Nostalgia Prose: The Spring Festival in Childhood

Text: Wei Yuezhong

In a few days, it will be the Spring Festival. In this city, in this city where I live, all kinds of lanterns are hung high in every corner of the city, and the jasmine flower market, New Year oranges, couplets, etc. are also in full swing on the streets. At this time, it makes me remember Like a tide, those old events around the Spring Festival flooded into my mind.

In childhood memories, they are always so sweet, cute, and so unforgettable. When I was a child, my companions and I grabbed every unlit firecracker and then lit it. Each firecracker lit up the entire night sky, making us excited and even screaming. When we were children, we could always wear new ones bought by our mother during the New Year. When it comes to clothes, compare them with your peers to see who has the prettiest one. The childish yet cute look is all written on your face. Also, use your New Year’s money to buy fake pistols, and go to the mountains behind your home to shoot birds to see who can do it best. I play the most, but I usually come up empty, but it’s still fun. The years are like running water, but these little memories are flowing in my mind and will never stop flowing.

When it comes to Chinese New Year, my favorite is the sweet potato pancakes made by my mother ("sweet potato pancakes" in local dialect). My mother's handiwork can be regarded as a masterpiece. Sweet potato pancakes bear my mother's love for me. My mother knows that I love to eat them, so she makes them for me every year. Although I work in a foreign country and will not go back to celebrate the New Year, my mother will insist on making it and ask acquaintances or relatives to bring me some. The small sweet potato pancake brings me a lot of love. Speaking of this sweet potato cake, every step of its preparation is very strict and very particular. If you are not careful, the taste will not be delicious. When I was a child, I liked to sit by the kang. While I was lighting the fire for my mother, I watched her flipping the sweet potatoes back and forth in the pot with a big shovel. She would sprinkle some sesame seeds and add sugar from time to time. Slowly, waves of fragrance filled my nostrils. , my saliva almost flowed out. But I want to eat it, but if the sweet potato filling is left standing for a long time and is turned unevenly, the taste will change. Mother usually doesn't allow us to eat it. At this time, I kept pestering my mother to eat, but helplessly, my mother pointed her finger at my head angrily and said, "Greedy boy!" Then she took a shovel and cut a small piece for me to eat, fresh out of the pot. The sweet potato filling burned my tender little lips. But that happiness, when I was there, I was so greedy and silly, it’s hard to forget.

In addition to being able to eat this sweet potato pancake during the Chinese New Year, you can also enjoy the indelible memory of waiting for New Year’s Eve in the countryside.

The Chinese New Year in the countryside is different from that in the city. There are no high-rise buildings in the city, and there is no bustling scene in the market. Instead, some are simple and some are just sweet in the countryside. On the night of New Year's Eve, apart from the family gathering around the table to eat a big meal and watch the Spring Festival Gala, the most interesting thing is to stay up until midnight just to see the firecrackers and fireworks. Fathers or uncles hang firecrackers on bamboo poles. , lit and hung high, the firecrackers crackled... And in the small yard, watching the various beautiful fireworks blooming in the sky with our brothers and sisters, we children cheered and the sound of firecrackers and Scenes of beautiful fireworks blooming, the New Year has arrived, and we are one year older!

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, we got up early. The adults had already made glutinous rice balls, put the glutinous rice balls and the ducks and chickens made on New Year’s Eve in baskets, and brought paper money, candles, incense and other things. We children also followed the adults and went to the clan to worship our ancestors and pray for our family's safety, wealth, success in everything, etc. in the coming year. And this morning, we children also paid New Year greetings to our elders and received New Year's money. The elders were also happy from ear to ear. Although their life was very poor, they were very happy. After breakfast, the neighbors gathered together and went door-to-door to pay New Year greetings...

The years passed like water, year by year, and the fun stories of the Spring Festival in childhood were scattered. The memories that remain in my mind are always beautiful and will never fade with the passage of time. Now, the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and I can smell the strong flavor of the New Year again...