Recently, I entered a book "Playing Lanterns", which is about the folk customs of Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province "Playing Lanterns", from the style of painting to the content are very regional, and northerners should think of childhood when they read it.
When we were children, we also had the habit of appreciating lanterns, especially the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the county town would hold a lantern festival, hang lanterns in the small temple and guess riddles, set off fireworks by the river, and parade on the street Yangge team and stilt team, which was very lively. However, the "lantern shooting" mentioned in the picture book is still not available on our side.
Shaanxi's custom of "playing lanterns" is generally given by an uncle to a niece or niece, a pair of lanterns, ten candles, and 12 consecutive years. After receiving the lanterns, the children play every night until the 15th day of the first lunar month, and then burn the lanterns - if they are not burned, the old lanterns will continue to be made the next year, and the uncle will suffer from pink eye.
Hahaha, I feel that many customs are prepared for my uncle.
Speaking of picture books, although the customs in this book are different from ours, the scenery, characters, and clothes in the picture really make people go back to their childhood.
The opening chapter is a heavy snowfall, and there is a vast space between heaven and earth.
Then there is the crowd that came out to pay New Year's greetings on the first day of the new year, red clothes and red jackets, tiger hats, balloons, lanterns, sugar gourds, Monkey King masks, ......Colorful dots dot the white snowy landscape, and the cold winter day also becomes lively.
This image alone brought me back to my childhood. The one who holds the cigarette bag and pot is like my second uncle, the one who wears a mask and plays like my two cousins, and the one who sits on the back seat of the bicycle with a sugar gourd is exactly the same person I was back then.
The protagonist of the story is called Zhao Di, a name with the mark of the times, which also reminds me of many peers.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Zhao Di finally looked forward to her uncle, got the lantern that belonged to her, and then carried the lantern to find other little girls in the village to enjoy the lantern and play with the lantern together.
While they were having fun, they ran into the naughty boys, who deliberately hit the girls with their lanterns, and then ran away laughing at the screams of the girls.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, all the adults came out, the scene of playing lanterns became more and more spectacular, and the Zhaodi had more fun. But after all, it was the last night to light the lanterns, and the children also sang nursery rhymes while spinning in circles, "The lanterns will be, the lanterns will be burned, and the lanterns will go out and go to sleep." ”
Finally, it was time to touch the lantern and burn it. I don't know who took the lead, all the lanterns were burning, and everyone suddenly quieted down, watching the flames little by little, burning the lanterns into a black hole.
At the end of the story, Zhao Di was lying on the kang, full of unspeakable loss, and didn't understand why the New Year was over like this.
Until her tears were hazy, she remembered that on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month last year, she was also so sad, but this year is the New Year, that is, there will be a New Year next year. Thinking of this, she finally fell asleep laughing.
Throughout the book, in addition to the introduction of the customs, this picture book is also particularly moving in its description of the environment, atmosphere, and the psychology of the characters.
Whether it is the text or the illustrations, it is like a prose poem, with thick snow, colorful cotton jackets and turbans, naughty stinky boys, whistling cold winds, dogs running with them all the way, lanterns burning in the fire, ......Every detail is so vividly depicted that you can smell the sweet fragrance of sugar gourds in winter, hear the sound of children laughing and playing, and feel the faint heat wave and light when the lantern burns.
These images and emotions so realistically reproduce our childhood memories, and the bits and pieces that we thought we had forgotten are so clearly resurfaced in front of us at this moment.
Zhao Di in the picture book, just like every us, is looking forward to the New Year, looking forward to playing lanterns, and looking forward to the simplicity and happiness that belong to children. And when it's all over, the loss and reluctance are so real. But just like Zhao Di finally figured out, although this year is over, she will come back next year.
This is the charm of this picture book, I was moved by it, not only because of its style and content, but also because it touched the deepest emotions in my heart. When I read this picture book to my baby, I kept telling him, "Look, this is my mother's childhood." ”