Yangxin Lao Liu tells the story episode 5; The custom of "roasting Li Ma" on New Year's Eve
Author; Liu Baode, Liu Hongbin.
In the evening of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, after the villagers prepared the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at home, they put on new clothes and couldn't wait to come to the street, crackling **, banging, reflecting most of the sky, full of laughter and the smell of gunpowder.
After the passion was over, the old man hurriedly took out three bundles of dry firewood, or sesame stalks, or corn straw, from his house.
The fire burns by the wind. Burning, burning, the firewood will collapse with a bang, and in whichever direction it falls, there will be a good year; If you are paralyzed in the middle, it means that there is a good harvest in the local area, and people will be more elated.
When the flames faded, the old men grabbed a firewood pole that had not yet burned out and ran home. At this time, he hurriedly prayed: "Please Mother Li bless building a new house this year!" Or, "Please bless Mama Li with more livestock this year!" "If you have any expectations, you can say anything, you can only say one thing, you can't be greedy, otherwise it will not be fulfilled. At this time, you can't turn back, you can't talk to others, and when you get home, you quickly throw the firewood pole in the stove. The dry firewood that had been prepared for the New Year's dinner in the stove happened to ignite, and then he began to work on the family's reunion dinner. It is said that this way of catching fire is particularly clever.
It was very early days, and our land was barren and sparsely populated. One year, on the night of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, a family was sitting around making dumplings, and suddenly saw the fire flickering outside, and quietly opened the door to check. I saw an old woman in her sixties, carrying a begging bag, unkempt, curled up and roasting the fire. The family hurriedly let the old man into the house and wrapped him around the hot kang with a quilt to warm him. After a while, I was busy making dumplings for the old man to celebrate the New Year together, intimate and affectionate, like a family. At this moment, the old man couldn't suppress his excitement and wiped his tears vigorously. Ask the old man what is his surname? Live**? She only knew that her surname was Li, she had no children and no daughters, she was wandering around, and she had no fixed place to live. In this way, the children called her "Mama Li" and arranged for the old man to stay for the time being.
Unexpectedly, the next morning, the family woke up to see that the old man had left at some point. It's just that the begging bag she brought was put down, and when she opened it, it turned out to be white silver. The family was busy looking for it, and there was no shadow of the old man at all. There was no way, so he put the bag away and waited for the old man to pick it up. But after waiting for a long, long time, I didn't even see the shadow of the old man. On the night of the thirtieth day of the second lunar month, the family raised ** at the door and waited for the old man to return. Until dawn, wait for a show. In the third year, the fourth year, and so on, for several years, the family lit a fire at the door every year on this day, hoping that the old man would return, and there was still no trace of the old man.
Although there is no expectation of the elderly, it has become a habit of this family, and it is like this every year. The surrounding people knew the news, and on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, they gathered a fire in front of their door to help find this wandering old man. Gradually, this situation became a local custom, called "roasting Li Ma". Although this is a legend, it reflects the good quality of working people in treating the homeless or the elderly alone, which is worthy of our inheritance and development.