Current location - Recipe Complete Network - Complete cookbook - Tujia people's annual flavor "road candle"
Tujia people's annual flavor "road candle"
Aoyama Ruofu/Wen

1.

"It can't be long, short or loose, but it can't be tight."

As soon as the Lantern Festival arrives, the Tujia people's New Year is over. After many years, I heard this forgotten slang again from my old life.

On this day, farmers often lament that the years are long and the taste of the year is short. "Maoertou" is a name used in some places in Sichuan and Chongqing, especially rice. In the past, the meals in roadside restaurants were all steamed with Zan (zèng) and locked in a small bowl when serving. This kind of rice is shaped like a hat, hence its name.

In order to sell more money, some unscrupulous merchants will let go when they are full, and diners will become "heavy meals" if they add more food, so they have to add more money. Diners made up such a sentence for irony and banter, "the hat can't be loose, and the money can't be tight."

With the growth of age and travel, I think I haven't spent the Lantern Festival at home for more than ten years. This time, because the whole country is fighting against the new type of coronary pneumonia, roads around the country are closed and it is impossible to travel far, and once again it has experienced a special taste of the year.

2.

In the eyes of farmers facing the loess and facing the sky, the fifteenth day of the first month has special significance. This day is not only the start of the new year, but also the beginning of farming, so it will be celebrated grandly.

In the evening, in addition to the sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, hot jiaozi and splendid fireworks, Tujia people will also set off "road candles".

This custom is the legacy of the ancients' worship to heaven. In order to pray for a better life in the new year, it has also increased the excitement of Tujia shanzhai, full of simple awe and enthusiasm of the villagers.

When I was a child, the raw material of "road candle" was rosin under pine trees, which was a resin formed by a complex chemical reaction of pine oil. It burns easily and can be used as a simple candle.

In order to light more candles on the Lantern Festival, we will pick rosin on sunny days. In the lush forest, I often meet fellow villagers, and sometimes I blush and even fight for a piece of rosin. Thinking about it now is a unique memory. After the rosin is picked up, it will be boiled and wrapped with a stick to become a simple "road candle".

After nightfall, the twilight is four. As soon as the fireworks in Shan Ye are over, adults and children will focus on setting off "road candles".

There will be neat "road candles" around the dam, on the stone mill, on the roadside around the house and on the roof. From a distance, it looks like a salamander, warm and intelligent, quiet and warm. In a cold January, it makes people feel warm and hopeful, and it also makes children who love to play feel more secure when they walk through the stockade.

At that time, several families lived across the river bank. After the "road candle" is lit, there is a special activity, which is to call on people on the other side to "carry fleas".

Fleas seem to represent bad luck in the eyes of farmers and do great harm to livestock and people. At that time, the way to deal with it was very limited. Farmers intend to pray for the reduction of pests in the new year through such ceremonies.

On the other hand, when you hear this shouting, you will also respond loudly. You come and go, echoing in the silent countryside, which has become a special flavor of the year.

? "Thirty fires, fifteen lights." Going to the countryside, there is no Lantern Festival in the city, and there is no dragon and lion dance performance. Farmers spontaneously organize their own Lantern Festival. On this night, every household will light up all the lighting equipment, and large families with well-off families will buy colorful lanterns to hang on the balcony.

Standing on the height of my hometown, overlooking the rows of houses built on the mountain and living by the water, the lights are brilliant, and the rows of fire snakes dance in the wind and become an ocean of light. The bright moon in the sky and the children playing in the world constitute a vivid and warm picture and become beautiful memories in life.