I often hear seventy or eighty-year-old people say that there is no taste of the New Year now. What does it look like to remember middle age? At that time, the old people were about the same age as I am now, how did they celebrate the New Year at that time?
The year I remember began on the seventeenth day of the lunar month, and it was a big gathering in our town on that day. My mother went to the market to buy New Year's goods, as well as our new clothes. This is also the happiest time for our children, because we only have new clothes when the Chinese New Year is approaching, but we can't wear them yet, and we have to wait until the morning of the first day of the new year. In fact, on Chinese New Year's Eve, we could sleep until two o'clock in the morning at most, and sometimes we would get up at twelve o'clock in the evening, putting on the new clothes and shoes made by our mother. Our mothers bought the cloth and made it ourselves, so we could save some money. When I think about it, I can still feel how excited I felt when I put on my new clothes.
In the twenty-third year of the lunar month, my parents began to clean and steam steamed buns, and fried some crispy lotus roots, croquettes and so on. At that time, we will do a lot, and we can usually eat until the fifteenth day of the first month. Xiaonian eats dumplings with vegetarian filling, and only meat is eaten for dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve. On the first day of the first lunar month, vegetarian dumplings are usually eaten, and my mother said, "We have to raise livestock, and we can't eat their meat during the New Year." "From the 23rd to the 29th of the lunar month, there was delicious food almost every day, and there would be a lot left, so my mother would dry the leftovers, and then put them in a big basket, and eat them after the New Year. So at that time, my parents were very busy during the New Year, and they were busy until the first day of the Lunar New Year.
When I eat meat dumplings for dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve, I usually help boil water, my mother makes dumplings, and my father puts firecrackers. The mother observed whether the water in the pot was boiling, and when it was boiling, she shouted, "Let it go." Listening to the crackling sound of firecrackers outside, my mother poured the dumplings into the pot, and my father lit the pot for me after the firecrackers. I went outside to pick up firecrackers to see if there were any, and I liked to smell the fireworks. Neighbors also set off artillery battles one after another, deafening.
After eating the dumplings, my mother brushed the pot, put some water in the pot, put the steaming drawer, put steamed buns and eggs in it, and sprinkled some grains on the stove. After my mother cleaned up the kitchen, she checked our clothes again, then wrapped the scissors in a cloth and urged us to go to bed early.
The incessant sound of firecrackers outside made it hard for us to sleep. We finally stayed up until 12 o'clock in the evening, and we quickly got up and put on new clothes and shoes. My mother gave each of us one yuan, and told us not to lose it. We must take care of it, and the second generation store will open to buy candy to eat, and not only can we eat meat during the New Year, but also eat the most sugar.
My parents cooked and set off firecrackers, and after eating, they were ready to go to the New Year, and there were already people outside who came to my grandmother's house to pay New Year's greetings. I looked at them curiously, and I felt quite curious. When there are children kowtowing to the New Year, grandma will grab a handful of candy and stuff it for them, in fact, there are more peanuts in it, because the peanuts are grown at home and do not need to spend money to buy.
Sometimes we would follow our mother to visit the elders, and they would give us candy to eat. We slipped away when we met our playmates, showing off together to see who had the most candy, and everyone had a bulge in their pockets. Look at whose sugar is delicious, generally people who are not wealthy give hard candy, and what they eat is very hard and sometimes sticky to their teeth. Wealthy like my ** milk, she is a primary school teacher, she usually gives us peanut crisp or toffee, the best to eat. The little ones who have gained a lot will show off, and those who don't get good sugar can only envy others.
The day is getting brighter, but there are still many people who are still paying New Year's greetings, and they are in groups, usually led by an elder. The largest team was led by the head of our family, who was in good health in his eighties, full of poetry and books, and learned some etiquette from him.
I like to see the patriarch of the family leading a large group of people to pay New Year's greetings to the ancestors, kowtowing, as if there are some rules, but I can't understand it, so I ask my father, and my father can't tell why. But I look pretty good, I feel very solemn and majestic, and there is a solemn sense of oppression. It's rare to see such a spectacular scene now.
People generally have to worship until lunch, because there are too many people, and some can't finish the noon worship in the afternoon. The day went by, and because we got up early in the morning, we began to be sleepy at this time, so we fell asleep before dark.
The tense and hectic year has passed.