words should be taboo. There is a red note on the wall of the first room, which says "children's words are unbridled" Even if the child says something unlucky, you can comfort yourself with this note. New Year's Eve is the busiest time for family reunion. Father borrowed a 500 watt light bulb from the factory and hung it on the roof. The room is as bright as day. My father led the whole family to worship the bodhisattva first, and then sat around the square table filled with various dishes, enjoying the delicious food cooked by my mother to make up for my long-suffering stomach. The whole family is affectionate and happy.
Every household should set off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year, saying, "Say goodbye to the old year with firecrackers, and the east wind will send warmth into Tu Su." In this way, I announced that I would bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year. According to legend, there was a monster named Nian in ancient times, who usually hid at the bottom of the sea and came out to harm people on New Year's Eve. Later, people found that Nian was afraid of firecrackers, and when they heard the sound of firecrackers, they trembled like chaff, so everyone set off firecrackers on New Year's Eve and the morning of New Year's Day. There are firecrackers on New Year's Eve, eight firecrackers at a time. This ancient family regards eight as a lucky number. I remember every time I set off firecrackers, my sister hid beside me, covering her ears and squinting, watching my father go to the open space and light the firecrackers standing on the ground one by one. Boom, firecrackers are ringing; It exploded with a bang in the air. I use bamboo poles to stir up firecrackers, and smoldering cigarette butts are fire. "Crack, crack" for a while, after setting off firecrackers, my sister and I jumped up and cheered happily: "Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year!" At this time, neighbors also set off firecrackers at home. The tranquility of the countryside was instantly broken, and firecrackers were everywhere, almost as dense as porridge pots, and the smell of sulfur was festive.
On the morning of New Year's Day, every time a man opens the door, he will set off a small firecracker to ward off evil spirits. After setting off firecrackers, he heated jujube tea and steamed bread on the stove, put sesame candy, peach crisp, cloud cake, big golden dog, small golden fruit and other non-staple foods bought from the market years ago on the table of the Eight Immortals, and waited patiently for the children and women to have dinner. Almost all breakfast is dessert, which is a sweet omen of life in the new year. Women don't have to do housework on the first day of the new year. They all like to have a good sleep to relieve the hard work of the old year. On this day, they enjoy men's attentions and feel comfortable. After all, they have been busy for a whole year, and it's time to have a rest. Hearing firecrackers, the children quickly got up from the warm bed. At this time, you can't say "get up", but say "get up", because "get up" reminds people of boils and pustules, which is unlucky, while "get up" is similar to "get up" and sounds festive. The children in the back are tall and well dressed, and go to the next door to pay New Year's greetings without breakfast.
It is a custom in my hometown not to travel far on New Year's Day, but to pay New Year greetings to my neighbors on this day. On the second day of New Year's Day, the country roads are bustling, and adults and children go out in droves. Some new wives went back to their parents' homes, some old sons-in-law visited their father-in-law's, and some young apprentices paid a New Year call to the master. When I was a child, on the second day of every year, I would pay a New Year call to my uncle. On the third day, the fourth day and the fifth day, I would like to pay a New Year call to my aunt, aunt and godmother respectively. We should go to my uncle's house to pay New Year greetings, where we can receive a lot of lucky money. My grandfather has five brothers, and my mother has many cousins. We all call them uncles. My uncle lives in the east end of the village, and we walked all the way from the west end to celebrate the New Year. Every aunt and cousin narrowed their eyes when they saw us and put brand-new money into our hands. There are not many lucky money, ranging from ten cents to twenty cents, but they are all the wishes of the elders. Grandpa has no children, and my uncle is a door-to-door son-in-law, actually an uncle. He is a commune cadre and gives me the most lucky money. Every time I come back from my uncle's house, I hide under the covers and count my money, intending to buy something everywhere. However, at the beginning of spring, my mother confiscated the lucky money and used it to buy chickens and ducklings. After the Dragon Boat Festival, my uncle took us to his house for dinner. We ate chickens and ducks there as a reward for my uncle's love for the New Year.
In the past, during the Spring Festival, farmers were busy preparing delicious food and new clothes for their children. Happy new year is to share the harvest of the first year with your elders. The annual flavor not only has the fragrance of all kinds of food, but also has the swaying fireworks and strong human touch. When I was a child, there were many interesting things in the Spring Festival, such as playing lanterns, playing with money piles, jumping squares and pushing iron rings on country roads in the first month. Nowadays, rural customs are completely distorted by modern technology. The feeling of Chinese New Year is surrounded by all kinds of discounted goods. Children sit in front of the computer all day, or play mobile phones and various online games. Although interesting, it is virtual after all, far less interesting than our time. ......