Traditional New Year's Customs in the Countryside

Council Countryside Column Editor: Wenyin Mingyin

Recommendation: Time has changed, the sea has changed, with the rapid change of the times, people's lives in the present era have also undergone radical changes. However, the author's countryside customs, for us to show the old generation left behind some of the customs inherited from generation to generation. The author starts from sweeping the house before the year, steaming buns, stewing meat, putting up couplets, hanging lanterns, etc. to the first day of the New Year, burning cypresses, setting off firecrackers, offering sacrifices to ancestors and kneeling down, and then goes on to the fireworks activities for the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month and the children's "test lanterns" and "baking lanterns", all of which are unrelated to the city's New Year's customs. The author's book is a great example of the New Year's Eve customs that have nothing to do with the city, and it shows the readers one by one. Let's follow the author's writing to savor the different New Year's festivals. The Council's Countryside column is recommended!

The times have changed, the years have changed. The year vector every catalyst, sunshine Lang Yao. The yearly yearly yearly everything is changing rapidly. A year everything is changing rapidly, and in our small village here, the old generation still maintains their traditional customs, especially the New Year's Eve, every year, inertia inherited some of the old customs year after year.

"New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve is the year ......" The children playing in the alley were so happy that they were running around as fast as they could while rapping endlessly.

Every year around the twentieth of Lunar New Year people start sweeping their houses, which is also considered the beginning of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. The beds, furniture, tables, chairs and other bits and pieces in the room are all moved to the yard, wearing hats folded from newspapers, gloves made from their own knitting, brooms tied tightly with cloth on long bamboo sticks, and thin scarves over their mouths and noses, and they sweep from the roof to the walls, as if they want to sweep away the bad luck of the past year and welcome the New Year with open arms. The day's work, while the sun goes down and then the paint off the wall skin and then roll a layer of milky white paint, dry almost the time to move out of the object one by one to move back.

In the alley, the old people are sitting on stone benches covered with their own sewing cotton cushions, bathing in the dazzling warmth of the sun, while skilfully cutting the windowpane, the beautiful Chinese character for fortune, as well as the vivid Chinese zodiac sign, or the thick soles of their shoes, embroidered tiger shoes, or embroidered in the red hot pants "good luck", "good luck! or embroidering "good luck and good fortune" on the belt of the red hot pants. Or make a few pairs of soft sleeves, knit a few pairs of gloves for the children or do some festive dolls, scented bags and so on. Modern people no longer do clothes, shoes and hats, but changed to embroidery cross stitch.

After sweeping the house the next day to go to the market to buy some of the ingredients to prepare for the New Year, the first night grandmother, mother on the yeast flour, the next day before dawn and kneading and steamed buns steamed buns, neighboring a few aunts around the size of a single bed on the board, while laughing and joking, while pinching the buns, there are round, there is a long, long, long buns are more stuffed, so it is more favored, and most of the family package is a long, big buns! Most of the people who make buns are long and big buns. After all the buns were kneaded, they were placed one by one on the warm kang, covered with a curtain and waited for the second time to wake up, while the cookhouse was methodically burning firewood and waiting for the buns to be loaded onto the grates and steamed in the pots. Because they have to be delivered to other relatives and neighbors, they are steamed about eight grates each time, and some people may steam up to about 12 grates, with one layer of the tall cage ring set on top of the other, two bricks pressed against the lid at the top of the pot, and a long layer of paste cloth around the gap where each layer of the cage ring meets to prevent leakage of air. About 45 minutes later, the buns out of the pot, we sit around the side to eat and praise the steamed good, and then dipped in garlic white sesame oil splash hot pepper, sucking and chewing, as if this is a delicacy on earth.

After the New Year's Eve, it is time to prepare for the New Year's Eve, killing chickens and pigs, slaughtering cows and goats, frying meatballs, deep-frying fish, deep-frying tofu slices, pickles, squid, and mixing cold dishes, usually some lotus root slices, seaweed, bamboo, jellyfish and so on. When the New Year comes, the cooked food will be heated up a little bit, and the cold food will be poured with hot oil, so you don't have to prepare it in a hurry.

The most important preparation before the New Year is to steam gift buns (i.e., flower date buns, steamed buns to bring to relatives) and date cake (each layer of cakes full of jujubes, a layer stacked layer, *** three to five layers, the top layer and then put a small date bun). In the village people's opinion this is the top priority, when you go out each family should send eight. The jujube cake should be left to dry, until after the fifteenth day of the steaming month to chew and eat.

On New Year's Eve, the uncles first paste paste, and then write a pair of stickers, stickers, hanging lanterns, build cypress branches (i.e., cypress building, like a Christmas tree), sweeping in front of the house, clean up the backyard. After cleaning, the male members of the family go to the cemetery to burn paper money for the deceased. Mothers and aunts will make noodles and deep-fry deep-fried noodle cakes, deep-fried noodle cakes and sesame flowers, mix the filling, make dumplings and put small coins in some of the dumplings, clean the teacups, and pick up the New Year's goods for the guests.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, you have to go to the temple to worship and burn incense, praying for the coming year's luck, happiness and fullness. From the temple back to the crackling firecrackers for a while, and upside down to paste the Chinese character for blessings, paste New Year's paintings. Then they stay up late to observe the New Year's Eve, and after twelve o'clock each child is given new year's money. The children are excited to try on new clothes, shoes and hats.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, get up first firecrackers burning cypress branches, the air can be seen a glittering light burning firecrackers, like a small flying dragon, the air is filled with a thick choking breath, small children or hide in the house or cover their ears and stand in front of the door timidly pawed at the tip of the toes far away from the look.

After the firecrackers, the first to honor the ancestors, only to see his father respectfully served with jujube steamed buns and dumplings placed in front of the ancestors of the statue, wait for them to finish eating the younger generation can only move chopsticks. After breakfast, you can open the door to go out to pay homage to the New Year, and at noon you have to carry a small basket full of sacrificial offerings to the cemetery to pay homage. The New Year's greetings are paid to the elders in groups by the younger members of the family, who first attend to the guests at home and then go to the door afterward. The juniors asked the New Year's greetings, and then lined up to receive the New Year's money issued by the elders, to kowtow to thank the gift. After the same family to pay homage to their own home, they go to the neighborhood to pay homage to the New Year. At noon, we sit around two or three tables to eat a big reunion dinner, and continue to pay tribute to the New Year in the afternoon.

In the old days, New Year's Eve was particularly solemn, bowing and kneeling, worship ancestors and elders. According to the seniority from top to bottom, one by one kowtow and kneeling, the eighties and nineties these rituals are basically canceled, directly to the "New Year's good", "Happy New Year" instead.

The second day of the New Year, the size of the daughter-in-law to return to her mother's home. Early in the morning mom woke us up to wear good clothes, after eating dinner to go to the maternal uncle's home, of course, we are to rush to go, because the uncle's home has a hearty lunch, the pressure money is relatively generous. We would come back with lots of walnuts, fruits, candies and so on. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a bike and ride it for a while, and then the older kids will have to come down and walk with it.

The first three to six seven to go to the great aunt and sister-in-law and other relatives to pay tribute to the New Year. Because a morning to go to a good pair of home, so put down the gift, drink a cup of tea, chat a couple of words on the rush to the next home, rush to noon before the meal to be worshiped, and then go to the agreed relatives to eat lunch.

In a child's young mind, New Year's means new clothes, new hats, new year's money, and good food that can't be eaten on a regular basis. As long as you can go out (to visit relatives), you are willing to walk a few miles.

When I was a kid on New Year's Eve, I walked to my relatives' homes, and rode my bicycle to the faraway ones, and my parents rode one in front of the other with one behind the other, and the child sitting behind the other had to put his head next to the seat of the bicycle and press it down so that my parents' legs could go around it, otherwise the child in the backseat would fall off. Then they switched to a bike with a brace on the back seat, so they could have one child on each side.

In the basket on the front of the bike was a bamboo basket containing eight steamed buns of dates with lace and birds, plus two boxes of sugar or boiled cakes (round, covered with a thick layer of black and white sesame seeds on the outside, and inside was a soft and sticky local specialty of stretched sugar). Every year before the New Year's Eve, the set on the roadside of a few families is home to set up a large iron pot of sugar water to make boiled cakes, eight or twelve a package, wrapped in paper, the front and then covered with red festive paper, tied on the bag, you can sell it.

On the fifth day of the first month, we send the king of the stove, pouring garbage and the remnants of the firecrackers. The village custom is the first day of the year to the fifth for the "broken five" within, not to borrow money from others, not to the door of the garbage, so the garbage are saved to the fifth before dumping, also pay attention to the first day of the year do not wash their hair, do not allow leftovers, for fear of pouring the year's blessings, wash away. Divorced girls are also not allowed to stay at their mother's house on New Year's Eve, supposedly for fear of bad luck washing away their good fortune. It is said that before the 40s and 50s, garbage was dumped in the center of the main road outside the village, so that cars and horses could run over it and get rid of the dirt.

By twelve or thirteen, and open up the fifteenth, do dumplings, fried paste cake (the steamed and cooled sweet potato peeled, stirred mixed with dry flour, scooped out a piece of a spoon, rolled round and flattened, and then frying, eat, put on a plate steamed, out of the pot sprinkled with a handful of sugar can be enjoyed). Some families also steam some buns. Grandmothers have to give their grandchildren lanterns and fragrant flowers (small fireworks).

On the 14th and 5th day of the first month, the lions are played and the Lantern Festival is held. Fourteen night with a lantern in the alley wandering around, compared to whose light light beautiful, commonly known as "test light". Some go to the street to see the fireworks. Fifteen is the lamp, sixteen baking lamp. Because that will be the lanterns are papier-maché or silk cloth made, inside the candle, fourteen or fifteen play enough, sixteen shake the candle, the lantern burned off. The street also has stilts, back ice, lion dance, gongs and drums, and wearing the masks of the Chinese zodiac tour and other social activities, Niangniang Temple, Guan Gong Temple built a large stage, a sea of people, lively and lively to watch the Pu opera.

Out of the first month, nibbling on dry jujube buns, shaving a head, the whole year is over. The first thing you need to do is to go to school, go to work, and go to the field. The spring breeze is still the same, the custom is passed on. The street corners and alleys are full of laughter.