My wife and I drifted to Nanchang, the city where we live, in order to support our son's daughter-in-law's career and help take care of our son. We became "old drifters" when we were supposed to be 60 years old. At this moment, like the endless stream of people, I am looking forward to leading my family back to my hometown for the Spring Festival.
After several efforts, finally, I returned to Linchuan, where I was born and raised. Back in Mazitang, my grandfather was born, and it took a lot of effort to come to Xiadeng Village and start a business in the city.
On New Year's Eve, our family decorated with lanterns, changed the Spring Festival couplets, pasted the door gods, prepared three animals (chickens, fish and pig heads), cooked rice, burned incense paper, set off firecrackers and worshipped our ancestors. Then, the whole family, old and young, sit together to have dinner, drink the group wine, raise a glass, enjoy the family happiness. After dinner, the elders give the children lucky money, and the family watches the Spring Festival Gala around the stove until midnight, and "closes the door" (sets off firecrackers) before going to bed. To be old-fashioned is to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. Saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new means putting everything in the previous paragraph, stamping the seal of the past, rearranging the new year and starting over. Welcoming the new year is a piety to the beginning of the new year, which gains the soul, such as the germination of unearthed seeds, and reproduces the vitality of life. A long time ago, there was a custom of "closing the financial door" early. In order to avoid being persecuted by creditors, the debtor deliberately set off firecrackers early and hid upstairs as an "emperor". In the future, including the first month, creditors can no longer ask for money.
The first day of the first month is the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is now called the Spring Festival. It was originally called "New Year's Day", also called "Yuanri", and Wang Anshi's famous four-line poem was named after it. "Thousands of families change their peaches for old ones every day" vividly describes the moving scene of a lively, peaceful and renewed Vientiane. Get up in the morning, we set off firecrackers and "open the door" to pray for good luck in the new year. People's mood is also sacred. Don't say unlucky words, don't move the broom and don't take out the garbage. In this way, the hardships in career, the troubles at work and the haze in life will disappear in the past year. Then put on new clothes, worship the heavens and the earth, and make sacrifices first. Welcome brothers, sisters and other relatives and friends to pay New Year greetings, and ask their children and daughters-in-law to pay them New Year greetings.
At noon, I drove to Xiadeng Village to attend the ancient ceremony of "For the Newcomer" in the village.
"Newcomers" refer to boys and girls born to villagers named Deng Nan. Boys are called "men" and girls are called "women". Writing "new people" into Deng Jiapu is called "going to the new place". The villagers regard "going to Ding Xin" as a sacred event for the whole family and "Ding Xin". Of course, it is also a major event in the village. The Deng family event is related to the inheritance and prosperity of the Deng family. Its ceremony is a belief, a culture, a hope, simple and grand, not to be offended, not to be underestimated.
A few months ago, the village issued a notice for newcomers, stipulating that newcomers should bring three things, a red paper with the birthday of the "newcomer", a firecracker and a red envelope. "Go to Ding Xin" only once every five years, and the second child has been "untied" in these two years. Therefore, many people went to Ding Xin this year. The village bought good rice paper and produced a sequel to Deng Jiapu.
As an old man who used to be a leader, I was invited to attend the ceremony beside the host, Fagen (the old village head), and the elders of other clans were also invited to stand next to me, and two middle-aged people who were familiar with "business" sat at the table as staff. Hairen has been the village head since the late 1980s, and it has been more than 30 years. He is of medium height, with short hair. Like a washboard, he wears a "dual-purpose shirt" all the year round with two pockets under it. The uniforms that were popular in those days liked to wave their right hands when talking, which was very dignified.
In the hall, the memorial tablet of ancestors is enshrined on the wall opposite the gate, and cigarettes are wrapped around it. There is a couplet on both sides of the memorial tablet, which says, "The merits of our ancestors will last forever, and the heroes of future generations will shine forever." Under the memorial tablet, there is a thick stack of genealogy on the ancient tea table. Next to the coffee table is a square table with offerings such as cock, fish, meat and vegetables, as well as incense burners.
Everything is ready, and his hair is very serious. He grabbed a mouthful of Mandarin that he often spoke when he was in office and announced that "Newcomer" began to play music in off the charts; In an instant, firecrackers suddenly rang and suona blew; Children born in these five years who are not on the spectrum are held by their parents and lined up in two rows (women in front and men in the back) to bow down to their ancestors' tablets; Then read out the names of the "newcomers" one by one, light a stick of incense for the children who hear the names, and then bend down to pay homage to their ancestors and elders present. After the memorial ceremony, they burned incense on the incense burner of the square table. The elders are also happy to express their blessings to the children. Although the children were not sensible, they didn't cry when they looked at this happy scene. Two staff members are busy grading "newcomers".
When the "new person" is on the music list, the "new woman" only needs to write down her name and date of birth, and then write something. (Of course, this is not bad, at least it has a famous surname. When a woman from a foreign village marries a man in her village as a daughter-in-law, she doesn't even write her name on the spectrum, but only her surname); "Men" should take out peanuts, beans and glutinous rice candy to reward everyone and set off firecrackers on the spot to show their joy. My cousin Mei Lan usually likes entertainment stars, worships Qiu Jin, the heroine of 1911, pays attention to women's rights, women's education and women's liberation, and is indignant at this discrimination against women's surnames. When she was in junior high school, it coincided with the revision of music in the village. She sternly reprimanded, pointing out that not writing the daughter-in-law's name on the music score was a remnant of feudal thought and insisted on equality between men and women. In less than three minutes, my uncle slapped her "disobedient".
After getting on the spectrum, the parents of the "newcomers" came forward to watch the sequel spectrum and soon saw the children's names; Villagers who used to be on the genealogy also looked at the genealogy that is rare at ordinary times, looking for names and understanding the generations. Genealogy is thick, with a long length and many words, and the expression has the nature of ancient Chinese. Moreover, there are many names of rural people, including usual names, names taken by parents according to sects, and names changed when they entered school, which are difficult to find at the moment. Two "professional" workers came into the arena. They help villagers find their genealogical names one by one and let them know their seniority. Changgen and Wei Zhen are young villagers who work together in Shenzhen. They are peers and middle school classmates, but there is a big difference in seniority. Long roots are the 26th generation and 28th generation of the Deng family. According to seniority, Wei Zhen should be called "father-in-law". Long Gen was very happy and shouted to Wei Zhen, "Grandson, come here quickly! I'll take you to the street to buy candy. "
In the afternoon, a troupe was invited to sing a play, aiming at the masterpiece of Fuzhou tea-picking drama "Playing the Ancient". It tells the story of Fang Qing, the son of Shangshu, who came down in the world and borrowed money from his uncle Chen Yushi. After being mercilessly rejected and ridiculed by Aunt Fang, he came back to humiliate his aunt with the first prize. Remarkably, the play is also ingeniously combined with Linchuan Taoist sentiment. In the trick, a large section of singing and Daobai in the scene of "Xi Gu" was changed to Linchuan Daoqing rap. The main musical instrument of Daoqing is an 80-cm-long bamboo tube, which has worn out bamboo joints, one end of which is covered with snake skin or lard film, and the sound of "bang, bang, bang" is made by hand. This change strengthens the effect on the field and enlivens the atmosphere on the spot.
Everyone is sitting on the bench, ready to see the play. Because most of them work and live along the coast all the year round and rarely come back. Although I am from the same village, I have long been familiar with it, and I can't even name it. By going to the theater, everyone asked each other names, checked with what Yi Xi remembered when he was a child, and kept saying, "You are so-and-so!" Screams and laughter. Some people ignore it, watch their mobile phones and play WeChat.
At the beginning of the performance, everyone's mood fluctuated with the plot. When they saw that Fang Qing was poor and humiliated by her aunt's bad words, some people said, "The situation is the same now. There are many people who love the poor and the rich. When we first went to work in the city, we carried snakeskin bags and wore peasant clothes, and we were looked down upon wherever we went. " Seeing Cuigu didn't make Fang feel poor, but devoted himself to love. Someone said, "It's hard to find such a woman now! For money, many women are keen to be mistresses and mistresses. " Young people wandering outside are still talking about the internet; Talk about wechat; Old people who farm at home complain that the prices of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides have gone up again, and no one buys rice, making it more and more difficult to farm. The dialogue between them is like two cars running on the railway, which do not intersect with each other.
In fact, we "old drifters" spend the Spring Festival in Nanchang more often than in our hometown, and the city looks quiet and empty during the Spring Festival. I can't buy my favorite steamed bread when I go out in the morning, because the chef who made breakfast has left; Walking in the street, you can't smell the delicious baked sweet potato, because the baked farmers are gone; There are few passengers on the crowded bus on weekdays, because all the farmers who work have left. In contrast to the atmosphere of going home for the Spring Festival, there are no old classmates and friends, no blood-related relatives, and no familiar Spring Festival customs in my hometown. The smell of Chinese New Year brings us loss and loneliness, the festival decorations on the street, the firecrackers and noises around, which seem to have nothing to do with us. On New Year's Eve, after dinner, the whole family watched the Spring Festival Gala, which was not wonderful. I couldn't resist the cold and went to bed early. On New Year's Day, no one comes to pay New Year's greetings, and we have no place to pay New Year's greetings. Throughout the Spring Festival, there is no excitement, no expectation, no excitement, and it is much simpler, but hope is still there, and the prospect is still there.
Spend the first unfamiliar Spring Festival in an inappropriate way. We thought about it, since we are going to spend the New Year in a foreign land, it is too good to live well, and it is too bad to live well; Lively and happy is too much, timid is too much. Then try to make it better.
From the second Chinese New Year in a foreign land, we will strive for the initiative. Years ago, Dong Yu's wife began to clean the room, washed everything that could be washed, thoroughly swept away the dust in every corner, and put everything in order, so that the home was neat and clean and comfortable at a glance. We went to the supermarket and bought China Festival, couplets, window grilles, colorful flags and red lanterns to decorate our home into a festive environment, because people improve the environment, which in turn affects people. We went to the vegetable market to buy a lot of ingredients and made new dishes according to the online teaching method. We should enjoy the taste, health and happiness on the tip of our tongue. We also bought fireworks, which we are going to show with our children and grandchildren to let our mood go.
When I got up this morning, I saw the sunshine outside, blue sky and white clouds, warm wind passing through the leaves, touching my whole body, and my pores opened like buds, which made our mood better. The so-called hometown, speaking of which is the existence of a place, is actually an emotional fetter and recognition. With the aging of our generation, hometown has become a pure geographical concept. Children and grandchildren have lived and been educated in Nanchang since childhood, and their thoughts and memories are no different from those of other children in Nanchang. They are different from our generation. They identify with their city and gradually regard it as their hometown. In this way, fewer and fewer people will go back to their hometown for the New Year. Perhaps in the future, the phenomenon of returning home for the New Year will become a dusty history.
Physical and mental safety is home, and you can have a good year in a foreign land! It seems that this sentence is correct.