On the second day of the Lunar New Year, my grandma and grandpa got up early in the morning, swept the long paved path in the yard, put on the big round table, and set up the melon seeds and peanuts, cigarettes, pastries, and steaming hot tea, and then the adults chatted happily, while my sister and I jumped up and down with excitement and ran to the door to look around from time to time. Today, the rice-planting team was the first to come to my house to pay tribute to the New Year!
Finally, the gongs and drums sounded, and a group of grandmothers and grandmothers in green and flowery costumes were seen walking towards my house, and my sister and I shouted to the adults in the yard, "Here we come! Come on!" An old grandpa walked in the front, and as soon as he entered the yard, he arched his fist with both hands and said, "Good New Year! Good New Year!" Grandma and Grandpa greeted him and said, "Happy New Year!" Then he was warmly entertained with tea and cigarettes.
After a cigarette the captain ordered, "Start!" The gongs and drums sounded, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. The rice-planting players twisted to the beat of the drums, waving colorful handkerchiefs in their left hands and brightly colored fans in their right hands, sometimes lining up in a long line, and sometimes splitting into two distinct columns of red and green. When their handkerchiefs and fans were waved into the air together, the sky was like a colorful butterfly. There were more and more onlookers, and the naughty older children climbed up the wall. Grandma couldn't wait to dance too, she ran into the house, took out her fan and handkerchief, and joined the rice-planting team, and from time to time, she teased and danced with some of the team members, which attracted a lot of people to be happy. Slowly, slowly, slowly, the sound of the gongs and drums stopped, the fat grandma was exhausted, but also and grandpa smiled.
Then a smart young man picked up the drumsticks and struck them forcefully, the two drumsticks were high and low, up and down, plus the gong sound, it was like a firecracker exploding flowers, and even the magpies who hid in their nests for the winter were startled to chirp and scream and rushed to the blue sky. Finally, all the sounds stopped, grandma and grandpa were busy inviting everyone to sit in front of the round table to take a rest, we ate pastries and chatted with each other.
I asked my mom, "Why do we have to twist rice-planting songs on New Year's Day?" My mother told me, "A long, long time ago, we Han Chinese in the north worked hard for a year, and in order to celebrate the harvest and entertain the townspeople, we organized teams to sing and dance. The purpose of beating gongs and drums was to scare away all the demons and ghosts and to pray for good weather in the coming year. Gradually, it became the current Yangge. During the Qing Dynasty, Yangge was widely spread throughout the country." It turns out that this red-hot lively rice-planting song has such a long history!