Lao Zhang and his daughter-in-law are 45 years old, their hometown is in rural Jiangxi, and they still have an old mother in the countryside, and they have two sons who are studying in other places. The parents are the eldest brother and sister, and there are many brothers and sisters, five uncles, two aunts, three aunts, and three uncles; On my wife's side, there is an uncle, two uncles, two aunts, and an uncle. In Lao Zhang's own generation, he is an only child, with a total of 9 cousins and 19 cousins and 19 cousins of aunts, uncles and aunts.
At the beginning of the month, Lao Zhang began to count the number of gifts needed, according to local customs, he and his daughter-in-law's uncle's family must send wine, meat, milk, fruits and other gifts, other relatives do not need meat, in order to save some costs, at the beginning of the month of each year, online shopping, even if you consider that you can also receive some gifts, the annual New Year's gift still needs to be stacked with a trunk plus a back seat. The meat is generally 3 5 catties per family, and due to the inconvenience of transportation, this must be prepared in advance by the old mother in the hometown. At the same time, exchange thousands of yuan of change in the bank in advance, buy red envelopes and prepare for the New Year for each child during the Spring Festival.
Chinese New Year's Eve holiday, go to purchase New Year's goods on the evening of the 29th of the year, Chinese New Year's Eve return to the hometown from the place of work (150 kilometers, hometown, place of work and daughter-in-law's house in a triangle) in the morning to catch lunch, stop on the way to purchase fireworks and firecrackers, and guide the children to write Spring Festival couplets in the afternoon, paste Spring Festival couplets, kill ducks and cut meat for Chinese New Year's Eve meals, and Chinese New Year's Eve the whole family reunion.
From the first day of the Lunar New Year to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the breakfast at home on the first day of the new year, the second uncle's house for lunch, and the dinner family at home to entertain the three uncles and three families; On the second day of junior high school, breakfast at home, lunch at my uncle's house, dinner at my uncle's house; Breakfast at your own home on the third day of junior high school, then go to your little uncle's house, lunch at your aunt's house, and dinner at your aunt's house; On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, they entertained their eldest uncle and his children for breakfast, then went to his cousin's house, arranged for the children to go to his aunt's house for lunch, and entertained his cousin's family for dinner; On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, breakfast at home, lunch at the third uncle's family, and dinner at the daughter-in-law's mother's house in the afternoon (about 250 kilometers); On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, breakfast, lunch, lunch, and dinner (during which I went to my aunt's house, uncle's house, and little uncle's house), and returned to work (about 200 kilometers) after dinner; On duty on the seventh day of the new year. Period: On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the neighbor's house in the village held a funeral, and went to help from the noon of the second day of the Lunar New Year to the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year; On the fourth day of junior high school, the neighbors did a happy event and went to help for a day.
Lao Zhang said with a smile that it is actually a very happy thing to have many relatives, but as a migrant worker and an only child, there is a lot of pressure to socialize, because it is difficult to be thoughtful because of the short vacation of about a week. And not only the Spring Festival, usually the hometown of the human affairs are also more, but there is a wedding and birthday banquet, full moon birthday, promotion and other red and white things in the neighborhood, will open "help", work in the city often need to ask for leave to return to the hometown to help, and generally do not dare to refuse, the local saying "red things are not invited, white things are not invited." As long as you call yourself, you must go back to help, if you are often absent, once you have something at home, your neighbors and relatives will only watch, please don't come. And as his mother grows old in middle age, he or his daughter-in-law has to go back in person for a lot of time.
Lao Zhang said: "Over the years, young people don't understand a lot of things, the Spring Festival couplets in the countryside are not only Spring Festival couplets, but also include the family god brand, the god of heaven, the god of the earth, the stove brand, etc., all of which are exquisite, and the finished products sold in the market are simply foolish, and even the yellow underworld can't pass." For these, the author said that he didn't understand, and Lao Zhang shook his head in disappointment.
Do you usually need to go to relatives like this? The answer is yes, but not as much as during the Chinese New Year. Lao Zhang said, we talk about "Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year", we pay more attention to these three festivals, just the first few years of marriage, are to the early daughter-in-law mother's family to send the festival, some good conditions of the family every year, a few years later will become to send their daughter-in-law's brother, that is, the child's uncle, I also sent a few years to my uncles before.
Traveling or something, that's impossible ......
Ask him, isn't this tiring? Why not leave some behind?
He smiled and said that these should also be part of the cultural heritage, and today's young people do not understand and are unwilling to participate, but that can only be "free, lose relatives and friends; Gain ease, lose the fundamentals. ”
When your identity changes from an experiencer who experiences the flavor of the New Year to an atmosphere maker, it will be even more difficult for you to feel the flavor of the New Year, and you can only feel tired.