Unforgettable flavor of the year

Time flies and years go by like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, I have reached the age of life. On this day, after dinner, turn over the yellow calendar, it is the fifteenth day of the lunar month, I can not help but think of the taste of New Year's Eve in my hometown in the past.

If you talk about your hometown, I will have endless words, endless stories, because growing up in the countryside, naturally, the countryside has a deep affection, but also for this hot spot to raise my love. My home is located high in the mountains, surrounded by mountains, pines and cypresses, as a child snuggled in the mother's embrace. Here the mountains rolling, rich vegetation; here the air is fresh, cool in all seasons, just like a natural oxygen bar; here the water is pure mountain spring water, sweet clean and sweet; here the people born and bred, hospitable, simple folk customs. This mountain, this water, this person, this air will always be my constant worry and miss, can not forget for a long time.

In my childhood, I was most looking forward to the New Year. In that era of lack of clothing and food, families do not have enough to eat, wear not warm, only New Year's Day can eat good wear good, so look forward to the New Year is to wear new clothes, eat dumplings, firecrackers, pressure money. Since childhood, I have known the saying "Don't be greedy, it's the New Year after Lunar New Year. You can drink congee for a few days, and then you can eat congee for twenty-three days. ......", a popular nursery rhyme, depicts the scene of people welcoming the Spring Festival to the fullest. In the countryside, every year on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year to drink Lapa congee, after the Lapa Festival this day, families began to work, kill the New Year's pig, do tofu, push yellow noodles, steamed rice cakes ......, until the New Year's Eve 29, all the New Year's "New Year's goods" (refers to the New Year's food and use) will be ready. The most noteworthy thing is to push the yellow noodles and steam the rice cake. Here is the most noteworthy is to push the yellow noodles, make tofu, you can not say that this is what, the old family know, every time this season every family to push the yellow noodles, make tofu, after the Lahai every day lined up to busy Luo, a busy work for several days, we all work together, you help me, I help you, talking and laughing, a bustling scene immediately the whole village dress up, so that the whole mountain village suddenly boiled up. In my family, this time of the year, the most busy when my father, he ran every day in the various households free to kill the New Year's pig, it can be said that ninety percent of the village's pigs are slaughtered by him, but he has never asked for money from the owner.

By the day of Lunar New Year's Eve, people mainly offer sugar melons and pastries, invite Zao Wang Wang, and sacrifice to Zao Shen. All families live in stone-built houses with slate roofs, and every family has an earthen kang (for sleeping), which is heated by a ground stove. On this day, a statue of the god Zaowang is placed on the kang compartment at the mouth of the stove, and offerings are placed on a plate next to the stove to make offerings to the god Zaowang, symbolizing that the new year will be more and more prosperous and will bring a lot of good luck. After the offering ceremony, the statue of Zaowang is burned.

Every year on the 30th day of the New Year, which is also known as New Year's Eve. This is the day when families put up couplets, usually before noon. This day is the day of family reunion, no matter where they are, they have to rush back home to eat a reunion dinner. After dinner, they start to busy themselves, chopping stuffing, making noodles, wrapping dumplings, and preparing breakfast for the first day of the Lunar New Year. On this day, rural people pay attention to the New Year's Eve, also known as the New Year's Eve, people are accustomed to the vigil all night, to meet the arrival of the new year. In fact, the most important and most lively is the discharge of firecrackers, usually two, one before eight o'clock in the evening, after watching the Spring Festival gala, the night at twenty-four o'clock. Late at night in the mountains is dark and quiet, sometimes quiet some scary, but in the sound of firecrackers did break the tranquility of the mountain townships, especially in the "flash of thunder", "drill the sky roar", "two lifting horns "and other colorful fireworks intertwined together to form a spectacular scene of lightning and thunder, a moment seems to be lively. Sitting on the earth bed, through the window you can enjoy the beauty of the air.

On the morning of the first day of the first month of the year, generally very few people sleep, this day there is an important ritual is to worship the New Year. Each family will get up at five or six o'clock to set off firecrackers, after the firecrackers to eat dumplings, eat dumplings on the street to go to the door strings to pay homage to the New Year, called each other to visit. The most promising is the children, this time the elders will be for the children long years to the New Year's money.

From the beginning of the second day of the first month, everyone is busy organizing the invitation to dinner, a family of a family, the morning in your home, the evening in his family, the family take turns to invite, can continue until after the first month of the fifteenth, which is also known as "eating the family meal". In fact, the meal is secondary, the main thing is to enhance the relationship, for the Spring Festival to add a festive and happy atmosphere, so that the flavor of the year more "thick" up. This kind of scene and feeling, the city people can not experience, and for me now has become a luxury.

It's been more than twenty years since I left my hometown, and I recall my childhood memories of the past New Year's Eve with some nostalgia. Now, after all, the years are not forgiving, with the growth of age, the more they feel the flavor of the year is also more and more diluted, can no longer find the flavor of the year of childhood, but I have been longing for, if there is a day to turn back the clock, will choose to go back to the old days, I like the flavor of the year of his hometown.