Author: Zhong Jiuju
Youfang Town, Qinghe County, Hebei Province, is known as the "little shanghai" of Qinghe. I remember when I was a child, Youfang Town had a taste of the year.
Hey! This is the gathering of oil mill on the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month. People who are driving sheep, leading cattle and carrying pigs in ox carts are rushing to the livestock market. This market is really big. It is located 20 meters south of Grandma Temple, covering an area of more than two acres. People have established that cows occupy a piece of land, horses occupy a piece of land, and donkeys, sheep and pigs take their places. These elves stood and lay down consciously, as if watching the excitement, staring at each other and greeting each other in their own language. Those big animals have higher IQ and more brains. They just blink from time to time, wondering what will happen today. The horse scratched the ground with its hoof. The cow's eyes turn white, but it never forgets to chew and grind (ruminate) in its mouth. The sheep is honest, standing there looking at other animals, the pig is still tied by its owner, and the pig doesn't care about this situation, just dreaming.
It's almost noon, when both buyers and sellers arrive, the broker is busy, running in front of the horse, coming to the cow, whispering with the buyers and buyers, and then bargaining. The broker spit out long sleeves and asked the buyer to put his right hand into the sleeves and touch his fingers: seven pliers, eight pliers, nine hooks and so on. At noon, the livestock market gradually dispersed. A few days. The sold pigs and sheep have become sacrifices and delicacies on the table.
In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, there are firecrackers at the party, which is a signal and bait to sell firecrackers to attract children. Firecrackers sellers pull carts to sell them. At this time, the children heard the sound of running around the cart. At this time, the master will take out two rings (kick two feet) and hold them with his left thumb and forefinger, and play them on the gun twist with a fragrant head with red light. Knock, whoosh, gawk at the child like a marionette. With these two rings, they raised their faces high and stared at the sky. Two more rings flew into the sky, and the children raised their faces again. At this time, some children will ask adults for 20 cents to buy a small gun and run home happily to show off to their children.
It is true that boys love guns and girls love flowers. It's not just girls who love flowers. Even a grandmother with gray temples will wear a beautiful flower in the New Year.
The flower seller came to Youfang Street the afternoon before the fair, found a wall in a busy area, nailed a straw bigger than a kang mat on the wall, and then put the bright and beautiful silk flower on it one by one. There are red, pink, pink, orange, green and purple. It is really colorful, colorful. Every flower is the same size and looks like a big fireworks in full bloom (Xilian). There are also some velvet flowers, all of which are big red, but the styles are not as monotonous as those in silk flower, and they have different shapes and look good. The worst is the paper flower, which is cut out of three or five layers of colored paper soaked in boiling water and passes through a thin iron wire in the middle. There are three or five stamens similar to small grains in the flower core. This kind of flower is called bald flower. This kind of flower is not beautiful, but it is very cheap. People with less money will buy some flowers for the little girl without pigtails to make her children happy.
Look! This oil mill town, which enjoys flowers and buys flowers, is surrounded by big girls and kannika nimtragol, and a group of young men also drill into the crowd to enjoy it with adults. The older girl and the younger daughter-in-law are comparing comments: this red one just matches your white face, and that green one is refreshing. Finally, several beautiful women each bought two or three flowers and went back happily. It's getting dark, and there will be more lively scenes in the market tomorrow.
New Year's Eve is the happiest and busiest day at home. Especially the children are so beautiful. Get up early and put on new clothes. The boy's pocket is full of small fireworks. The girl puts on flowers and runs to the street in the yard to play. The male host will hang the genealogy (owner) in the cabinet high on the wall of the altar, brush it over and over again with a feather duster, and then go to the altar to carefully study whether the owner hangs it correctly. Satisfied with the host, housewives quickly put the semi-finished chicken, fish, meatballs and fried tofu made two days ago on the altar. At that time, I was concerned about three ghosts and four gods. That is to say, three dishes (chicken, fish and pig's head) were given to the Jade Emperor, and four dishes and four bowls of steamed bread were given to the ancestors. After the sacrifice, the host of the family took the boys to the grave to invite grandparents.
Besides the offerings, there are a pair of wax sticks with red candles on them. At night, the red candle burns and tears flow down her face. There is also an incense burner for future generations to burn incense to worship their ancestors. There is a table cover tied to the altar. Most of these children are printed with stories of twenty-four filial piety. There are stories such as Deliver Rice in Peace and Wang Xiang Lying on the Ice Begging for Carp. Every two days, when parents are free, they tell their children stories of filial piety at the dinner table. Sacrificing ancestors during the Spring Festival has also become a traditional filial piety education classroom.
At 30 o'clock, people should watch birthdays. At that time, there was no TV. Just after twelve o'clock, someone went down to make a confession. After eating a few jiaozi, I went door to door to pay New Year's greetings.
The next morning, my grandparents were sent away, and people in the town began to welcome their old relatives who came to pay New Year greetings ... It was time for people in the town to celebrate the New Year. Men will shake eight barbells, women will practice yangko around HongLing, and boys and girls will play Hua Gun. Some people who love singing and dancing are playing with roller coasters and walking on stilts. The old people carefully prepared fireworks materials for the Lantern Festival.
Speaking of eight barbells, I don't know if it was a barbell meeting organized by young people in Youfang North Street, because the barbell cabinet is octagonal, with two fist-sized brass bells tied to each corner and Caiqi Yang as decoration. Four barbells and eight people lift the bar, so it is also called eight barbells. Shaking the bar is a physical activity as well as a technical activity. Eight young people should listen to the command in step, and start to command eight people to warm up first, turn left and right, and two bells will make a loud noise. If you shake the lever, the sound will become lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang lang. When the fighting spirit of both sides reached its peak, the commander announced the winner, and a shaking stick came to an end.
David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, I'm here. This is the yangko team, mostly middle-aged women. They are brand-new, with silk flower on their heads, HongLing tied around their waists, beating gongs and drums, striding and twisting their waists, with HongLing high above their heads. Everyone's face is filled with a happy smile, which is really beautiful from the outside to the inside!
It's good to be young! The girls playing with cuttlefish are all beautifully dressed and pleasing to the eye. If it is spring and summer, butterflies will chase them. Hua Gun is made of a bamboo pole or a slightly thinner wooden pole, which is covered with red, yellow, blue and green paper. Hua Gun tied some small bells, and his right hand was sandwiched between Hua Gun. With the rhythm of gongs and drums, he hit his feet first, then his shoulders, and then his left hand. This is a festival. There is a more difficult action, that is, kicking Hua Gun with his heel. As they beat, they sang: The moon is bright and bright, and they will always follow the * * * production party ... and cross the Yalu River with great pride. ...
The most popular is the dry boat team, all dressed in red and green, with heavy makeup and playing various roles. The new wife in the dry boat is handsome and elegant. Hands on the strings of the ship, feet with small steps, like a ship rippling in the water. The ugly girl in the float, with a big tobacco pouch in her mouth, looks funny, and the ugly girl at the end of her life makes everyone laugh from time to time. Look at the top teams. Those who have the ability to step on high, those who have just entered the business step on low. They really ride camels to catch chickens. High is high, low is low, and the characters play Journey to the West. This group of people, not limited by time and place, will play more tricks when the scene is wide, scrambling for dry boats, turning over floats and yangko on stilts. The venue has shrunk and the battle has become smaller. This commotion will be on the fifteenth day of the first month.
I remember it was 1950, the first Spring Festival after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). On the fifteenth day, my father took me to the top of Huangjiadian (uncle's house) to see the dragon lanterns. Father put a small flower basket in front of him, waiting for the dragon lantern charmer to come. On every roof in the street, people are watching dragon lanterns. Soon I heard the sound of gongs and drums, and everyone in the room looked down at the street. I saw the shops on both sides of the street lit up with red lights, and the dragon lanterns showed thousands of lights. In front of the faucet, a man held a fireball as a conductor. Dragon changers are all strong young people. They all wear vests. With the movement of directing the fireball to lift left and right, the boys playing with the dragon lantern will do their own movements and the faucet will swing up and down. As a dragon leader, it is far-sighted, so it presents a flying posture. The audience in this room has saved enough energy to spray dragons with lit fireworks. Red and green flowers and leaves are sprayed directly on the arms of young people playing with dragons. Dragon players who are burned by fire leaves will hide from left and right, making the dragon swim in a winding way, which is extremely active. ...
By this time, Li San had smashed the flower strips. This is the wisdom of the people in Youfang Town. I don't know how many years have passed. This land is developed and built by itself, which is economical and practical. Play a ground flower every 10 meter. In short, there are more than 150 pieces in Li Sanchang Street. When the local flowers are in full bloom, Youfang Street has become a world of fire trees and silver flowers. Old people and children cheer heartily at home and enjoy the happiness of the New Year.
People who have worked hard for a year have swept away their hard work with joy and cleared up all their sadness and fatigue. The joy of the Spring Festival has opened a happy schedule for the spring of the new year. People entered a sweet dream country with the smell of fireworks, in which they saw fireworks several feet high in full bloom. ...