Essays on Chinese New Year Prose with Childhood Memories

When I was a child, I often heard my mother say an old saying in Ningbo, "Adults are looking forward to farming, while villains are waiting for the New Year." At that time, I, an ignorant child, really didn't know what the truth was.

When I grew up, I gradually understood the true meaning of this sentence. This is exactly the case: most of our family and neighbors are poor farmers who work long hours and work for others in short shifts. When the farm is busy, they get up early and go out to work to earn money to support their families. During the slack season, they tighten their belts and lead a hard life at home. They just want to eat and wear warm clothes, and never expect to eat and wear beautiful clothes. Everyone lives a dull life day after day. Only on the day when large households open seedling doors to farm, the boss will make brocade balls, buy fish and barbecue for these farmers, short shifts and shepherd boys to have a round meal; What about us children? What I am looking forward to most is the Spring Festival. After the Chinese New Year, every household will make some rice cakes and buy some delicious food. Especially in the first few days of the first month, you can wear new clothes, get lucky money, eat snacks, go to grandma and uncle's house to pay New Year's greetings, and watch the excitement after the lantern team and foreign artists sweeping the floor. Sometimes I can go out to the theatre with my brother and sister, and eat a large piece of fried dough sticks and a cane at a hot wine stall.

Not long after the autumn harvest, the atmosphere of the New Year gradually became strong, and the villagers began to make rice cakes. At that time, every village basically had a special rice cake team, and the team members were all long-term and short-term workers at home during the slack season. They often get together with these people every year, set up tools such as stone mortar, rammer head, large and small table boards, cake printing boards, etc., and provide door-to-door service in the dark according to the owner's agreement. As long as the host family grinds, planes and rubs the rice cake powder, the rice cake master can start making rice cakes when he comes. A big family lets the team do it alone in their own home, and several small families borrow a place to do it together.

Our children are also very happy to make rice cakes. Watching my sister and mother build a fire under the stove, listening to the crackle of dried rape and sesame stalks burning in the stove, they ran in and out like puppies in the rice cake workshop, not only eating the fiery red rice cake balls picked by adults, but also taking away the beautiful things made by the master with rice cakes, such as rabbits, tigers, buffaloes and panlong. My mother said, "When making rice cakes, don't let the children cry or say that they are not delicious." At this time, no matter how naughty we are, adults will not scold us, let alone hit people. It is said that this is for good luck.

Even if you don't cook rice cakes at home, you can eat rice cakes at this time, especially when you are still sleeping in bed in the morning. Someone knocks at the door every day. Someone must have sent rice cakes, because when neighbors make rice cakes, they always send rice cakes to their neighbors with a basket in their hands (there is an old saying in Ningbo that "neighbors change bowls next door, relatives and friends change baskets", and it is extremely normal for neighbors to send delicious things to each other). Most of the rice cake dumplings are stuffed with shredded bamboo shoots and pickles. The best one is crispy in the dark ... With or without stuffing, sleeping in bed and eating hot rice cake jiaozi is still so fascinating today.

In the long and eager expectation, it is really the New Year from the night of offering sacrifices to stoves on December 23rd of the lunar calendar.

The children look forward to the fruit that their mother gave them after the sacrifice. That little expectation can be expected day after day and for a year. Throughout the year, adults will touch their children's heads from time to time and say, "Good boy, I'll give you something to eat for the New Year." I finally look forward to this night, and every household will burn incense and offer sacrifices to the stove. The so-called sacrificial furnace is to put a cup of green tea, light two candles, light three incense sticks and provide four plates of fruit on the smoke channel in front of the kitchen king. Of course, the fruits vary greatly from family to family. Generally, this kind of sacrificial fruit is sent by my grandmother's family. Rich people buy a whole package of sacrificial fruit with red, green and green patterns on the outside from Ningbo. The poor people use their own fried dried rice cakes, sand fried beans, water chestnuts and fat meat to replace them; Slightly better people go to the store to weigh a little sacrificial fruit, such as avocado, black and white sesame candy, red ball and white ball. The next day, the children ate last night's sacrifice. Although the quality is different and a little greedy, I still have a good time. They will comfort themselves and say, "We will buy it next year."

After the sacrifice of the stove, it is necessary to start preparing for the New Year. The first thing is dust removal (cleaning): under the leadership of my mother, our brothers and sisters work together, using brooms, rags and mops. My brother also tied bamboo silk to the long bamboo pole to sweep the dust from the rafters and beams. My mother's head is covered with cloth blue, and we all wear straw hats and straw hats, but the dust in the hut with the arbor still sticks to our faces. The dock by the river is full of neighbors who wash dishes, benches and all kinds of furniture. Although the cold river made everyone's fingers numb, everyone still celebrated with laughter.

Then prepare new year's goods: kill chickens to buy meat. The chicken is a rooster raised at home, and the hen is reluctant to kill it. It is expected to lay eggs next year; Meat must be bought in the market. Our family always buys only a piece of meat as wide as the palm of your hand, and at the same time brings back a bowl of clams that you can't eat at ordinary times, plus eggs that you don't want to eat, all kinds of vegetables that my brother grows, and the juice of .......................................................................... roast chicken and meat that he caught in the water tank when he twisted the river mud is shiny and smells delicious. My mother used it to cook a big pot of rice cake soup and invited several neighbors and uncles and brothers to drink some wine together. Of course, they will also treat us to rice cake soup. My mother said, this is called "dividing the year". Rich people also invited a bodhisattva named "Xi Xi" on the morning of New Year's Eve. When adults say "mat", they always use sacrificial plates painted with red paint to pack food: Li Shitou (pig's head), Yuanbao (made of rice cakes), carp, brown sugar and long noodles. , are pleasing to the eye. Good things symbolize making money and making long noodles. After three firecrackers sounded, we lit a big red candle and bowed down to pray ... because we have nothing, we should accept the old saying: "There is nothing in five watches", which must be avoided.

Snacks are children's favorite during the Spring Festival, but we can't afford them, so we have to use local materials: fried Japanese beans in casserole, dried rice cakes, fat parts (raw millet fried in the pot), water chestnuts (I picked them up barefoot from other people's water chestnuts), and sometimes we buy a few small pieces of sugar and a pack of sweet cake from a small shop. The lucky money given by my mother is firmly under the pillow. Moreover, before going to bed, my mother will put a bowl of rice cake and a bowl of vegetable paste in the rice jar, saying that this is a New Year's meal, and praying to God to bless the family better in the coming year, with food and food. Stick two more door gods on the gate before closing.

It's New Year's Eve, so have a good sleep!

On the first day of the first month, at dawn, the children scrambled to get up as soon as they heard the firecrackers outside, unlike usual. We can't afford to buy firecrackers, so we can only listen to rich people play from a distance (as the saying goes, "it is difficult for people to make a rice cake." People set off firecrackers, and Allah broke them. "It is a true portrayal of our psychology at that time). The so-called new clothes I'm wearing are actually an unpatched gown and old pants worn by my brother. Only one pair of cloth shoes is new, "new A Da, old A Er, old A San, old A Si". Even new clothes without patches feel very good. So welcome the new year happily. After eating the sauce board soup, I have to go out to pay a New Year call. Of course, I will pay a New Year call to my mother first. My mother touched my head and said, "You are one year older! Be obedient in the future. "Then go to the church to worship the ancestor statues hanging above the center (that is, some portraits dressed in Qing costumes), and some people will go to the temple to worship the bodhisattva together. The most interesting thing is to pay New Year greetings to elders and neighbors. Oh! This is a great harvest. The front pocket of this small gown is full of snacks given by adults. Although almost all of them are local products, occasionally there will be a small piece of sugarcane and a few oranges, which will make me ecstatic.

At that time, the most lively was the lantern team of non-governmental organizations, with a class of five or six people, four riding lanterns made of colored paper or cloth, one playing nine gongs and drums tied together high, and four children riding colored horses singing and dancing: "... hey, the lanterns are loud ... the rice cakes are all right!" Watching families will give them some rice cakes, cakes and the like. The front foot sent off a class, and the back foot came again. And "pretending to sweep the floor" A man wore a grass circle on his head, painted his face, dressed as a clown, carried a colored broom, pretended to sweep the floor from east to west and from south to north, and said auspicious words. "DuDu ... Answer ... Sweep eastward, the boss's room is full of dragons ..." Then he begged for some food and change.

On New Year's Day, people generally do not visit relatives and friends, but worship bodhisattvas and ancestors. I began to visit relatives in the second day. At that time, on the country road, you came and went, all married pedestrians with children, carrying nothing more than longan, dates, sugar cane, oranges and other gifts. Ships in the river squeak and sing, and men and women either visit relatives and friends or go to see a play. Every time I go out, my mother always reminds me that I have to pay a New Year call when I go to someone else's house. Be polite when eating. Adults should not move chopsticks, and children should not eat first: chicken gizzards, clams and carp are not allowed to eat; You can only eat one meatball and egg, jiaozi ... when guests come to my house, they eat vegetables in this way. I really don't understand what this is for. Later, I asked my mother: Why are there so many rules for eating vegetables? Mom said: A family will kill a chicken. A chicken has only one sandbag, clams and fish are expensive, and there is only one bowl. What if the guests who come first eat? There are guests behind! We can't eat the rest of the dishes until all the guests have arrived. I heard that some places stew wooden fish and put them on the table to pretend to treat guests.

In the first month, the children at school have a holiday. Winter vacation homework was rare at that time. Friends not only played a lot, but also played for a long time, and adults would not restrict us. So, what can we do? Nothing more than skipping rope, playing marbles, catching, tile bridge (rolling copper plate), chasing, kicking shuttlecock and so on. But because there is a little lucky money in their pockets, many people will buy some "cigarette brands" (similar to the small pictures now) in small shops, and several people will gather together and attach the pictures. Others will buy some "throwing guns" or a gunpowder gun, peel off the matches and put them in, making them scary.

Children are generally not allowed to enter places where adults play mahjong. They played very quietly for fear that the children would make noise. There are also adults who can "dig flowers", and four people sing the names of flowers while playing cards. I've heard it a few times. It's very nice. The most lively thing is that men and women get together to "play nine cards", a pair of 32 bamboo cards, one sitting in the manor and three playing. There are also a group of people behind, some playing manor, some playing, some throwing dice, some standing in the high place opposite the dealer to supervise the scene (they are called "face grabbing"), and more are watching the game. Real name: four notes, eight tables and sixteen faces. Unlike playing mahjong and digging flowers, this game of playing cards is not sitting for hours, but coming and going freely. Some people go home happily when they win money, while others run away after gambling all the money. After you sing, I go on stage, and it's really wave after wave. Mother always warns us; "It's strange to win three hands and lose. Ten bets and ten losses, never gamble! " However, when we look at others so busy, our hearts always itch a little. My mother asked us to play Pai Gow at home: catching dragons, fishing for eight or nine, dismantling dragons ... We didn't gamble, so she gave everyone a handful of fried Japanese beans instead of cash to pay each other, so we ate while playing, and finished eating the beans.

The last activity of the Spring Festival is the 14th night of the first month. When I was a child, I didn't know what the Lantern Festival was, except that we were going to eat Tang Guo in the countryside on the 14th night of the first month (Tangtuan is a rare snack, and only guests can eat it). After eating Tang Guo, the children lit candles with rabbit lanterns, pumpkin lanterns and pentagonal lanterns made by adults themselves, and ran out from each household, saying, "Go in peace, take the big ones to Maoshan." Meet together and walk from one end of the alley to the other, saying it's "catching mice and catching old cats" ... so it's the end of the year.

There is a saying: "Some men make a living and the poor get old." The Spring Festival passed quickly, people grew one year old, and the days returned to the original track. The adults are sighing again: "Alas! It's better to celebrate the New Year than to live! "