Recall the animal year
Liu Shaotang
Spring rain shocks spring and clear valley days, summer is full of mountains and summer is connected with heat, autumn dew is cold and frost, and winter snow drifts. In the village customs, the four seasons and twenty-four solar terms are colorful, but the Spring Festival except the twenty-four solar terms has the most distinctive local characteristics and strong local flavor.
Spring Festival is now the official name, but I call it Spring Festival or New Year, just like my fellow villagers in Canal.
Back then, when I was young, the Chinese New Year in my hometown began to heat up on the first day of the twelfth lunar month. It's getting warmer and hotter every day, and I have a fever until the end of the year.
On the first night of the twelfth lunar month, everyone fried peanuts, melon seeds and popcorn; After frying, pots after pots, bundles of firewood were stabbed into the stove chamber, and the heatable adobe sleeping platform was hot enough to make pancakes. Peeling corn kernels in an iron pot mixed with hot sand; Grandma was holding a spatula in her hand and murmured, "On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the child won't get sick." Peanuts, melon seeds and popcorn are fried, put in a dustpan, dried in the yard, and then brought into the house, where the whole family sits around and munches. I eat too much, my mouth is sore, and I have to drink soup made of burnt rice crust. The soup has cleared its appetite, the fire of rotten mouth has subsided, and it's time to eat Laba porridge again. Laba porridge made of millet, corn grits, red beans, sweet potatoes, red dates and millet is delicious. It looks pleasing to the eye in a bowl and is reluctant to eat. But I don't have enough to eat and I don't want to put down my chopsticks. After drinking Laba porridge, I was even older. Vendors selling candied haws shuttled back and forth and drew lots with bamboo tubes. The candied haws in the lottery tasted the sweetest. The vendor selling hanging dates in Zhuozhou strung dried tiger-eye dates with core and selenium removed into a circle and hung them around his neck to eat. Vendors selling honeydew melons and kwantung sugar are constantly shouting, one after another, boasting. There are also vendors selling velvet flowers with grass handles on their shoulders. The stalks of grass are covered with colorful velvet flowers, which walk through the streets. The eldest girl and the kannika nimtragol called them to the door and stood on the threshold to choose flowers. The old lady will also buy a red velvet flower for China New Year. There are cries of killing pigs and sheep in the south, north and west of the village. If you stand in a chicken coop and feed a fat chicken for a month, you will be cut off. Every family is busy steaming steamed buns and rice cakes, and the poor family will steam bean dumplings for a few days. Tofu is frozen on the cylinder head and sieve of the patio, persimmon is frozen on the windowsill, and sauerkraut is also pickled. Women are busy, but men are squatting on the root of the fence to bask in the sun and gossip. On the 23 rd of the twelfth lunar month, send incense to the kitchen god and send paper horses. The most interesting thing is to take off the idol of Kitchen God. Before cremation, you can dig a few pieces of sugar paste from the honeydew melon, put it on the kitchen god's mouth, and tell him to speak well in heaven, so that the lower bound can be safe. After the kitchen god left, the door god changed his post, so he erected a heaven and earth pole behind the screen wall, hung a lantern and a straw stick rattling in the cold wind, and posted a red paper on the heaven and earth pole: "Jiang Taigong is coming". Evil spirits are sneaking around and dare not harass. New Year's Eve on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month is joyful and solemn. Family reunion package jiaozi, who eats package jiaozi to make money is the most blessed, good luck in a year. The yard is covered with sesame stalks, and the little girl is not allowed to go out. Although the little boy is allowed to walk, he can't pee outside to avoid colliding with the gods. Don't sleep no matter how sleepy you are. Adults tell jokes, riddles and stories to children. This is called bowling. When the night watchman knocks on the bangzi, he can put jiaozi in the pot, set off firecrackers in the yard and put couplets on the doorframes. Before putting the pot in the jiaozi, the children will kowtow to the old people one by one. Old people will get lucky money, and boys can go out and walk on sesame stalks to their close relatives' homes. Lucky money is full of pockets. Gastrodia elata lit up and the neighbors knocked at the door. Open the door and meet each other, screaming: "Congratulations, congratulations!" "Happy, happy!" I usually visit hundreds of families, and at the beginning of the first month-I want to pay a New Year call to hundreds of families. I left my neighbors, went to my hometown, and visited every family in the north and south of the village. At this time, I feel recognized, and I am one year older.
Meeting Bingzi at the age of 60 is my birth year. Recalling the past at the age of 60, I feel quite rejuvenated.
Brief analysis of the text
Memories of Time Past is an article by Liu Shaotang, a famous writer, which describes his Spring Festival in his hometown of Canal in the suburbs of Beijing. The article mainly describes the fiery Spring Festival scene in his hometown and a group of colorful rural scenes. Its words are vivid and accurate, its language is simple, and it is full of strong local flavor.
Appreciation of articles
This passage describes two things, asking for lucky money and celebrating the New Year. Although it is an ordinary life custom, it contains profound cultural connotation. There are two links in asking for lucky money. First, children should "kowtow to the elderly one by one" before serving food in jiaozi, and the elderly will give them lucky money. This reflects the respect and gratitude, blessing and filial piety of children to the elderly, and also shows the care and expectation of the elderly to their children. Between the old and the young, respect for the old and love for the young, live in harmony, filled with deep affection. Second, boys can "step on sesame stalks and go to relatives' homes" to go out and ask for lucky money. Love each other and visit each other is a vivid portrayal of family ties. But only boys can go out, which implies the unequal reality that men are superior to women in rural areas in the old society, which makes people feel more worried while celebrating. New Year's greetings are written in a comprehensive way, combining point with surface, which just shows the interpersonal relationship of harmonious coexistence, friendship and mutual assistance among rural households and neighbors. "Various Words" congratulates the Spring Festival by highlighting the auspicious and festive atmosphere from the "face", and "I" traveled to hundreds of homes to celebrate the New Year by highlighting the harmony and friendliness of rural interpersonal relationships from the "point". There is no fraud, hypocrisy and indifference of city people here, only sincerity and kindness, friendship and mutual assistance between people. From this, we can easily understand that the author recalls these almost trivial life fragments with relish, in fact, he is calling for a simple, authentic and humanized interpersonal relationship.
Brief introduction of the author
Liu Shaotang is a famous writer of local literature in China, one of the representative writers of "Lotus School" and the founder of "Grand Canal Local Literature System". Tongzhou linru village people. Born in February 1936 and died in March 1997 at the age of 6 1. Liu Shaotang 1948 joined the revolution, and 1953 joined the producers' party of China. He became a successful young man at the age of 13 and began to publish his works. At the age of 20, he became the youngest member of the Chinese Writers Association and was a "child prodigy writer" in China's literary world in the 1950s.