Lunar New Year's eve.

Whether it's the streets or the inside and outside of every home, they are thoroughly cleaned this time.

Even the snow on the roadside was shoveled into regular shapes.

Bright red couplets are pasted on the doors of every house, and colorful pass money is fluttering in the wind.

The house is also decorated with festive New Year pictures.

Some people even re-pasted the interior walls of their houses with newspapers, making it feel as fresh as moving into a new home.

Then paste the New Year pictures on it, and the flavor of the New Year will instantly become mellow.

The children were in a state of excitement, and there were big firecrackers and explosions everywhere, and occasionally there were fireworks.

The entire village was immersed in light smoke and smelled of gunpowder.

The smoke is like a warm sauce, seeming to warm up the cold winter months.

The women are cutting meat, picking vegetables, and making dumplings.

Although the supply of pork this year is still pitifully small, the annual New Year's Eve dinner must include stir-fried meat dishes.

The dumplings were wrapped and most of them were taken to the yard to freeze.

A small portion is cooked first, put into several small bowls, and put into baskets.

There is also a wine pot and wine cup, take the chopsticks, burn paper and incense.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, it’s time for our ancestors to celebrate the New Year.

Lao Wai took his former sons to visit the grave.

During festivals, only men visit the graves, not women.

The so-called population is prosperous, but women are not among the "population". If they are not liked by their ancestors, they are not qualified to go to the grave.

The only exception is Yingzi.

In the second year of my sophomore year, I accompanied Yingzi to Shumaozi in the west to visit the graves of her parents.

As usual, Yingzi cried until her legs became weak, and then her eldest brother carried her home.

……well!

The eldest brother hopes in his heart that his sister will be a little stronger and less sad when she goes to the grave during the Chinese New Year. At least her legs will be strong enough to be able to walk home on her own.

Now that she is such an old girl, she finds that her legs are getting longer and stronger, and carrying her all over the street, the young and old men see that she is not innocent at all.

In the old days, when you came back from visiting a grave, you would have to ask for help from the family.

It is to hang up the portraits of ancestors, put out wine, dishes, incense and candles, and invite the ancestors to come back to celebrate the New Year.

But in the past few years, the four old things have been broken, and there is nowhere to buy incense and candles.

And those superstitious activities are not allowed.

Therefore, in local rural areas, the custom of inviting family members to a family home is gradually lost.

As night falls, the sound of firecrackers around the world becomes more and more intense.

Some people buy several hanging whips and put one in them after making dumplings.

When visiting a grave, place one in the cemetery.

When cooking vegetables, put them in a bowl.

Of course, most people cook in the middle of the night.

There are also a few people who start cooking after dark, and the whole family sits around drinking, drinking all night long.

The basic routine for most people during the Chinese New Year is to prepare the meat and vegetables, freeze the dumplings, and have enough firewood in front of the stove to get ready for bed.

Before going to bed, close the door and place a rolling stick across the threshold outside the courtyard gate, which is called a door-blocking stick.

A rolling stick is a wooden stick of neither thickness nor thickness used for grinding or grinding.

The "stopper" is probably a security function, blocking out ghosts and ghosts, and keeping the family safe.

After falling asleep, I actually couldn't sleep well. The sound of firecrackers in the whole world stirred into a pot of porridge, and the basins and bowls all made a buzzing resonance.

The most concentrated and intense one is at midnight. The sound of firecrackers is no longer the sound of crackling, but like the flood of bursting embankments, rushing up all at once.

Lao Wai got up before twelve o'clock.

First wake up your four ex-sons.

When you go to the West Room to call, it's not like "calling", but it's like "transmitting sound into the secret", lowering your throat and using the lowest voice to ask the children to get up.

Because this is the time of the fifth night of the New Year and the time when the gods descend to the lower realm, no one is allowed to speak loudly, and the volume must be whispered.

This is out of reverence, lest you disturb the gods by speaking loudly.

The Lower Realm of the Hundred Gods, what a mysterious and awe-inspiring moment.

Perhaps this is the charm of the Chinese New Year, which allows children to feel an atmosphere that breaks through their cognition and feels like they are in another world.

Then Lao Wai started to light the fire and cook the dumplings.

Set a dining table in the center of the courtyard, burn incense in the incense burner, place steamed buns, wine, vegetables, and freshly fished dumplings.

This is respect for heaven and earth.

After setting it up, start handing out paper money.

The flying paper dust and sparks flew into the air. The children looked at the sparks with awe, as if they saw the gods from the lower world, putting money in their pockets.

When the paper money was halfway burned, Ercang began to use a long wooden pole to set off firecrackers, and the eldest brother was responsible for lighting the whips.

The crackling firecrackers exploded, participating in the torrent of firecrackers to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year at twelve o'clock.

After paying respects to heaven and earth, Lao Wai started cooking.

Okura Madam and her daughter were still sleeping soundly.

According to traditional customs, women should take a break after being busy for a year, so during the fifth watch of the year, women just enjoy themselves and do not work.

Along with the Chinese New Year enjoyment, there are also bites.

As the folk saying goes "dogs celebrate the New Year, pigs celebrate the cold", it means that dogs have been biting and biting for a year, and they have to enjoy themselves during the New Year.

Pigs also have festivals, and the Cold Food Festival is the festival of pigs.

However, according to observations, this is a bit misleading to pigs, because during the Qingming Festival, there is no welfare for pigs at all, and it is no different from ordinary days.

Dogs are loyal ministers and must treat each other with sincerity. They promise you an essential benefit during the New Year, which is a meal of dumplings.

In this era of scarcity, those families who are too poor to survive the New Year may not even have white bread and a meal of dumplings.

Even if the dumplings are made, adults and children cannot eat them with ease.

Giving a few more to the dogs is indeed a bonus during the Chinese New Year.

But just like people, there isn’t enough for you to eat with all your heart.

So I wrapped a few dumplings in pancakes, hoping that the dog would eat the dumplings as a meal.

Biting never buys it.

I always cut open the pancakes and only eat the dumplings.

As the saying goes, there is meat but no pickles. This means there are dumplings but no pancakes.

After all the New Year procedures are completed and the vegetables are cooked, the women in the family get up, eat ready-made food, and wait to enjoy it.

It's now around two or three o'clock in the middle of the night. A family of seven, together with some dumplings and fried vegetables, went to my grandparents' place.

The second uncle and the third uncle's family were also serving dumplings and vegetables.

The old hero of the stretcher team also cooked several dishes.

Because there is plenty of pork this year, large meat slices account for a large proportion of the dishes.

Grandma Flea was already sitting cross-legged on the kang with a smile on her face.

The New Year's Eve dinner begins.

There is no room for one table, so one table for adults is on the kang, and one table for children is in front of the kang.

This year we had a stove, and it was very hot in front of the kang.

Thirteen children and eight adults, two tables, a full room.

As the eldest grandson and future head of the family, Okura was fortunate enough to be allowed to sit at the Kang table.

The advantage of this table on the Kang is that you can eat relatively calmly.

Because of the table under the kang, the children gathered around it and the plate bottomed out instantly.

And there are a few younger ones who have reached the point where they don’t even need chopsticks and just start grabbing.

I don’t know if it was because of a trip to Kanto, but my family found that the old hero was in particularly high spirits during the New Year this year.

The evidence is that he is in high spirits, speaks loudly, and sounds confident.
To be continued...