New Year's Day is a big day for Chinese people. But in Shanghai, it is as if the city has rushed forward several centuries in a hundred years' time, completely shedding thousands of years of old habits. Except for the elderly and children who look forward to receiving different gifts or red envelopes from their elders or seniors from the beginning of the lunar month, people just have a few more days of vacation to go out and travel or play a few more rounds of mahjong. I can't help but miss my hometown.
Six o'clock in the afternoon from Shanghai on the train, in the train whistling in the darkness of the night to go forward in a deep sleep, dreaming all the hometown of small bridges and rivers in the scenery.
From October, my mother must have been preparing for New Year's Eve as in previous years. First of all, dozens of pounds of glutinous rice rinsed overnight, early in the steamer for half a day, to be filled with the aroma of rice throughout the stove hall and from the doorway to the outside of the far, when the pot, lifted on a large wooden basin, lift the steam dragon cover. Father will bring the well water, to the steamer slowly pour down, while using clean hands to y stir the rice, cold water soaked originally stick together the glutinous rice grain by grain; to the steamer water slowly filtered out, my father poured the glutinous rice in a large jar, will be crushed wine cake sprinkled on the rice, while using the hands of the deep stirring, in order to the end of the cake of wine evenly penetrate, and then slowly smoothing the rice! and then slowly smoothing out the rice and digging a fist-deep depression in the center. At this point, my father would take a bushel made of washed and dried rice straw and cover the mouth of the tank tightly, then use the straw to bind it thickly around the entire tank. Waiting for ten days or so, there will be a faint fragrance of wine coming out of the tank, and then it will become more and more intense. When I opened the futon, I saw that half of the fermented rice had been turned into sweet wine, and the center of the alcove was filled with yellowish wine. My father slowly poured boiling water into the tank, and when it was full, he covered it with a thick futon to keep it tightly covered. Ten days after the bushel, the strong smell of wine, my father will be half a jar of wine into the ready half a person high in the tile altar, cover the mouth, with cotton pads thickly wrapped seal and then press on the weight of the collection.
Mother was busy preparing a variety of Lunar New Year's treats. First of all, after the fall harvest, Tianteng full of soybeans have been ripe, the whole plant to collect the sun on the ground, when you hear the crunch of the pods bursting, golden soybeans one by one rolled out. And then use the bamboo shackle to beat a while, then the bean stalks away, the rest is a round golden soybean. Mother will be a few days after the sun, with water, and then rinsed half a day. The night will be all fried soybeans, while hot, sprinkled with sugar, into the sugar beans; the last set of sweet potatoes in the ground has let the father dug out, pick a sunny day, the mother will be early to wash the sweet potatoes and peeled full of steamed pots, plus sugar will be sweet potatoes all mashed, loaded into a large pot full of. Father has in front of the door on the Wo Ping and spread out a few beds of tanning mats, mother and sister will be washed handkerchiefs will be patted into a sheet of sweet potato pancakes, sunny side up. After a few days of sunshine, collect the dry potato cakes, and then cut into small triangular shape, under the boiling hot frying pan fried into a golden brown, the village people will call it "potato corner"; plus fried peanuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds, the mother of these snacks will be collected a tile altar.
It's been a long time coming. The mother at the beginning of the month will be dozens of pounds of glutinous rice steamed and dried, and then a pot of separately fried. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty. First of all, I bought a piece of wheat teeth sugar quickly cracked in the pot to melt, fried glutinous rice into it, add a small amount of water and slowly stirred well. Take out the sticky sticky rice evenly spread in a rectangular wooden mold, and then use the surface of the knife over and over again to compact the glutinous rice, to be melted in the glutinous rice between the maltose slowly condensed, open the wooden mold, with a knife will be the whole version of the glutinous rice cut into rectangular slices, will be a sweet and crispy frozen rice candy. If you mix some sesame seeds or peanuts, mixed silk, nuts, etc., then you can change a number of colors.
The twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth days of the Lunar New Year, the New Year's Eve and the New Year's Day, were the best days of the year. Every day, my mother cleaned the house, while my father prepared several colors of food, placed them in front of the statues of my great-grandparents and grandmother, put bamboo chopsticks on them, and lit candles and burned incense to pay homage to my ancestors. By this time, the atmosphere of New Year's Eve is getting stronger and stronger, with the sound of firecrackers going off. The children are in full bloom, and the parents are counting the days until their sons and daughters return from their long journeys.
On the afternoon of the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, my mother swept the old house and the new one clean, my father pasted red spring couplets on every doorway, and on the front door, he pasted the gods of Qin Shubao and Yuchigong, and hung two red lanterns outside the court. In the dusk and fog, the village is lit up with starry red lanterns, which is simple, quiet and cozy.
New Year's Eve. After the whole family gathered and had a sumptuous reunion dinner, my mother brought out plates of various kinds of snacks that had already been prepared and filled the table. My father set up a bonfire for the New Year's Eve celebration, and the whole family sat around the bonfire, enjoying snacks and gossiping. The light of the fire reflected the aging smiles of the parents, as if the joy of the nightly conversations around the fire had outweighed dozens of years of poverty and hardship. Occasionally, a kind of unknown tree leaves in the fire made a series of soft sound, like the sound of reed and drum in the sky.
Deep in the night, the village came bursts of firecrackers, in the sealing of the door to say goodbye. Each portal is closed in the sound of firecrackers, as if the resignation of a year of right and wrong troubles, joy and sorrow, hardship, poverty and wealth ......
The firecrackers of the New Year's Eve has just come to an end, the village will be sparsely ringing three or two premature cockcrowing, as if it has been unable to hold down the world from the peaceful and peaceful dreams to urge up to meet the New Year in! The earliest winds bring all kinds of wishes, a thousand bells of good luck. The sound of firecrackers again in a hurry, the portals in the night air and fog wrapped in the smell of sulfur in the scent of a hole in the red lanterns, a wisp of purple air to the door, as if it is an omen of the new year, the generations of peace and wealth will eventually come to attack.
After opening the door to welcome the new year, the men of each family bring incense and candles to the largest ancestral house in the village. The old house has blue tiles and green bricks, and although a hundred years of wind and rain have cleansed it of its old splendor, the gateway is still intact. This is the birthplace of the whole village, and every year on the first day of the month, the whole village will come to pay homage to their ancestors. People who still own the old house take turns hosting the ancestor worship ceremony every year. At this time, the host has lined up five or six square tables in the hall, building a large platform, filled with various kinds of drinks and snacks; under the north wall of the hall is a high Buddhist niche, on which the ancestral tablets are placed. After each family burns incense and lights candles in front of the tablets one by one, and strikes gongs and sets off firecrackers. All men over 20 years of age will sit around the long platform according to the eldest and youngest, and the hosts will each fill a bowl of water wine and offer cigarettes and tea. In this warm atmosphere, we drink and chat, listen to the old elders tell the origin of the clan, the rise and fall of the century; young people say all kinds of foreign anecdotes. The tall Buddha's niche in the smoke, candlelight, a few dying gold color glowing, like a hundred years ago, the ancestor of the opening of the sleep of the silent eyes to look at the children and grandchildren under the prosperity of the Qingping era.
Beginning of the first day of the New Year, my father led us from house to house to pay homage to the elders, send New Year's gifts, the children are kneeling down and kowtowing everywhere to get the red envelope.
After the first day of the year, all the families started to visit their relatives and friends to pay respect to each other.
From the third and fourth days of the lunar calendar, the village began to prepare for the dragon lanterns. There are eleven short dragon lanterns and thirteen long ones. There are big drums, small drums, big gongs, medium gongs, small gongs, big cymbals, medium cymbals, small cymbals, and there are two decks of lanterns on the left and right side of the road. So a dragon lantern*** needs more than twenty people, and two shifts to rotate the dragon, it needs more than fifty people. So in addition to the funeral home, all men between the ages of eighteen and fifty were summoned to draw lots to assign a variety of duties; at the same time, the elderly women were responsible for arranging the dragon lanterns. Dragon lantern body is made of bamboo gabion, and then cut with various colors of paper, painted dragon body, dragon fins, dragon scales, dragon whiskers, dragon eyes, dragon teeth and dragon tail, respectively, pasted on the bamboo dragon body, and then between the sections of the dragon body with a red cloth connected to the body as a whole; each section of the dragon body are inserted in the middle of the four-foot-long wooden handle, the wooden handle is associated with a hole in the crossbar in the bamboo under the body of the dragon; to be made after all the production of a good time, will be lit from the crossbar red candles hole inserted, the candlelight reflection, colorful colorful dragon will come out of the sky.
From the evening of the seventh day of the month, the men, each with a red scarf and a red sash around their waists, held the dragon lanterns in their hands and waited to go. Drums sound, the opening gong is noisy, various colors of cymbals mixed with the sound of their own rhythm, began to tour the dragon. Dragon lanterns go from house to house, every door will enter, the hand of the dragon head will enter the door with a loud singing: "Congratulations to the rich ah! The master of the waiting loudly agreed to set off firecrackers, the center of the hall set up a square table, the table is full of all kinds of snacks, lit with red candles. Dragon lamp around the table in a circle, the master one by one to pass the cigarette, the table of snacks to listen to each person to take; sections of the dragon body mouth congratulations out of the fish, the master again light up the firecrackers to send the dragon. If it coincides with this year's new house, the master should be doubly attentive, first of all, when the dragon lamp into the door to the dragon's head and tail of each batch of red cloth, the dragon will then begin to sing a color, sing a master will be a line, a side of firecrackers and a side of the cigarette toast, until around the hall for three rounds, the color singing out; will be invited by the master of the dragon lamp dance. Wo Ping in front of the house, the master lit up a long firecrackers, only to see the head of a command, the whole dragon lamp will be around the dance up, like a dragon out of the water in the air circling and flying, if the drunkenness if the madness. After the dance of the dragon lanterns, the host will be entrusted with a few cigarettes, several stacks of red cloth, other snacks and food delivery, so the guests and hosts have fun, and then wait for the next year.
The aftermath of the New Year is now over. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do this, but I'm going to be able to do it. The red beans harvested in the fall have long been dried, rinsed for half a day on the pot to cook and then mashed, plus sugar; cured bacon for several months cut into small pieces, add garlic leaves; then mix the rice flour into dough, clip on the red bean filling into red bean cakes, clip on the bacon filling will be made into bacon cakes, and then a cage steamed and then dried. Every night, take out a few put on the fire to roast a while, the pungent aroma will fill the room. For many years, this sweet flavor always lingers in the depths of my palate.
On the night of the fifteenth, the climax came. After a short rest, the dragon lanterns start to dance after traveling throughout the village. In the center of the village, on an open area, all the people of the village gather with firecrackers and fireworks of various lengths, bringing along their children and elders. When the drums and gongs ringing, the sound of firecrackers, silver fire trees in the shadow, a sturdy man will be the dragon lights around the circle flying up, only to see a golden scales and red bearded red dragon seems to come down from the sky, in the air tumbling and circling, whiskers and fins angry, want to fly across the sky. The young and strong take turns to replace, the dragon will always fly to the late night party to go. And the old woman's laugh cough, the child's rosy leap, the girl's red smile is still on that piece of land and the dragon **** dance to the present day has not yet rested, in my dream far away in the thousands of mountains ......
The moment, the first month of the night and came. Outside the window the lights are dimmed and the traffic is endless. Occasionally there are naughty children in the firecrackers, crowded clumps of buildings between the sudden burst of one or two lonely roar.