Where can I look at the door of a fruit and vegetable supermarket?

Chinese people have always regarded the New Year as a major event for thousands of years. Before the New Year, they have to make a lot of preparations and buy a lot of things, including food, things to use, things to wear, things to play with, things to offer, Dried, fresh, raw and cooked are collectively called "New Year's goods". As soon as Laba Festival is over, Yangzhou is getting ready to celebrate the New Year.

Years ago

There is a saying in Yangzhou that "If you have money but no money, you can celebrate the New Year cleanly." It can be seen that Yangzhou people welcome the New Year not by how rich they are. The first thing is Wash, sweep, and clean. Most people in Yangzhou do their cleaning before the New Year around the 17th and 18th of the twelfth lunar month, so there is a proverb among the people: "On the 17th and 18th, the more you clean, the more you clean." Every household has a stove. In folk belief, where there is a stove, there is a Kitchen God. People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he is the "Nine Heavens East Chef Si Ming Zao" conferred by the Jade Emperor. "Wangfujun" is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is worshiped as the protector of the family. Sending off the stove is commonly known as "Celebrating the Small New Year" among the people. It is usually held at dusk and night. The family goes to the stove first, sets the table, offers incense to the Stove Lord in the shrine on the stove wall, and offers sugar melons and glutinous rice. Rice and other food are provided, and then paper horses made of bamboo strips and fodder for livestock are provided. Sugar melons are offered to the Stove Lord to sweeten his mouth. This kind of stove sugar is a kind of maltose, which is very sticky. It is oblate in shape, so it is called "Tanggua". It is placed outside the house in winter. Because of the severe cold weather, the sugar melon solidifies and has some tiny bubbles inside. It tastes crispy, sweet and crispy, with a unique flavor. The glutinous rice is mixed with pine nuts, peanuts, chestnuts and other dried fruits, symbolizing the Cornucopia or money tree, such sweet glutinous rice cannot be eaten when it is delivered to the stove. It can only be eaten on the seventh day of the first lunar month, which means that you will not be blind. So the whole family gathered around the Stove Lord and prayed: This year is the 23rd again, and I wish to send the Stove Lord off to the west. There are strong horses, there is fodder, and the journey is smooth and safe. The sugar melon offered is sweet. Please say good things to the Jade Emperor. This custom of giving stoves is still maintained by 90% of families in rural Yangzhou. However, in cities, due to the modernization of kitchen utensils, this custom has gradually been forgotten.

After giving away the stove, the purchase and hoarding of New Year goods really started, pasting Spring Festival couplets, door gods, blessing characters, and New Year pictures. These bright red papers with auspicious meanings brought ubiquitous happiness to the New Year. In order to express the joy and enthusiasm, old-style houses with front and back doors often have Spring Festival couplets posted on the front door, and paintings of door gods - Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, two generals in the early Tang Dynasty - are posted on the back door. It is said that when these two door gods are posted on the door, many demons and ghosts will avoid them, and children are both afraid and respectful of these two rather ferocious door gods, which is very interesting. The walls or doors of the house are full of joyful New Year pictures, such as unicorns sending children, harmonious dolls, etc. Most families nowadays replace various colorful New Year pictures with rolls of beautiful and exquisite wall calendars, and "Fu" However, there are more and more characters with the word "福" on them. This is because more and more merchants are willing to put one or two words of "福" in their New Year goods as gifts. The character "福" has to be pasted upside down on doors or windows. When people passing by see it, they will point and say "福" has fallen, then the blessing is really coming.

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, Yangzhou people's enthusiasm for food is reflected in the long-prepared bacon, chicken, salted fish, ham, and sun-dried food. Good sausages and so on were all cut or torn into plates and served on the table. This was the pioneer, followed by all kinds of grilled, boiled, fried and fried foods. There were many varieties and attractive aromas, but no matter What is indispensable on the dining table is taro braised pork. There is a saying that "eating taro at night will keep you from worrying all year round." Among vegetables, Yangzhou people are also very particular about eating water celery, which means that all roads are connected, and vermicelli, which means that the water will flow. , peas, Yangzhou people pronounce them as Andou, which means peace and safety. There are also vegetables and tofu, which mean refreshing and refreshing. People often say that "fish and fire make phlegm, vegetables and tofu keep you safe." It seems that even if you can let go At such an important time when the belly is full of food and drink, people do not forget to have a reasonable and balanced diet. The oily braised silver carp is definitely indispensable, but you have to wait until the first day of the first lunar month to eat it, because "there is more than enough every year".

During the Chinese New Year, eating big fish and meat for several days in a row will keep people going. At this time, some porridge and side dishes can tempt people to drool. The side dishes can be pickled at home. Dried white radish, Yangzhou people like to eat this kind of dried radish that has been soaked in salt water, dried in the sun, and sprinkled with pepper noodles. They take them out in bunches and stuff them into small bottles and jars. When you want to eat, take out a few pieces. It's crunchy and crunchy when chewed in your mouth, very refreshing. The side dishes can also be home-fried assorted vegetables. This assorted vegetable is actually a vegetarian assorted dish. The raw materials are a variety of fresh seasonal ingredients, such as lotus root, cress, pea sprouts, wild chestnuts, winter bamboo shoots, day lily, shiitake mushrooms, and bean sprouts. , carrots, fungus... there are definitely more than ten kinds. The ingredients are carefully selected by housewives from each shop. They are all ready and they can be fried in the same pot. This is very important. No matter how many kinds of vegetables there are, each one is All must be cooked separately and seasoned separately, so as to maintain its original flavor without skewing, and the heat will not be affected by different materials. After frying, look at it, red, yellow, white and green, colorful, served in porcelain bowls, emitting an attractive fragrance, just looking at it is enough to make people drool. The next process is simple, one word: mix, two words: cold. Stir them together evenly, drizzle the sesame oil thinly along the edge of the bowl, and you're done. This is a home-cooked cold dish that is most popular among Yangzhou people during the Spring Festival, so the quantity should not be reduced. The tile bowl that holds the assorted vegetables is as big as a washbasin.

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, it was time to stay up late. The whole family watched the Spring Festival Gala on the TV until firecrackers were set off on the TV. Firecrackers were also crackling outside the house, one after another, because China There is a folk saying of "opening the door with firecrackers", which means that when the New Year arrives, the first thing every household does when they open the door is to set off firecrackers to drive away the old and welcome the new with the beeping sound of firecrackers. The children finally waited for this moment and poured out the door holding firecrackers and fireworks, cheering amidst the fireworks in the sky. Regarding firecrackers, children in every family have their own private gadgets, the little white tadpoles that snap when pinched, and the small red whip-like firecrackers that are thrown out violently, causing pebbles to fly away, and the force is so intense that it hurts. It can't hurt people, and sparks can't hurt people, but the shock force can often frighten people who don't know what's going on, and make their hearts beat faster. When they look back, it turns out that it's a few kiddos who are causing trouble.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve passed, and the first thing the children did when they woke up the next day was to touch the underside of their pillows, where the adults had placed cloud cakes and cakes the night before. Oranges and New Year's money, if you touch the cake, you will be high, if you touch the orange, you will have good luck, and if you touch the New Year's money, you will naturally get rich. On the first day of the first lunar month, new clothes must be worn from head to toe, inside and out. With the new atmosphere, people are much more energetic. Yangzhou people have to eat Yuanzi noodles in the morning on this day, which means "perfection and longevity". The custom in some places in Yangzhou is that you can't finish all the Yuanzi noodles in the bowl, and you have to leave an even number of Yuanzi noodles, which is also for good luck. .

No matter how developed the society is, the habit of visiting each other to pay New Year greetings cannot be changed. The Chinese New Year is originally meant to be a lively and festive time, and at this time, the home must have a variety of fruit and pastries to entertain the relatives and friends who come to visit. them. In the old days, families had altar tables or cabinets, with tall plates symmetrically placed on them in a ladder-like pattern. On the plates were placed four kinds of fruits: citron, bergamot, apples, and oranges, which were meant to express your wishes. Table boxes were also used. Yangzhou people call it a brown box, which is filled with candied dates, cloud cakes, peach cakes, dong sugar, Dajing fruit and other fine snacks. Rich families pay attention to ostentation during the New Year, and Yangzhou's traditional tea snacks "Little Eight Pieces" are placed on eight plates on the table. ——Mei Gong cake, Taishi cake, black hemp cake, white hemp cake, chrysanthemum cake, Yi Xian, small Buddha's hand, small apple, there are many of them. Their fillings and shapes are very particular, such as bean paste, date paste, salt and pepper, and five kernels. It has five flavors including sesame, sesame and sesame, with realistic image and different taste. Yangzhou pastries are famous for their exquisiteness. Although people no longer adhere to so many old rules, the custom of Yangzhou people eating tea and pastries during the New Year has been passed down. Sanding buns, red bean paste buns, Jade Shaomai, Thousand Layer Oil Cake , crab roe soup dumplings... These famous snacks that are famous at home and abroad are just delicacies that ordinary people in Yangzhou put in boxes at home during the New Year, waiting to be slowly eliminated.

In addition to traditional pastries and fruits, modern supermarkets provide people with too many choices, including melon seeds, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts, pistachios, chocolate, yogurt, beef jerky, potato chips... and even... The ice cream that was only eaten in the summer was pouring into every household like crazy. Gone are the days of famine in the 1960s and 1970s when it could only be served by ticket and per capita. We no longer saw the kind of queues that lasted for several hours. When the food is almost here, the store suddenly displays a sign saying "Peanuts and melon seeds are sold out." People are really much happier now. As long as they have money in their pockets, there is nothing they can't eat, only things they can't imagine.

In recent years, Yangzhou citizens have gradually formed the habit of visiting the flower market to buy flowers during the New Year. They include seasonal daffodils, wintersweets, cheerful peonies, kumquats, "koucai" flowers, money trees, and ingots. Bamboo has become a favored object for people. Using these colorful, bright and fragrant flower bonsais to decorate their homes during the New Year will indeed make people feel refreshed and energetic, and feel that spring has arrived.

There are still many New Year’s goods. If I really want to explain them in detail, I probably couldn’t finish them in three days and three nights. But no matter whether it is old or new, people’s attitude towards the Spring Festival is still the same. This is the Chinese nation. It is the most lively and important festival for generations. People have worked hard for a year. Shouldn't we be able to truly satisfy ourselves in these few days of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new? New Year's goods - truly ignite people's endless yearning and deep attachment to the Spring Festival.

In the old days, as soon as the first day of the New Year passed, people would bring pig heads, incense, candles, and firecrackers to the Tutu Temple to burn incense. After burning incense, I went home and stopped sleeping, waiting for dawn. As soon as it gets light, the "caimen" (gate) will be opened, incense candles will be lit and firecrackers will be set off to "welcome the new year". Then the younger generation got up to pay New Year greetings to the elders. The elders gave the younger generation orange and cloud cakes, saying "take the overall situation" and "step by step high". Then have breakfast "rice dumplings" and noodles. After breakfast, young and middle-aged people go out to pay New Year greetings to their neighbors. There are cigarettes, melon seeds, candies, pastries and other foods at home, and the elderly receive the guests who come to pay New Year greetings. No new meals are made at noon, and New Year's Eve meals are eaten The rest of the dinner is called "Old Year Old" (sometimes "Old Year Old" is eaten until the fourth day of the first lunar month).

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, sharp tools such as knives and scissors are not used to avoid evil; they are not washed. The fifth day of the first lunar month is called the "God of Wealth Day", and people "pick up the God of Wealth Water" as soon as they get up, and then go to the streets near their homes to burn money and turn it into paper. "Shauli Market". For breakfast, some eat rice dumplings, some eat noodles, and some fry glutinous rice cooked on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. On this day, there are also people wearing God of Wealth clothes and masks who come to greet the God of Wealth, called "Dance to the God of Wealth", the host serves cakes and steamed buns to express "Thank you to the God of Wealth".

After the founding of New China, the custom of burning incense to worship gods has disappeared in many families. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, some units hold group worship. , the people also carried out New Year greetings to the families of martyrs and various cultural activities.