Famous Essays about Mid-Autumn Festival

Feng Jicai: Eight Things About Chinese New Year

February 23, 2008 08:52

Some people always ask me how I spent the year, and I thought it would be better to write a text for whoever asks, so as not to repeat myself. To bring up the pen, suddenly thought of the Qing Dynasty Li Guangting in the "township speech to solve the Yi Yi" written in the "New Year ten things". The "New Year's Ten Things" was written at the time of the custom, I wrote the "Spring Festival eight things" is a personal New Year's practice.

One of the suburban bazaar walk

Since the late 1980s, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year every year, we have to go to the outskirts of the farmer's bazaar. Farmer's market has a prescribed day, or every three or five or seven, depending on each, so I went to the market every year is not necessarily the same, anyway, most of the west of the city Jinghai, Duliu, Yangliuqing area. In order to infect the atmosphere and vigor of the New Year. To say that the flavor of the New Year is strong, but also to the countryside. Watching the girl daughter-in-laws picking out the window, head-on almost bumped into an excited man carrying a pig's head, the flavor of the year will come to the surface. In the past few years, I've been on a lot of field trips, and sometimes I miss the market on the outskirts of town at the end of the lunar month. But if you catch thousands of migrant workers coming home for New Year's Eve at the station, you will also feel the real meaning of New Year's Eve.

Second, a turn in front of Tianhougong

Tianhougong has always been the center of the New Year in Tianjin. The center of the year is the place to live and dream. In the last decade or so, the paper-cutting here has never been more prosperous, Tianjin people's brains live, clever arts, fancy new, in the New Year's culture is thinning out, paper-cutting will play the role of the main character of the dyeing of the New Year's meaning. So every Lunar New Year, I will run to the palace in front of the street walk around, pick a few can be interested in paper-cutting, and then buy some of the traditional New Year's supplies such as incense and candles pom-poms and so on, the flavor of the year back home.

Three, decorate the room

The atmosphere of the New Year can not be separated from the decoration. Take the hanging money blessed words door flower lanterns and so on to the room inside and outside of a layout, the year's momentum will be opened. I remember thirty years ago when the spirit and material are the poorest, the end of the year, home from work, will see a roll of green paper on the threshold, open a look, there are paper cut couplets and auspicious drawings, needless to say, this is an old friend of Huafei self-written self-painted self-scissors cut and then sent me to the door. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it," he said.

Every time, I will also put some paintings on the wall. One is a few old Yang Liuqing New Year paintings that I have treasured for many years. For example, the Daoguang version of the "stilts", Xianfeng version of the "Lin Spit Jade Book" and "full of wealth" and so on, I like to feel the flavor of the past from these old paintings. And then there is Wang Mengbai's 1927 painting, "Years of Offerings". On the upper side of the picture is an old prunus stump with strong branches and fresh flowers; on the lower side is a pot of white daffodils with fresh brushwork and elegant colors. It is a long scroll with a clear and healthy painting style, which is the best of its kind. Meaningful is the inscription on the painting: "The guest situation is calm and free, born of indifference is also immortal, mountain dwelling on New Year's Eve nothing else, with the plum blossom will be the New Year. Ding Mao New Year's Eve wrote this. Wang Yunmeng Bai." This painting has both the mood of the year and the pursuit of the literati, a rare work of New Year's Eve, so every year in the waxing moon to hang high on this axis, as a companion, through the festive season.

Four, the preparation of New Year's goods

Every Lunar New Year, friends laughed: "Dafeng and busy year." The psychology of the year is to prepare the more complete the better, in order to symbolize the abundance of the coming year. My mother was the main focus when preparing the New Year's goods. Her mother lived in her brother's house, so for many years she had to prepare eight kinds of New Year's goods for her and send them to her one by one. The eight items are: red velvet flowers from Yufengtai, jasmine tea from Zhengxingde, Jinji Hangqian, Changzhou Narcissus, Ningbo New Year's Cake, incense and candles, dried and fresh fruits, and raw and cooked meat and vegetables. Mother's ninetieth birthday this year, she should be allowed to enjoy a good life with longevity with the intention of the year.

Five, ancestor worship

New Year's Eve, ancestor worship is essential. At the end of the last century, when I went to my hometown in Ningbo, a sister of the same clan called Feng Yimin presented me with four ancestral statues. Portrait is of the Ming Dynasty, the weather is ancient, the character is very character, should be a masterpiece, because I was able to cross nearly six hundred years, to see the face of the ancestors. Since then, every year to hang these ancestors like, like the front placed in the offering, burning candles burning incense, to show gratitude. In the past, there was a tablet at home, engraved with "heaven and earth, the king and the parent teacher" five words. To this day, it is no longer necessary to worship the "ruler". However, we still need to worship "Heaven and Earth", "Kiss" and "Teacher". Our lives benefit from them. So every year on New Year's Eve, worship of heaven and earth, teachers and ancestors, essential.

Sixth, writing and painting

From the first day of the year, at least three or four days are their own. Usually door to door to find me, mostly for official business. This time on vacation no official business, my personal business - writing and painting - will be like an old friend generally come to the forefront. It was as if my pen and ink could speak. In the past few years, some of the longer articles and larger paintings have come out of these days. And of course I have to turn off my cell phone and landline. This time, a kind of quiet feeling from the eyes and ears until the bottom of the heart, really like "isolated from the world", can also be called "shut the door that is deep mountain". I also laughed at myself for "hiding in the world".

Seven, the literati gathered

Every year on the fifth, the government of the old city to do the host, by me, invited the collection of scholars specializing in the local history and culture of the Jinmen scholars gathered in a hall, which has become a cultural community of the Jinmen "annual custom". Nankai District is the deepest part of the local culture of Tianjin, scholars are naturally happy to gather here. Meet and greet each other, pay tribute to each other, talk about the past and present, very happy. We are usually busy with our own business, and it is rare to see each other once a year. These "local general" such as Yang Daxin, Zhang Zhong, Cui Jin, etc. are living history, in the past two years began to pay attention to the absorption of young scholars to join them. History and culture must be passed on from generation to generation.

Eight, grounded

On the sixth day of the month, I will go to the bookstore or some other place for readers to sign. Writers and readers are both connected and separated by books as confidants. A writer can't live without a confidant. That's why I sign books for readers once a year on the sixth day of the month. The books I sign are the new works published in that year, in addition to the "New Year's Eve Books" that I have cooperated with the Culture Department of Tonight Newspaper every year. On this day, I met with the enthusiastic readers and signed photos, which was very cordial. With readers, the writer's heart is solid, so I call this activity "grounding". Often signing for an hour or two, straight to sign the wrist sore, but the heart is hot.

After that, we will wave goodbye to the year with the warmth of the breath that filled our hearts in the past few days.

Before the Spring Festival, a reporter asked what to do with the New Year. I smiled and asked, "Do you still need to be taught how to celebrate the New Year? My answer is that never the year is sentient day, who wants to celebrate the New Year who want to rut.