The taste of the new year is gradually drifting away

In some exquisite poems, I read a sentence like this, "Drips of water wear through stones. What wears through stones is not water, but time." The passage of time is like water, and drops of water wear through stones! Those years were made into soft colored satin, and the plain brocade walked leisurely through the years, like the annual rings on the tree stump. The years passed away, but the imprints were left behind!

Outside the window, the sound of firecrackers is heard, and in the days that are getting further and further away, the taste of the new year changes from strong to light, from the desire of youth to the indifference of middle age. Perhaps what changes is not the taste of the new year, but the taste of the new year. It’s the state of mind! The flavor of the New Year traveling through time is mixed with family affection. The lights of thousands of homes, going home to celebrate the New Year, is the call of family affection! Follow the path of memory, use some nostalgic thoughts, and pursue the flavor of the year in time!

In childhood, the flavor of the New Year was the new clothes worn during the Spring Festival; the flavor of the New Year was the New Year’s money given by adults; the flavor of the New Year was the sound of firecrackers; the flavor of the New Year was the agreement with friends to get up early on the first day of the new year; the flavor of the New Year was the use of New Year’s money brings the excitement of snacks; New Year’s Eve is a feast for the whole family to get together! The strong and innocent feeling of childhood seems to be too far away and has become a vague memory! Standing outside the threshold of time, I can no longer go back to those distant years, I can only miss, miss, miss!

When I was a boy, the flavor of the year was the busy figure of my mother! The taste of the year is happy and sweet in the mother's hard work. Nowadays, smelling the smell of the drifting away years, it is more of a yearning and reminiscence!

"Laba Festival is held to offer sacrifices to the stove, and the New Year is here." After drinking Laba porridge, it's the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month before you know it! The twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "Little Year", is also the day when people worship stoves. On the day of worshiping the Stove, my mother tied a horse with a sorghum pole to serve as a mount for the Stove Lord back to heaven. The horse that my mother tied was lifelike, with all its parts in proportion, and the tail of the horse was still a little curly. Neighbors would also ask my mother to tie another horse. For her. On this day, people also eat candies dedicated to the Kitchen God. The kind of candy that almost sticks off the teeth is to make the Stove God "say good things to God and bring good luck when he returns to the palace." If it sticks to the Stove God's mouth, he will not be able to talk nonsense.

As soon as the twelfth lunar month enters, my mother begins to make white noodles for the New Year! At that time, wheat produced in their own fields was used to grind flour. My mother would find a sunny day, wash the wheat with water, squeeze out the water with a clean cloth, then dry it in the sun, put it into bags, and use a cart to grind the wheat. Usually around the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, after cleaning the kitchen, my mother will start preparing steamed buns for the New Year, making red bean paste buns, steamed buns, and flower cakes! Because there were a lot of steamed buns made during the Chinese New Year, my mother got up before dawn, cooked red beans and sweet potatoes, mashed them with a wooden hammer, added sugar, and mixed them into bean paste filling. Vegetable buns are usually stuffed with carrots, and can also be stuffed with some meat fillings. During the Spring Festival, we also make jujube cakes, garnished with red dates and made into the shape of flowers. At that time, I always liked to take out the dates from the flower cakes and eat them. "This kind of jujube flower cake is also a custom in my hometown. It is a food specially made by the mother-in-law for the girl during the Chinese New Year. It is also a gift brought home to the girl when she returns to her parents' home on the second day of the Lunar New Year. The meaning of the jujube flower cake is very simple. , Mothers want their daughters to grow younger and more beautiful like flowers in the new year, and to have a prosperous work and life. "

After finishing the New Year's cake. , then it’s time to cook the meat. I loved eating boiled bone meat when I was a kid. At that time, I was responsible for removing the meat from the bones, and I often ate while removing it. After the meat was removed, I was almost full. Later, I always miss the taste of meat at that time. The meat I eat at other times is never as fragrant as the New Year! After the meat is cooked, mother will make crispy meat and fried meatballs. Usually my father would cook the big pot, and they would just let me do some running around. Sometimes, my mother would make meatballs, and I would watch her make them, and I could also eat delicious meatballs. After making these meals, my mother would ask me to send some to my sister in the city. My sister would not be able to make these. A mother's heart cares about her children, whether she is a son by her side or a daughter who is not by her side! Until I got married, my mother was busy with this early and let me eat New Year buns and crispy pork before returning to my husband's house. She always loved us so carefully.

My mother did all these things, and finally she had to make dumplings. I made dumplings with meat stuffing and ate them at noon on New Year’s Eve, and I made dumplings with vegetarian stuffing and ate them on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. I also pray for a peaceful and peaceful year! There is another custom in my hometown. On New Year's Eve, we scatter sesame poles in the yard and put door sticks outside and inside the door. This may also have the meaning of driving away evil spirits and avoiding disasters.

Until the flavor of the New Year is stilled in my mother’s black and white photos, I no longer long for the New Year and no longer like any festivals related to reunion. The word reunion can no longer be found in my life dictionary. The kind face is stranded on a page of photo paper. When we see each other again, the photo frame is always cold and can no longer touch the temperature! When I go back to my parents' home to visit relatives, I can't help but stare at my mother's portrait quietly, tears dripping in my heart, not letting it flow down. New Year is sometimes a sad word. The closest ones are far away, and the happy flavor of New Year is also peeled off in the tunnel of time!

Go home to celebrate the New Year. After getting married, your husband’s house will be the home you return to during the New Year! Years ago, as soon as I took the annual vacation, I hurriedly packed my clothes, braided the long hair on one shoulder into a simple braid, put on a thick down jacket, and went back to my husband's house with my wife and son to celebrate the New Year. Perhaps because the home has been heated in recent years, I am afraid of the cold in my husband's house in the countryside. Every year, I always have disputes with my lover because of the number of days I stay at my husband's house. Therefore, I am reluctant to celebrate the New Year in my heart.

Now that it’s here, let’s make peace with it. Sometimes the stay of these few days is regarded as a war, a war against the cold and dust. My husband's family had to cook a big pot with bellows and firewood. I felt like an unkempt peasant woman, with her face covered in fireworks that smeared her face. Maybe this was the real life of fireworks. Fortunately, this is only one of the few days in a year. If I faced this kind of life every day, would I be like those women who work in the fields, facing the loess and turning their back to the sky, passing through the vicissitudes of life? I am a farmer's daughter and a farmer's daughter-in-law, but I have never worked in the fields. What the soil brings me is a distant view of the hard work of my fathers! Today, I am living in my own way somewhere in the city, feeling grateful! The small city is not far from my hometown. I go home every two or three weeks and feel the natural wind and the smell of growth in the soil!

My mother-in-law is a kind-hearted old man and a person with traditional Chinese thoughts. She believes that there are gods in heaven and earth, and she must burn incense and worship gods during the New Year. At 5 a.m. on the first day of the first lunar month, we got up early. My mother-in-law wanted to make offerings to the gods of heaven and earth at home, light incense, and kowtow devoutly, asking the gods to bless the family. I didn't understand these customs, so I kept quiet and just helped to get some things.

Every Spring Festival, my mother-in-law has to work for more than an hour before setting off firecrackers and eating dumplings. If the old lady is willing to do this, we can only be happy to accompany her in her work. After dinner, it’s time to go to the neighbor’s house nearby to pay New Year greetings. After walking around for a while, I felt warm again. At noon during the Spring Festival, the whole family has to eat together. The children in the family are getting older and bigger, and the dining table has become much smaller. There is a lively atmosphere in the New Year atmosphere, as well as mother-in-law’s advice. Not used to the cold in the countryside, my mother-in-law said that there is no need to get up early in the morning, just make a meal and then get up. I only live at my in-laws' house for a few days in a year, so I try my best to do whatever I can. It doesn't matter if I'm a little dirty or a little tired. We spent most of the annual vacation at my mother-in-law's house. Perhaps the time we spent together felt short. My mother-in-law always felt that the stay was too short and didn't want us to return to the city too early, so she came to the city to stay for a few days. , she would say, there are so many annual goods at home, and relatives are coming, so they can’t get out.

After eating glutinous rice balls, the New Year is truly celebrated after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, also known as the Lantern Festival, supermarkets will sell glutinous rice balls, "Selling glutinous rice balls and selling glutinous rice balls. Brother Xuan's glutinous rice balls are round and round. A bowl of glutinous rice balls is full and full. You can buy a bowl for thirty cents." On this day we will I bought glutinous rice balls in the supermarket and went back to my husband's house. I drank glutinous rice balls and then came back to watch the fireworks in the evening. I often lament the beauty of fireworks, which are fleeting and bloom brilliantly, burning myself and beautifying the sight of others. On the Lantern Festival, there will be lantern riddles in the square, and groups of people come and go, seeming to be still intoxicated in the atmosphere of the New Year.

In Years Like a Flowing Time, I wrote down some flowing words, words related to the taste of the year, maybe words related to mood. In my small world; in the small town in southwestern Shandong where I live, Year after year passed like this. Maybe it’s like this every year, and the scenery is similar, or maybe it’s because the living standards are improving day by day, which makes the strong flavor of the New Year a lot lighter in the past. The flavor of the New Year is more of a yearning for family affection, yearning for the warmth of home; yearning for the source of life. Place, year, home, relatives, the drifting away flavor of the New Year filters out many material elements, but precipitates family affection, giving a warm excuse for the rush of life, that is, go home to celebrate the New Year, and go home often!