it's Chinese new year again!
It's Laba Festival, can the Spring Festival be far behind?
For China people, the Spring Festival is the most solemn and ceremonial day of the year.
For Chaoshan people, the Spring Festival is the sustenance of feelings and expectations. Since I was a child, what I am looking forward to most is the Chinese New Year.
The annual flavor in Chaoshan area seems to have quietly started from the winter solstice.
Chaoshan people think that eating that bowl of sweet, round and a little red "Winter Festival Pill" on the morning of the winter solstice means "getting one year older" and the New Year is coming. Chaoshan mother is even more aware that the arrival of the winter solstice means that it is time to start worshipping God, thanking God for his grace, and at the same time preparing for the New Year.
at this time, when walking in the streets, you can always smell the aroma of steamed hearts from time to time, as if you can already feel the growing flavor of the year.
from the first bite of hearts after the winter solstice, I entered a state of full expectation. At that time, I was keen to get up early every day and had to tear up the calendar first. Tear off the old calendar and count in your mind at the same time. When will it be 3?
In the past, the days passed slowly. At that time, I always complained that I could only tear one piece a day. What a pity! But probably because my heart is full of expectations, so simple things also feel particularly important! Now, I haven't used a calendar for many years, but the almost persistent sense of ceremony at that time is still clear.
as the end of the year approaches, it seems that everything will be particularly enjoyable.
whether it's cleaning the house with my family, worshipping ancestors with my mother, pestering my father to buy toys, setting off firecrackers at the door with my brother, stealing candy with my younger brother, the three children doing homework around the small desk, playing marbles at the door, and bathing the big orange cat at home together ......
Or making hearts with my mother, watching old people write Spring Festival couplets with my friends, or sneaking into town. Just sitting quietly at the door, stroking the big orange cat's neck, and watching the sunshine gradually disappear at the end of the alley, I can feel a simple sense of happiness ...
The days pass by with the torn calendars. Finally, it's New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is probably the busiest day for Chaoshan families and the most crowded day for the small town vegetable market.
At dawn, my mother will be busy preparing all kinds of new year's goods. The old Phoenix bicycle runs through the crowds, and the front basket and back shelf are full of chickens, geese, ducks, fish, fruit and vegetable candy cakes, new bowls and chopsticks, potted flowers, Spring Festival couplets and oranges and olives that must be indispensable.
we are not idle when mom is shopping for new year's goods.
Chaoshan people pay attention to not moving brooms at the beginning of the year, and they can't clean their homes from the first day of the first month to the fourth day of the first month. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, you must clean up the inside and outside of your home and tidy up your things. When mom comes back from shopping, we have to help clean up, wash dishes, and have fun. Usually, before you know it, it's close to lunch time.
Not long after lunch, we will begin to prepare "Worship my husband" (ancestor worship). A simple round table is filled with food and sacrifices. My father will take down the incense burner representing our ancestors from the shrine and put it on the table properly. My father and mother will burn incense and pray together, and invite our ancestors to have dinner. Then our three brothers and sisters will be led by grandparents and bow down in order of age.
It usually takes 1-2 hours to "worship my husband". After the ancestor worship, the whole family will have a reunion dinner around the stove and distribute "lucky money". After dinner, everyone is busy clearing the table and cleaning the kitchen. Finally, the water tank must be filled with water, the rice tank filled with rice, the fuel lamp filled with oil and the lantern lit, which will not go out until the fifteenth day of the first month to symbolize the good omen of "more than one year old" and "continuous cooking every year".
On the first day of the first month, the town began to welcome a lively parade and a traditional Chaoshan custom-"camp master". Most villages in Chaoshan have their own gods, and we call them lords. On holidays, the villagers invited the gods out of the temple, held a worship ceremony, and then held a parade throughout the village, praying for good weather and peace in the new year, and finally sent them back to the temple for placement.
From the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, some villages will continue until the 21st day of the first month, and there will be camp worship activities of different sizes every day. For Chaoshan children, nothing is more exciting than camp master during the Chinese New Year!
I still remember that at that time, my grandmother told me that I would get the best results in the new year if I touched my grandfather's golden body in the New Year!
For me as a child, if I could touch my master's golden body with my hand during the parade, it would be like the new year's exam was secure! That kind of pride and excitement can last for days! It can be said that when I was very ignorant, Master Chaoshan was my first idol!
On the first day of the first month, firecrackers, gongs and drums, and singing and dancing's shouts can be heard from time to time in small towns. At this time, children are probably the most excited people. Following the sound of gongs and drums, a group of children follow the team like tails and shout loudly!
Some children follow adults standing on both sides of the town streets to watch the excitement. If they see a familiar little friend in the camp team, they always shout out his name. If the other person finds out, they look over and wave, and the sense of glory seems to have won the whole world!
There are many camps in Chaoshan every year, not just during the Spring Festival. As far as I can remember, every camp activity is a national carnival, but it's always impressive during the New Year!
when I grow up, I won't shout after the procession, and I won't follow every scene again. However, as long as I hear the sound of gongs and drums during the New Year, I will still feel extremely excited. It seems that in this noisy and lively atmosphere, the annual flavor of Chaoshan people is strong to the extreme! It seems that as long as there are camp masters, the taste of Chaoshan people will not fade!
In addition to camp activities, I still remember that during the Spring Festival when I was a child, there would be a simple theater shed built of bamboo at the school gate, and a live-action troupe would be invited to sing Chaozhou Opera in the village. At that time, you can always see a large group of old people sitting under the stage, basking in the warm sun, listening to the opera happily. Some children will lie on the stage, while some naughty children will sneak into the background along the bamboo frame when adults are not looking, but they are always found soon. Then, the children dispersed in a hubbub and the adults will let them go with a smile.
Children can't sit still and have little interest in Chaozhou opera. However, Chaoshan, another kind of drama, can always make children addicted to it. Although I always thought it looked like a mini version of Chaozhou opera.
At that time, at the gate of the village, for several days in a row, you could see a lively and interesting puppet show with iron branches. A simple bamboo frame formed a small stage, and a curtain embroidered with dragons and phoenixes covered the master holding iron branches behind the scenes. While controlling the puppets, the masters talked about the colorful stories, Su six niang, the well-side meeting and other Chaoshan folk stories, vivid puppets, fascinating plots, and eloquent explanations and singing with the masters ...
These can always make children want to stop! In the era when there is no mobile phone or internet, there are always a large group of small children around the small stage in the town. In the midst of laughter and the smell of baked sweet potatoes floating in the air, I can watch it for a long time and never get tired of it ...
Although I can't remember the plot clearly, the happiness of that year is how many years I will watch more TV, chase more dramas and brush more.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen a puppet show in a small town for many years. Maybe these can only be hidden in my memory forever!
As far as I am concerned, the taste of childhood is hidden in the New Year's Eve dinner of ordinary families in Chaoshan ordinary town, permeating the excitement of the annual god camp activities, condensing into a small cup of congou tea after dinner when the young and the old are reunited, and it is also deposited in the memory of my growing years! !
In my carefree age, I never experienced where will you go, never faced the loneliness of life, and never knew what reunion meant. In the beautiful and ignorant years, these little memories and mottled memories are always the deepest and most precious treasures for me, from the past to the present, and even from now on!
Chinese New Year will come again soon! I'm especially looking forward to going home quickly, having a bite of my mother's red peach cake and buying new year's goods in a crowded vegetable market, and I'm especially looking forward to this year's camp master! More importantly, I also want my children to feel the flavor of the year I felt as a child!
In recent years, some people always think that the taste of the year has faded. It is indeed different from before, but for me, the taste of the year in Chaoshan people has always been noisy and never faded!
? # Yu Xi X Hong Yun Xinsheng #
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