Excerpts from the theme of Looking for the Taste of the Year (4 essays by famous artists)

1, Lao She's Spring Festival in Beijing

According to the old rules in Beijing, the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) begins almost at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. "Pull up Bala and freeze to death in western Western jackdaw", which is the coldest time of the year. However, as soon as the severe winter is over, it will soon be spring, and people have not reduced their enthusiasm for the Spring Festival and the Spring Festival because of the cold. On Laba Festival, people will eat Laba porridge at home and in temples.

This special porridge is used to worship ancestors, but when you think about it, it is a pride of agricultural society-this porridge is made of all kinds of rice, all kinds of beans and all kinds of dried fruits (almonds, walnuts, melon seeds, litchi meat, lotus seeds, peanuts, raisins, water chestnut rice ...). This is not porridge, but a small agricultural exhibition.

Laba will also soak Laba garlic on this day. On this day, garlic cloves are put in high vinegar, sealed and eaten in jiaozi for Chinese New Year. By the end of the year, garlic is soaked like jade, and vinegar has some spicy taste, which makes people want to eat more jiaozi. In Beijing, during the Spring Festival, every family eats jiaozi.

Since Laba, shopkeepers have stepped up the purchase of new year's goods, and more stalls have been added on the street-those selling Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures, honey products, daffodils and so on. Only in this season. These stalls, which catch up with the new year's goods, have taught the children to have a fast heartbeat. In hutongs, the shouting sounds are more complicated than usual, and some only appear in the twelfth lunar month, such as selling constitutional books, pine branches, barley, rice cakes and so on.

When there was an emperor, schoolchildren didn't go to school on the 19th of the twelfth lunar month and took annual leave in January. When children prepare for the Spring Festival, the first thing they do is almost to buy mixed food. This is made of various dried fruits (peanuts, dates, hazelnuts, chestnuts, etc.). ) mix candied fruit. Ordinary ones have skins and advanced ones have no skins-for example, ordinary ones use hazelnuts with skins and advanced ones use hazelnuts.

Children like to eat these odds and ends. Even if they don't have jiaozi to eat, they have to buy mixed food. Their second big thing is to buy firecrackers, especially boys. I'm afraid the third thing is to buy toys-kites, diabolos, harmonicas, etc. -And New Year pictures.

Children are anxious, adults are nervous. They must prepare everything they eat and drink for the New Year. They must also make new shoes and clothes for children quickly to show the new atmosphere of Vientiane in the new year.

This is almost a "rehearsal" to celebrate the New Year on the 23rd. In the old society, firecrackers sounded at every household of the king, and the paper image of the kitchen god was burned to ashes with the firecrackers, which was euphemistically called sending the kitchen god to heaven. A few days ago, there were many people selling maltose and glutinous rice sugar in the street. The shape of sugar was rectangular or melon-shaped. According to the old saying: the kitchen god has sticky sugar on his mouth, and even if he goes to heaven, he will not report the bad things at home to the jade emperor. Now, there are still selling sugar, but it is only for everyone to enjoy, and it is no longer confined to the mouth of the chef.

After twenty-three, everyone will be busy, and the New Year will arrive in a blink of an eye. Before New Year's Eve, every household should put up Spring Festival couplets and have a general cleaning, which is called general cleaning. We must prepare enough meat, chicken, fish, vegetables and rice cakes for at least a week-according to the old custom, most shopkeepers close their doors in Wutian Gate until the sixth day of the first month. If you don't prepare food for the next few days, it's not easy to make up temporarily.

Also, in the old society, my mother said that it was unlucky to cut everything that should be cut on New Year's Eve, in order to save the knives from the first day to the fifth day of the first month. This means superstition, but it also shows that we are really peace-loving people, and we don't even want to move a kitchen knife at the age of one.

New Year's Eve is really lively. Every family is scrambling to make new year's dishes, and there is wine and meat everywhere. Men, women and children all put on new clothes, put up red couplets outside the door, and put up various New Year pictures in the house. All the houses were lit all night, and guns were fired day and night. People who work outside will go home for a family reunion dinner and worship their ancestors unless they have to. That night, no one slept except very young children, but everyone stayed up late.

The scene of New Year's Day is very different from that of New Year's Eve: on New Year's Eve, the street was crowded with people; On the first day of New Year's Day, all the shops put up wooden boards, and the firecrackers set off last night were piled in front of the door, and the whole city was resting.

Men go out to visit relatives and friends before noon. Women receive guests at home. At the same time, there are many temples open for people to visit inside and outside the city. Vendors set up stalls outside the temple, selling tea, food and various toys. Dazhong Temple outside the North City, Baiyun Temple outside the West City and the Temple of Fire (Long Hall) in the South City are the most famous. However, the first two or three days after the opening of the temple were not very lively, because people were still busy celebrating each other's New Year and had no time and time.

On the fifth and sixth day of the fifth lunar month, the temple fair began to be beautiful, and the children went to visit it with great enthusiasm, in order to see the wild interests outside the city, ride donkeys and buy those unique toys for the New Year. There are arrogant racing cars in the square outside Baiyun Temple. In the old days, it was said that there were camel races. These competitions are not about who is the first and who is the second, but about performing the graceful postures and skills of mules, horses and riders in front of the audience.

Most shops open their doors and set off firecrackers on the sixth day. From dawn to early morning, the sound of guns in the whole city continued. Although Zhang has opened, everyone is not very busy except the shops selling food and other important daily necessities. The guys in the shop can take turns visiting temples, flyovers and operas.

Yuanxiao (Tangyuan) is listed, and the climax of the New Year is the Lantern Festival (the 13th to 17th day of the first month). New Year's Eve is lively, but there is no moonlight; What about the Lantern Festival? It happens to be the bright moon in the sky. Decent New Year's Day. Bright red Spring Festival couplets are posted in front of every household, and people are wearing new clothes, but they are not beautiful enough. Lantern Festival, lanterns are hung everywhere, and the whole street is like a happy event, brightly lit and beautiful.

Hundreds of lanterns are hung in famous old shops, some are all glass, some are all horns, and some are gauze lanterns; Some are colorful, and some are all the stories of painting a dream of red mansions or outlaws of the marsh. ?

At that time, it was also an advertisement; As soon as the light is hung, anyone can go shopping; Lighting candles in the light at night will attract more people. This advertisement is not vulgar. Dried fruit shops have to do a lot of miscellaneous business during the Lantern Festival, so they often make all kinds of ice lanterns, or make one or two green dragons with wheat seedlings to attract customers.

Besides hanging lights, there are flowers in the square. A judge at the stake was lit in the Town God Temple, and the flame spit out from the mouth, ears, nose and eyes of the judge's clay sculpture. Hang sky lanterns in the park and fly into the sky like a superstar.

Men and women come out to step on the moon, watch lights and watch fireworks; The people in the street were crowded and motionless. In the old society, women didn't go out easily, and they could get some freedom during the Lantern Festival.

Children buy all kinds of fireworks to set off, even if they don't go to the street to be naughty, they can still play with sound and light at home. There are also lights at home: lanterns-palace lanterns, all kinds of paper lanterns, and gauze lanterns, with small bells inside, which will jingle when the time comes. Everyone must eat dumplings, too. This is indeed a beautiful and happy day.

Blink of an eye, we arrived at the residual light temple. Students go to school and adults go to work as usual. The New Year ends on the 19th day of the first month. The twelfth lunar month and the first lunar month are the most leisure times for everyone in rural society, such as pigs, cows and sheep. They are all growing up, so everyone has to kill pigs and sheep after a year of hard work. After the Lantern Festival, the weather turned warmer and everyone went to work again. Although Beijing is a city, it also celebrates the New Year with rural society. It's too noisy.

In the old society, Chinese New Year was inseparable from superstition. Laba porridge, Guandong sugar and jiaozi on New Year's Eve should be offered to the Buddha before people can enjoy them. Meet god on new year's eve; On the second day of the new year, the God of Wealth will be sacrificed and eat Yuanbao soup (wonton). And some people will go to the Temple of Wealth to borrow paper ingots to burn incense. On the eighth day of the first month, the old people should be lucky and pray for their longevity.

So the biggest waste at that time was the money to buy wax paper horses. Now that everyone is not superstitious, we can save this money and use it in useful places.

It is particularly worth mentioning that today's children are only happy for the New Year and are not influenced by that superstition. They are only happy, not afraid-afraid of gods and ghosts. Perhaps, the Spring Festival is not as lively as before, but it is so sober and healthy. In the past, people celebrated the New Year with the blessings of ghosts and gods. Now that everyone's work is over, everyone should have a happy New Year.

2, "The Taste of Chinese New Year" Author: Zhou Youbin

In my memory, the air of Spring Festival is full of festive flavor. Less than the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole village has a strong New Year flavor, with annual dramas, social fires and gongs and drums. Occasionally there are "two kicks" or crisp firecrackers. People who sell fireworks or just bought fireworks are trying firecrackers. At the end of the year, the air in the village was filled with the smell of fireworks.

As far as I can remember, the air during the Spring Festival contains the sweetness of stove candy. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, after the Lunar New Year, the folk saying is that the Kitchen God will "report his work" to the Jade Emperor on this day, and on this night, he will present the Kitchen God's candy to make the Kitchen God sweet and "speak well of heaven". Of course, it is nominally a sweet kitchen god, but it is actually a sweet child's mouth.

In my memory, the air of Chinese New Year is filled with the strong fragrance of frying and cooking. We have twenty-five grinding bean curd, twenty-six to cut meat, twenty-seven to kill chickens, twenty-eight handfuls of flour and twenty-nine steamed buns. On the morning of New Year's Eve, we must arrange jiaozi. The smell of steamed rice cakes, fried oil and food, boiled white meat and chopped meat came from every household. ...

When I woke up in the early morning of New Year's Day, firecrackers to sacrifice others had sounded sporadically. Open your eyes and feel that everything is brand new. There are new houses, new year pictures, new window grilles ... and Spring Festival couplets that can be seen when you look up, such as "looking up to see the blessings" and "lying in the blessed land". Because of the arrival of the Spring Festival, everything you see every day seems to be given new meaning, and everything becomes beautiful in your eyes. Old clothes taken off at night were packed by my mother to a place where I couldn't find them. Everyone's new clothes are neatly placed on the pillows, and we can smell the faint fragrance of the new cotton cloth. All this was put away by our mother after we fell asleep.

Sacrifice is the first thing in the new year. The incense has been lit and the house is full of fragrance. Mother warned everyone with solemn eyes, don't laugh, don't talk loudly, and the atmosphere in the whole room was solemn and dignified. Sacrifice to heaven and earth first, then to the god of wealth, then to the kitchen god, and finally to the ancestors.

Of course, the place to worship heaven is the most magnificent. There is a table in the courtyard, and the incense burns to five feet. All kinds of tributes will be placed on it: head meat, dried fruit, steamed dumplings, steamed dumplings just out of the pot ... there will be more abundant chicken, duck and fish, yellow paper money will be burned, and my mother will stir it with a stick while praying, and I can hear it sporadically.

During the sacrificial ceremony, the boys began to set off firecrackers, and their firecrackers were intertwined with firecrackers from far and near, which pushed the festive atmosphere of the New Year to a climax.

3. Remembering the Spring Festival (published in Putian Overseas Chinese Town Times Hulan Wen Yuan on February 25th).

Author: Xu Huaizhong

The Spring Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. It can be said that it is by far the longest festival in the world. There are all kinds of tea parties to celebrate the Spring Festival before the Spring Festival. Before and after the Lantern Festival, there is another person who worships the old for a long time. It is not only long, but also rich in content, and the festive atmosphere is extremely strong. It embodies auspicious and peaceful cultural heritage and deep family affection, and is a vivid display of China's "harmony" culture. During the Spring Festival, every household posted Spring Festival couplets, men, women and children were beaming, and firecrackers exploded, which was a warm spread and spread of the Spring Festival atmosphere.

This year's Spring Festival, children and grandchildren from other places came to Rongcheng for the New Year, which was very lively. After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, they all went back. My parents wanted to stay, but they had to give up because it was important to go to work. From this, I realized the mood before my parents died: at that time, I worked in other places, rarely went back to my hometown to spend the New Year with my parents, and I also went home to enjoy the joy of the stove, and I only stayed for a few days. Before leaving, my mother always nagged: I don't know if you bought all the tickets, or I'll keep you for another two days.

Now that my parents have passed away, I will reunite with my family for the New Year and experience the feelings of my elders. Every Spring Festival, I can't help but recall the scene of spending the Spring Festival at home when I was a child. Although my parents were not well off at that time, they always tried their best to let their children have a good year, add new clothes, give lucky money and cook vegetables. Whether you can live a good year seems to be the standard to measure your parents' ability. Eat well, play well and dress well, all of which are auspicious words. Only in this festival can we fully create a harmonious atmosphere, which combines all kinds of nostalgia, affection and affection. The Spring Festival can be said to be a pro-plot.

In the new era of reform and opening up, the Spring Festival is also more innovative in the voice of promoting excellent traditional culture. However, some people are ringing the "Valentine's Day" in foreign countries. I also hope that China will have its own "Valentine's Day", such as Lantern Festival or Tanabata as its own "Valentine's Day". Tanabata is the legendary day when cowherd and weaver girl meet. Qin Guan, a famous poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote in his classical poems: "Clouds are smart, flying stars spread grievances, and silver and Chinese are dark." On the seventh day of autumn dew and autumn, it is time to meet, mostly those who are together in the world, but the appearance of husband and wife. /tenderness is like water, courtesy is like a dream, and I am willing to go home from the bridge. If the two love each other for a long time, sooner or later. "("Magpie Bridge Fairy ")

Watching and swimming lanterns in the Lantern Festival is an emotional activity in the Spring Festival. Last year, I had a party with a relative who was going to settle in a foreign country at the riverside restaurant during the Lantern Festival. Outside the window, the bright moon is in the sky and fireworks are flying in the air. As the saying goes: "Clouds cover the mid-autumn moon, and rain hits the Lantern Festival", but this year's Lantern Festival is so bright. Really: "I will go to the bottom of the river next year and think quietly that the moonlight is like water." Where are the people who came to see the moon together? The scenery is vaguely like last year. "Suddenly in joy, I feel a little gloomy. Imagination: Recently rereading A Dream of Red Mansions, I feel that the author's genius lies in writing the tragic feelings revealed by the characters on the occasions that can best reflect the prosperity or appreciate the beautiful scenery.

For example, Jia Fei went back to the province to spend the Lantern Festival. At that time, the Grand View Garden had been completed, and the cigarettes in the garden were full of colors, which could not be described as peaceful and prosperous. However, Jia Fei Yuan Chun only sobbed and cried when meeting with the relatives such as Jia Mu, while others were "silent" for a long time. Jia forced a smile and comforted her grandmother and husband: "I was sent to that shady place that day and went home to rest for a while today. I didn't joke, but cried. I don't know how long it will take to leave later! " Speaking of which, I can't help choking again.

The author wrote many times the word "cry" and the word "tears like rain", which was the most brilliant time. Another example is "Jia Zheng's sad words about riddles". This time, I wrote about Baochai's birthday, acting and solve riddles on the lanterns. During the celebration, Jia Zheng saw the "firecrackers" made by Jia Fei and other riddles such as "kites" and "sea lanterns", which were ominous. In his mind, he felt that things like "more boring and sad" were worthy of being the masterpiece of the author of A Dream of Red Mansions. This does not mean that "happiness" must be "sadness", but writing people's "true feelings" is the most touching.

Recall the Spring Festival and enjoy the element of "love". Although there is a slogan on TV: "Be a person without feelings", it also shows the importance of being a person with feelings. Another way is that old people are more affectionate. This can be said to be a true portrayal of the mentality of the elderly. Just like a great writer like Grandma Bing Xin, the older she gets, the more "love" she has. Her famous saying: "With love, there is everything". Old people and their families celebrate the Spring Festival with unforgettable feelings: affection, nostalgia, and flesh and blood intertwined. Recalling the Spring Festival is like eating Putian olives, which is sweeter, and drinking Guanyin tea, which is more fragrant and memorable.

4, "New Year in the provincial capital"

Author: Ye Xin

I used to greet the Spring Festival happily in the alleys of Shanghai, holding the lucky money rarely given by adults in my pocket, thinking about what kind of good books to choose from in the bookstore for the New Year, and my heart was full of longing, so I was happier. I lit one small firecracker after another, and the sound was crunchy in the sky. However, what impressed me most in my memory was the countless tickets at home, large and small, with the arrival of the New Year.

Buy gas tickets, meat tickets, clothes tickets and tofu tickets. When the Chinese New Year approaches, either increase tickets or announce that the same tickets can buy twice as much food, especially sugar tickets, which is definitely an increase. In order to celebrate the New Year, every household should issue annual tickets and make a set of essential snacks and seasonings for every household in the New Year, such as melon seeds, peanuts, gold needles and fungus, so that everyone can have a good year.

I also look forward to the Spring Festival in the cottage where I jumped the queue. In the twelfth lunar month, when farm work is idle, go and see how the villagers in the mountains prepare for the New Year. Wealthy families invited pig butchers to kill Niannian pigs, but on New Year's Eve, they always went to the street to buy a few Jin of meat and try it. Shan Ye, which is empty, will occasionally sound a sound of firecrackers, accompanied by farmers' suona, bringing a little joy to the Spring Festival.

However, for me, the most unforgettable thing is the Spring Festival in the provincial capital.

From 1969, my family moved from the remote Maotiaogou Hydropower Station to Guiyang, the provincial capital, and lived in Shipolou at the foot of the scenic Qianling Mountain. Although there are still various disappointments in life, for example, the tap water in high-rise buildings often has to wait until midnight to get water. For example, my wife has to travel almost every day at work, but the days have calmed down, and I can safely protect my wife and children and the beautiful scenery of Qianling Mountain. Since the wasted years, novels, love variations and family education novels on the awakening land have been written one after another, and the cornerstone, tug of war, new wine and illegitimate child, which reflect rural life, have all been written.

Because of the rural theme, I often go to the rural areas of Guizhou, and I became familiar with it when I jumped the queue in more than a dozen counties in southern Guizhou, northern Guizhou, Xiuwen, Xifeng and Kaiyang. I know that the remote rural areas that often worried about food and clothing in those years have become better with the implementation of the contract responsibility system of joint production. They can eat white rice and put on one or two new clothes.

They hung a portrait of Deng Xiaoping in their room and sincerely wished Uncle Deng a long and healthy life. Perhaps the first wave of rural reform has had an effect, and the life of the provincial capital has also been greatly improved. In that era when tickets were issued, Guiyang people often complained that their family had never bought meat until May Day this year. I don't know when the meat ticket was cancelled, and the food market was full of meat, and other non-staple foods were dazzling. People are already changing from being full to eating well.

On New Year's Eve, I had just finished writing a novella, pushed open the window and walked onto the balcony. The lights of the mountain city jumped into my eyes, and the magnificent night scene of the Han Dynasty was like a picture scroll. As if an appointment had been made, firecrackers came and went here and there in the provincial capital, and then all firecrackers sounded everywhere in the provincial capital. In a sudden ringing, fireworks jumped into the night sky, fireworks flashed far and near, and the dolls shouted happily:

"New Year, New Year!"

It's really a happy New Year, it's really a happy New Year.

In the sound of firecrackers, every household is in groups of three or five. Firecrackers accompanied the music of CCTV Spring Festival Evening. With the sound of firecrackers, people sent away the past year and ushered in a new year full of prayers and blessings.

That year, during the Spring Festival in the provincial capital, 1983, firecrackers almost never stopped ringing, so that CCTV reported in News Network that Guiyang had the largest sales of firecrackers. On the street outside the south gate, only one day on New Year's Eve, a whole street was covered with red fireworks and firecrackers, and the cleaners had to work overtime to clean the street. How did you know that the news was broadcast?

Amid the noise of firecrackers, it is impossible to write anything on the whole rest day. However, I fully understand in my heart, understand people's psychology of celebrating the New Year, understand people's joy of finally living a good life, and understand that "firecrackers are set off in the old year", so that next year will be better.

This is more than 20 years ago, in the provincial capital for the New Year.

Extended information prose is a narrative literature genre, which expresses the author's true feelings and flexible writing style. The word "prose" probably appeared in the period of Taiping and Xingguo in the Northern Song Dynasty (65438+February 976-165438+9841October).

According to Ci Hai, since the Six Dynasties, in order to distinguish between verse and parallel prose, all prose articles (including historical classics) that don't rhyme or rearrange pairs are collectively called "prose". Then it refers to all literary genres except poetry.

With the development of time, the concept of prose has changed from broad sense to narrow sense and has been influenced by western culture.