Small years in memory
When I was very young, I always liked to celebrate the New Year early. Because during the Spring Festival, you can wear new clothes, have a good meal, set off firecrackers, visit relatives and friends, play games, play top and pick lanterns. In snowy years, we can have snowball fights, make snowmen, set wild pigeons and catch birds. As for off-year, it is to dust and clean the courtyard, and apply decals on window paper. Occasionally, I will worship the kitchen god, worship the heavenly monarch, and set up an image for the gods.
After the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the women in the village began to get busy. Either marry a woman or a wife, or every household will start steaming steamed buns. When the family is short of hands, the women in the village help each other and their neighbors. I steam steamed bread in your house, and you steam steamed bread in my house. The horse bites the mule, and the workers change jobs.
My family steamed buns, all members participate. Each has its own weight and a clear division of labor. One evening before steaming steamed bread, my mother would make dough in a big bowl in advance, and then put several bowls in the center of the hot kang. When the dough is ready, it will move to the edge of the hot kang. The task of kneading dough in bowls and basins is mainly undertaken by father. Later, when they grew up, they undertook this task.
When making dough, farmers also soak bean sprouts together. In our village, every household is made of mung beans. Occasionally there are black bean bubbles. Before soaking bean sprouts, you should choose the best mung beans, find out the shriveled ones, pick out the damaged ones and the moth-eaten ones, and screen out the pebbles in the beans. Wash it, put it in a basin, cover it and put it on a hot kang. Every night, my mother will pour water and winnow the beans to make the mung beans in the basin full and even. Heating on a hot kang can make mung beans germinate earlier. After seven days and seven nights, bean sprouts will germinate, and in a few days, bean sprouts will grow to three or four centimeters long. Cold dishes are better for entertaining guests at the beginning of the year. Bean sprouts grow too long and taste bad. So when the bean sprouts grow to a certain length, control their growth as much as possible.
Xiaonian taste
After Laba, it will be the New Year, and in a few days, it will be the New Year. This shows that the upcoming Spring Festival is coming. Off-year has a long history. The usual saying is "offering sacrifices to the stove", that is, letting the kitchen god return to the sky for the New Year, benefiting the people and seeing him off, making candy to offer sacrifices to the stove god, and making his old man's mouth sweet. Even in a city, the customs in the east and west of the city will be somewhat different.
Offering sacrifices to stoves is a widely spread and influential custom among Chinese people. In the middle of last century, there was a "kitchen god" in almost every household's kitchen. A few days ago, Weifang Yangjiabu New Year pictures exhibited in Jinan Convention and Exhibition Center had an exquisite "Kitchen God". Legend has it that "Kitchen God" is the "Nine-day East Chef's Prince" sealed by the Jade Emperor, who is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of various families, and is regarded as the patron saint of a family and admired by people. Kitchen shrines are mostly located in the north or east of the kitchen, with the idol of Kitchen God in the middle. People who don't have the niche of the kitchen king also stick the idol directly on the wall. Some gods only draw a kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Chef". Most of the statues of Kitchen God are also printed with this year's calendar, and the words "Oriental chef is in charge" and "head of the family" are written to show the status of Kitchen God. On both sides, there are couplets of "Heaven says yes, the lower bound is safe", wishing the whole family peace.
"Kitchen God" has been staying at home to protect this family since last year's Eve. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven and report to the Jade Emperor in heaven what this family has done. The ceremony of sending the kitchen god is called "sending the kitchen stove" or "resigning the kitchen stove". According to the report of Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor entrusted his family with the fate of good fortune and bad fortune in the new year. So for a family, Kitchen God's report plays an important role. Sending stoves is mostly held at dusk or night. The family went to the kitchen first, set a small table, respectfully incense the kitchen god in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and presented candy made of caramel and flour. Sacrificing caramel to Kitchen God is to make his old man's mouth sweet. In other places, tanghua was put on the mouth of the kitchen god, and while painting, he said, "Say more good things, not bad things." This is to block the kitchen god's mouth with sugar and tell him not to speak ill.
Unforgettable little year
It's another sunny day, cloudless in Wan Li, a warm little year.
Many years ago, what a sunny day it was. There were no clouds in Wan Li. I remember that it happened to be a young year, and my uncles and aunts who worked outside all the year round also went home. According to the custom of our family, before the New Year, our whole family will get together and take a family photo as a souvenir. Until now, I can still see the photos of that day at home. In the photo, my grandparents are sitting in the middle, while my three cousins and a cousin are standing next to them. My parents, three uncles and aunts will stand in the back row in pairs according to the order of height, while my uncles and aunts will stand behind my grandparents. Because my cousins and I are younger, we will sit side by side in front of grandparents' heels. Such a family of 18 people is basically a "heart" as a whole. It was because of the sunny day that we were all outdoors, which was a little dazzling, so our eyes seemed to be narrowed in that photo. I still remember that when the photos were first developed, I insisted on drawing bigger eyes. Fortunately, my grandparents repeatedly advised me not to draw.
Later, when I grew up, I compared all the family photos at home and found that the "blind" one was actually the most beautiful one. The reason is simple, because we were warmer, more harmonious and happier by the sun that day, so I don't want to draw big eyes anymore. In fact, if I want to draw bigger eyes in the future, it will be easy. Just take out my pen and photos, because my parents have always spoiled me. Regrettably, six months after that photo shoot, Sanbo, a strong man, died unexpectedly, which caused great physical and mental trauma to his elderly grandparents. The grief of losing their children in old age made them miserable and left us after vicissitudes of life and illness.
Until now, I still don't understand. Later, I didn't brush my eyes because that photo was the best one we took, or because it was the last photo taken with my grandparents and Sanbo. Whenever I open the photo and look at my grandparents and Sanbo who are no longer alive, I always feel heartbroken, sometimes I almost suffocate, and I can't help but shed tears of homesickness every time.