Please Family Hall

The local area is also known as "Please Grandpa and Empress". On the morning of New Year's Eve, take firecrackers, offerings, and incense, and go to the ancestral graves of your own family. After praying, invite grandparents, grandparents, and dead ancestors to go home for the New Year.

Back home, put the incense burner that was lit as soon as you leave in the pre-prepared incense burner on the Eight Immortals table in the main room, and put the family hall with the names of the previous five generations on it that has been used for many years (a piece of paper) Paper or cloth similar to the middle hall) is hung on the middle hall above the Eight Immortals table. The table is filled with seven large plates and eight large bowls of various offerings, including steamed chicken, knuckle knuckles, fried fish, boiled balls, and various fruits. Lighting the ever-burning lamp and plugging in the immortal incense, the old man sat on the sidelines and waited black and white, and put a barrier on the ground at the door.

Drink New Year’s wine

In our hometown, there is a big feast at noon on New Year’s Eve. Prepare hearty meals, take out the best wine in the house, the elders sit on the table, the younger ones sit down, and the whole family sits together, drinking reunion wine happily. This is the most pleasant moment in the year. The whole family drinks year-end wine, and those who don't know how to drink actively serve two cups or taste it. The bitterness and bitterness of the year vanished in smoke, and all the disputes and troubles in the world were thrown into the sky.

Hanging lanterns

Hanging lanterns and ever-burning lanterns is also a custom for thousands of years. The lanterns I used when I was a child were especially good ones made of wooden edges, with glass on them, most of them were made of Xi Mier, and the outside was made of paper, with various patterns of flowers, birds, fish and insects on them, which were pasted by paper cutting. Lanterns are hung in the courtyard, and long-burning lamps are lit in every room, even in the cowshed, the mill road, and the pigsty. For wealthy families, one o'clock in the evening is the whole night, and they are not allowed to be extinguished.

Zhao Yu

Thirty night is the most lively fireworks night. Every household has to stand a bundle of grain and hay on the ground in front of their own house, and light it with a fire from above, which is called chaoyu in our place. During the burning process, due to the enclosed air in the joints, it will also make a "crackling" sound similar to small firecrackers.

The author believes that it is a continuation of "firecrackers" produced by burning bamboo tubes in ancient times. There are bamboos in the south, and valleys in the north, and local materials are used to replace bamboo with valleys. It is also similar to the modern bonfire party, which greatly increases the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival. When it is almost burnt out, see which direction it falls, which direction it falls, and which direction it will have good weather and a good harvest. This is the old practice and old preaching of people praying for a good year.

This activity has disappeared without a trace in our place, and young people today may have never heard of it, let alone seen it. When facing the owl, it is accompanied by setting off firecrackers.

Firecrackers

Firecrackers originated from ancient firecrackers. According to the "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji" recorded by Emperor Liang Daizong of the Southern Dynasty: "On the first day of the first lunar month, the cock crows. Before the firecrackers in front of the court, to avoid the evil ghosts from the mountains." It means that people at that time woke up after getting up in the morning The first thing to do is to put the bamboo in the fire, because there is sealed air in the bamboo joints, it expands after high temperature, cracks the bamboo joints, and makes a cracking sound, so as to expel monsters and evil spirits.

In the Tang Dynasty, people put gunpowder in bamboo tubes to ignite, and later developed to use paper rolls instead of bamboo tubes. The purpose of firecrackers is to expel and scare away the "mountain-smell evil spirits".

Thirty nights, as soon as it gets dark, every household puts stools in front of the door, prepares incense, and some people light a cigarette. Adults and children, the whole family, old and young, all go to the door to see Fireworks and firecrackers. The mother usually didn't go, she was afraid of the shock, so she stayed at home and often covered her ears. The whole village crackled, interspersed with the sound of two kicks of "deng... bang..., bang... bang...".

The air is filled with a strong smell of gunpowder, and the whole village is decorated with lights and festoons, flickering on and off, very lively, just like the flickering stage lights now. The red, green and green confetti fluttered with the sound of firecrackers and people's laughter, making the cold winter night hot. See whose house puts off more, sees whose house plays for a long time, sees whose firecrackers sound, and sees whose house is lively in front of the house. Generally, it is set for more than an hour.

After the sound of Dafen, the friends, holding lanterns in groups of three or four, wandered around the village to pick up firecrackers and kickers that had not been set off. Pieces of confetti and flowers all over the street are like picking up treasures. Many young people didn't sleep that night, and the men from several families got together to drink.

Many old people don’t sleep, they sit in front of the “grandparents” to watch the night. Watching the night is also called keeping the year old, and the saying of keeping the year old has a long history. The earliest record can be found in the "Feng Tu Zhi" of the Western Jin Dynasty:

On New Year's Eve, giving each other gifts is called "feeding the year"; ".

Eat dumplings

The first meal of the new year, that is to say, the first day of the new year In the morning, we eat dumplings, which is a custom accumulated for thousands of years, and it was more popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Eating dumplings means "Geng Sui Jiao Zi".

There are more legends, so I won’t list them all. Sometimes a few pennies are put in the dumplings to see who can eat them. Those who eat them will be blessed in the new year, but be very careful, for fear of breaking their teeth or getting them into the stomach by mistake.

Little New Year's greetings

The morning of the first day of the new year, if it is morning, it is better to say it is night, some are three Get up early in the morning, some even earlier. At that time, I couldn't grasp the time, there was no clock, no watch, no radio, no TV, and I didn't know what time to get up. It is not allowed to listen to the crowing of the rooster. Let people keep the lights on, set off firecrackers, hang lanterns, and stay up, messing up the biological clock of the crowing of the rooster.

Some of them called before twelve o'clock at night, and every one family called, and hundreds of families called.

Before eating dumplings, first kowtow to the "grandfather and mother" in the family, and then kowtow to the elders and older family members one by one in the family. The children in good families will give some lucky money . The sound of firecrackers all over the village was loud and loud, and there were pieces of fiery trees and silver flowers. Setting off firecrackers in one's own home at night means that the family has already woken up.

Wear floral dresses

First put on your best clothes, the big girl and the little daughter-in-law put on a little powder to make them look The flowers are colorful; the new daughter-in-law who has just passed the door usually wears an old-fashioned back-opening skirt.

Great New Year greetings

It’s dawn, the village, the hospital, and neighbors in neighboring villages are bustling with each other, visiting each other to pay New Year’s greetings. The dead ancestors, grandfathers and mothers of Liezong pay New Year's greetings, and then pay New Year's greetings to the living. Meeting each other on the street, wishing each other a happy Chinese New Year, is really lively. I remember when I was a child, the old people who met on the street would bow their hands and greet them.

The year of 11 was really a great temptation to me when I was a child, and looking forward to the year is so real.

Source "Licheng Literature" editorial department

Brief introduction of the author: Liu Tianzhi, who wrote the memoir "Track" before the army and then the people.