Every year in November and December of the lunar calendar, many rural areas in Lin 'an have the custom of killing pigs, which also means the end of raising livestock and food for one year, so as to prepare for the storage of meat in the coming year. Every time the pig is killed, farmers in Lin 'an have the custom of entertaining their neighbors and friends. Everyone sat around and talked about their parents' shortcomings and comforted their parents with their own pickles stew for a year.
Every year after the winter solstice, farmers in Lin' an begin to kill pigs. Especially between slight cold and severe cold, it is the climax of killing pigs for the New Year. People think that the temperature is very low during this period, and the pickled pork is not easy to deteriorate. Killing pigs is a big deal, so we should hire a pig killer first. There are only one or two good pig butchers in the village. During this time, they were very angry because the whole village was waiting in line.
Generally speaking, pigs on farms will not be dragged to slaughterhouses for slaughter. For decades, every village has fixed craftsmen, who are not only skilled, but also pay more attention to the appearance of pigs between rural neighbors.
After the beginning of the Year of Killing Pigs, the butcher will command other pig pullers, one pulling the pig's tail, two grabbing the hind legs and two grabbing the front legs. The butcher will grab the pig's ears and drag it to a long table. The butcher will expertly release pig blood, catch it with a washbasin after release, wipe off the foam stars on the top floor by hand and let it stand for a while.
Don't look at this little pig blood, but it is the first taste of farmers after the pigs were slaughtered in 2008. The next step is the process of soaking water. The so-called soaking in water is just the process of putting Nian pig in a special wooden bucket, then pouring boiling water and depilating Nian pig with a special knife for killing pigs.
Many experienced butchers, like surgeons, know the pork skeleton and the texture of each piece of pork like the back of their hands. Pigs weighing more than 200 kilograms a year can be slaughtered in just over an hour. At the end of each pork, the butcher will cut a hole with a knife. When the annual pork is dried, this hole can be hooked with a hook, which is more convenient to hang and dry.
When killing Nian pig, the women on the farm are mainly responsible for setting up a cauldron to boil water in the open space at home, and then they are busy entertaining the first adjacent Nian pig rice in the kitchen. After the pig is slaughtered in 2008, the host family will leave the pig butcher and invite the neighbors to enjoy the first pig dinner. Everyone will happily go to the dinner and sit around.
Farmers seem to follow certain rules every year, and everyone has a set menu. Generally, there should be three kinds of dishes: pig liver, pig blood, pickled stew, and some side dishes with wine, and a sumptuous annual pig feast will officially begin.
At the pig banquet in 2008, the same theme was often discussed in unison, that is, how many kilograms of pigs each family has this year. In the village, if whose pig is the heaviest in the village, the peasant women will talk about it for a year, and then the hostess of each family will secretly swear that the biggest pig in the village must be raised in the coming year.
After the pork slices are made, the host will put the pork in an unusually wide container. When putting the pork, a lot of salt should be put on the surface of the pork to prevent the pork from rotting and deteriorating for a long time. This is also a life experience for people living in rural areas, because from the twelfth lunar month to March, the weather is always cloudy or sunny, and sometimes the sun is not seen for several weeks, so it is not easy to get it. At this time, the best "preservative" is salt. Pork coated with salt will become a delicacy for farmers in the coming year.
Many farmers put the pork marinated for a day or two next to the stove, and let the smoke generated during cooking cook the pork. After three or four months, it will be the delicious bacon in Lin 'an Mountain Village.
Customs and values derived from the Year of the Pig
People in Lin 'an will wait until the children come home and the whole family is here. The Year Pig represents reunion, the first meal of Killing Year Pig is to entertain neighbors, and the Year Pig represents neighborhood harmony. After the slaughter of pigs in, the proper curing and storage of pork also embodies the most traditional farming idea of harvesting in autumn and storing in winter. It can be seen that today's pig killer has gradually evolved from simply satisfying his appetite to a kind of homesickness, a deeper concept for tradition, for his family and even for getting along with others.
As the saying goes, the year of the pig crows, and the year is approaching. With the continuous development of the custom of "killing pigs", many mountain villages in Lin 'an have gradually formed their own characteristics. For example, some villages have the custom of worshipping the kitchen god for the first time after killing the pig in the year, hoping that the six animals will prosper and the crops will be bumper in the coming year. In these places, after killing Nian pig, the pig's head and tail will be put together, indicating that they have a head and a tail, and they want to have plenty of food and clothing.