Now that I think about it, there are probably several reasons: First, I can wear new clothes; Second, you can eat meat; Third, you can have fun with your friends.
Today's post-8s and post-9s generation may not think that their parents lived in an era of extreme material scarcity. In a year, only during the Spring Festival can you buy a new dress and get addicted to it.
In those days, although people were short of food and clothing, people lived a simple life without stress, and the communication between people was not as complicated as it is now, so they were happier.
Take our children as an example. At that time, although there were no televisions, Internet cafes and even mobile phones, children could still play many tricks, such as making a decent matchmaker, pushing iron rings, playing glass balls, playing bia (four corners folded with paper) and so on, and even skating in the pond near the village. Girls can kick shuttlecock and jump rope.
At that time, there were no classes, and there were very few classes in winter vacation homework. They just ate and played during the Spring Festival, which was different from children nowadays. They had to attend various cram schools and interest classes after holidays, and were busier than usual.
The real Chinese New Year begins on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Lao Xu's hometown is in Xindian Township, a demonstration area, where there is a saying: Twenty-three, put a whip; Twenty-four, sweep the house; Twenty-five, grinding bean curd; Twenty-six, to cut the meat; Twenty-seven, kill the stove chicken; Twenty-eight, decals; Twenty-nine, go to drink; Thirty, pinch your nose; The first day, the arch ridge.
Twenty-three is a small year in the traditional sense, so there is a saying that "twenty-three children, put a whip". On this night, every household will set off smaller firecrackers, and if conditions are better, they will also buy some barbed rockets for children to play with.
On this night, almost every family will eat the same thing: burning steamed buns. As for why we should eat steamed buns on fire this day, there is a saying that the kitchen god will go to heaven for the New Year on the 23rd, so that he can eat enough and meet the Jade Emperor to speak for the people and bless them with a bumper harvest and peace in the four seasons in the coming year. But I think it may also be related to the poverty at that time. At ordinary times, everyone relies on Wowotou to satisfy their hunger. On this day, a few fires on the kang are equivalent to eating white flour buns.
speaking of the kitchen god, this is also an indispensable annual custom in Nanyang. Pay attention to a little family, before dinner, will respectfully post a portrait of the kitchen god beside the stove, put sesame candy, fruit, etc., and then light a few incense sticks to pray for the safety of the family. It is said that the kitchen god eats sesame candy, and his mouth will be very sweet. When he meets the Jade Emperor, he chooses the right words.
because it's a young year, it's natural that every family's dinner is full of fishy meat. Every year on this day, my family makes a big pot of heart-lung soup with vermicelli and other accessories, which tastes very delicious. Later, I learned that I bought heart and lung because it was cheap. But this habit is still preserved by our brothers. On the night of 23 years ago, I called several brothers, and everyone made heart-lung soup in unison.
twenty-four, cleaning the house.
on this day, every household began to clean up. This custom has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying, "dust" and "Chen" are homophonic, and this day's dust removal has the meaning of "except Chen Buxin", which is intended to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". It is entrusted with people's desire to break through the old and establish the new and their prayers to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
It should be noted that on this day, you can rummage through everything, but you must handle it with care and try to avoid breaking damaged items. If you are careless, you should read a sin, because the great god is not here, so that the little god will not report your fault.
On this day, even if there is something unpleasant between husband and wife, don't quarrel. Even if the company doesn't have a holiday, take time out to symbolically clean the house.
twenty-five, grinding bean curd.
when I was young, there was a tofu shop in the village. Usually, tofu shop doesn't make tofu every day, because everyone can't afford it at all. But the Chinese New Year is an exception. A few days in advance, the Tofu Shop will make a lot of tofu. By the 25th, every household will take soybeans and go to the Tofu Shop to change tofu.
Tofu at that time didn't contain any chemical additives. Soymilk is ground by a donkey pulled by a stone mill, just like the picture above, then boiled and filtered with a big cloth bag, then made with plaster, and then extruded with bricks. At that time, tofu was pure in taste, fragrant and delicious, which was not like tofu on the market now, and it didn't taste like tofu.
twenty-six, go to cut the meat.
On this day, every family will go to the nearby market to buy meat. The reason why I went to buy meat this day, now that I think about it, is probably because there was no refrigerator before. I bought it early, and when my relatives came during the Spring Festival, the meat went bad. It's too late, and killing pigs and sheep can't catch up with the New Year.
when I was a child, people used to get up early to go to the market on this day. Get up early to buy, so that you can buy fat. At that time, people were greedy, so fat meat became a hot commodity. It's not like now. I'm usually tired of eating big fish and big meat, and a little fat will be picked out and thrown away when cooking.
but not all families can buy meat on this day. People who are a little poorer may think that the meat on this day is expensive, and then wait day by day. As a result, the price of meat is still high until the thirtieth of the year. At this time, they have to be ruthless and cut a few kilograms of meat to jiaozi or leave some for hospitality. Such a thing happened every year when I was a child, and others would laugh when they knew it. Now that I think about it, a bitter tear.
twenty-seven, kill the stove chicken.
despite this statement, in fact, few people actually killed chickens on this day. At that time, the chicken was the baby of the family. Usually, the eggs laid were left to the elders to supplement their bodies or sold to supplement their families. Almost no one would be willing to kill the chicken.
if you can eat a few pieces of chicken when you visit relatives, it must be a guest of honor. Anyway, when I was a child, I didn't eat chicken many times.
twenty-eight, decals.
The decals mentioned here are actually couplets. On this day, every household will put couplets on the gate and yard, inside and outside the house, except which family has something to do in three years.
At that time, I was very particular about posting couplets, and almost all of them were written by myself. If you can't write, you should also find someone who can write in your village and ask them to write a few pairs. In addition to the gate, couplets should also be posted on the door of each room.
when you are in the courtyard, you should post a few "spring scenery of the whole courtyard"; On the tree at the door, you should post "Go out to see happiness"; Where food is stored, it is labeled as "five grains are abundant"; In the kitchen fire room, paste "Be careful with the lights"; On the water tank, stick "flowing continuously"; On the shelf car, stick "travel thousands of miles a day and 8 at night"; On the bedside, stick "good health"; I have to write a lot of "fu" words and paste them all in the corners.
Our family's couplets are all written by ourselves. Usually it's our brothers, each of whom writes a pair. Then, it was copied by my father and my third brother, who had better calligraphy. Perhaps because of this habit, every Spring Festival, I will pay special attention to other people's couplets, and when I meet a good one, I will use my notes to learn. Now that I think about it, this is also a form of literary expression.
twenty-nine, go and drink.
drinking is a traditional custom and etiquette of the Chinese nation. Of course, wine is indispensable for the Spring Festival. When I was a child, there was no red wine, but every family would buy some white wine and yellow wine more or less. The reason why we say "drinking wine" is because most families couldn't afford bottles of white wine at all, so they used plastic pots or pottery pots to buy some bulk wine at the agency to entertain their guests.
At that time, it was customary to heat the wine with an alcohol stove before drinking. Generally, eight small wine cups were placed on the table, but they were not big, unlike the small wine cups in hotels now, where there were as many as one or two cups, which seemed to be purely for promoting wine.
at that time, drinking was family. It is best for the host family to entertain guests when they are drunk, otherwise it will be suspected of poor hospitality.
thirty, pinch your nose.
The term "pinching your nose" here refers to Bao jiaozi, where we also call jiaozi "flat food", but this term is rarely said now.
As for why you want to eat jiaozi on the 3th night, this custom has a long history. It is said that jiaozi is shaped like an ingot, which means making a fortune. There is also a saying that "jiao" and "jiao" are homophonic, which means happy reunion and good luck. Some people will put a coin in one of them when they buy jiaozi. Whoever eats it is the luckiest one. Of course, it seems that this practice is neither scientific nor hygienic. Let's not do this again.
Apart from eating jiaozi in the evening, lunch is probably the most abundant in our family. Parents will stew a large pot of meat and radish in a large iron pot. This is the only meal in a year. You can eat as much meat as you can. At that time, I was gluttonous, and I was very picky about fat. I often couldn't eat much, so I felt very uncomfortable.
the first day, the arch ridge.
The "arching the spine" here actually refers to bowing, which means to pay a New Year call.
On this day, children should not only pay New Year greetings to their parents, but also to other elders. At that time, we didn't have red envelopes, except for a piece of octagonal given by our parents, most other elders would give some sweets.
On the morning of the first day of junior high school, it is also a custom not to wake someone up. So we will all stay up until 12 o'clock on the 3 th night. Because at this time, many people began to shoot. Our children's home, the greatest pleasure is to run from house to house to pick up guns. Then everyone got together to see who picked up the most guns and who picked up the most guns. Then, break the firecrackers and stab the fire.
at that time, before anyone started shooting, a few zero guns were fired, which was equivalent to sending a signal to everyone: our family was ready to shoot, and everyone was welcome to pick it up. Often, when we hear which one has fired zero guns, we will run like crazy to seize the favorable terrain. Sometimes, when the main house is left standing, a large number of firecrackers will be jumped down. At this time, everyone will pile up together and try their best to hold them in their arms. Some of them are still ringing in their pockets. Of course, hand injuries are also common. But everyone seems to be very strong. Just wrap it in a cloth and continue to grab it.
On the first day, there is another custom: going to the grave. Generally, the elders lead the younger generation to their own graves, offering and burning paper for each grave one by one. The offering must have a few pieces of cooked fat, with one or two pairs of chopsticks inserted on it, and ten steamed buns placed on each grave. After the offering is set, paper burning and shooting will begin.
when I was a child, I didn't know the true meaning of ancestor worship. Now I understand that it is the elders who are giving us a truth of being a man from generation to generation: one cannot forget one's roots.
on the second day of the lunar new year, go back to my parents' home.
From the second day of junior high school to the fifteenth day of the first month, it is time to visit relatives. The relatives who left on the first day were, of course, the parents' family, that is, the children's uncle's house. If there are no new guests, my uncle's house must go.
when a daughter goes out to her parents' house, she must bring one thing, that is, a gift slip, preferably one with a kidney. Just mix a few other things casually, but be sure to have even numbers. Moreover, if there are several brothers in the bride's family, we should prepare some gifts.
When a girl returns to her parents' home for the first year, she usually brings heavier gifts. Of course, the red envelope given by her family in the first year must be very big.
on the fifth day, Nanyang people call it "Breaking Five".
this morning, people can throw out the garbage accumulated in the past few days during the Spring Festival. People get up at dawn, set off firecrackers and clean up. Firecrackers are put from the inside out, and they walk outside the door as they are put. It is said that all unlucky things and all monsters will be blown out. In addition, this day is also the birthday of the legendary god of wealth, and it is also an auspicious day to welcome the god of wealth.
the lantern festival is actually a lantern festival.
when we were young, we could still have a great time, although there was no light show. Rubbing brush bumps is fashionable in our place on this day. It is to tie up the brush bumps that are usually used to brush pots with ropes, and at night, go to a large open space in the village, light it and play with it. Often, many tricks can be thrown out, including figure-eight, round and various ways of playing. If there are no bumps in the brush, you should also tie a handful of wheat straw with a rope to play with. Of course, adults will watch in case of fire.
the year is not really over until the fifteenth day of the first month.
At that time, although the material was not plentiful, everyone was very happy.