My hometown's umbrella head yangko has a long history and a high popularization rate. Almost every village, young and old, is an expert. Before the popularity of mobile phones and televisions, from the afternoon of New Year's Day, I climbed the mountain and heard the sound of gongs and drums far and near.
A yangko team must have at least a gongs and drums team, a waist drum team, an umbrella head, a flower pulling team and a small program group. The yangko team listened to the umbrella head and was ordered by the gongs and drums team.
After eating jiaozi at noon on New Year's Day, lively young people will get together to discuss Yangko. If everyone is willing to spend a few days invigorating villagers' lives and creating a harmonious atmosphere in the village, and others are willing to run errands, they will follow suit and consult with village cadres. If the village cadres feel that the person in charge is reliable, they will agree to set up a yangko team as long as they invite the umbrella head.
So, the leaders took hip flask and good cigarettes and invited the master who sang yangko in the village. At first, these people will make excuses, and the person in charge will praise them for a while, saying how talented, prestigious and warm-hearted he is, while smoking and pouring wine. The invited people asked about their plans and practices by the way, and then agreed.
Please go to the umbrella head to inform the villagers and get all the props needed by the yangko team. When some activists who had one's fingers itch arrived, they began to beat gongs and drums and shovel. After the umbrella head arrives, hold up the umbrella and blow the whistle, and the yangko team will take shape.
When the villagers arrive, the person in charge will ask the village cadres to say a few words first, announce the establishment of the yangko team, announce the discipline these days, announce the heads of each team, and distribute and receive relevant props. After that, take your positions, improvise a few yangko songs with the umbrella head, pay New Year greetings to the villagers and arrange various matters. Our yangko here is generally four songs around a center, each sentence rhymes, catchy and appealing to both refined and popular tastes.
In the next few days, I went door to door to pay New Year greetings during the day. In the evening, each group brings the new and the old, trains novices and rehearses new tricks.
Wait until all the people in the village who are willing to let the yangko team go to the yard to send excitement and happiness are next to each other, and then discuss leaving the village.
Making yangko outside the village can not only show the level of yangko in the village and the spiritual outlook of the villagers, but also enhance the friendship between villages.
The yangko team went out of the village to make trouble, and there were a series of procedural ceremonies.
The first is to send yangko. According to the number of people in our village and the level of our yangko team, everyone is indeed the target village in the surrounding villages. In the evening, send a village cadre and a person who has contact with the target village Committee to deliver the post. Send it home, send a message. In the village, "Go out by walking, communicate by shouting". Posters walk back and forth, sometimes walking hundreds of miles to several villages in one night.
After breakfast the next day, anyone who can leave the village and is willing to go can go, and some key members must go.
When the Yangko team arrived at someone else's village, they were greeted by umbrellas, which were picked up at the door, the village and the venue three times. Every time, the umbrellas of the two families sang in duet, the host asked and the Hakkas answered. Duets need courtesy, discipline and talent. This process is also the time to show the strength level of the umbrella head.
The yangko team has been twisting the team since it arrived at the village edge.
At the front are two squatting strong men holding a door flag that reads "XX Village Yangko Team"; Followed by the mighty colorful flag team, seven-color colorful flags are hunting in the wind.
Then there is the gongs and drums team, swinging their arms on the drums, holding high the drumsticks and banging on the drum surface, and the drums sound like muffled thunder. He will try his best to ensure that the Yangko team can hear the drums from beginning to end, can display their skills on the drums, can clap cymbals and play gongs, and all of them are in tune with the rhythm. Behind the gongs and drums team is the waist and drums team. Dozens of players were divided into two or four columns, which filled the road. They shook their heads and swung their arms, jumping and turning, tassels flying over their heads, and their feet prancing down the mountain like tigers.
Then there is the umbrella head and windbreaker with red flowers on the chest, turning a small umbrella like a windmill. From a distance, with the contraction of their umbrella arms, the umbrella head flying up and down is like a faucet with undulating water surface.
There is a flower puller behind the umbrella head. They hold one end of colored silk wrapped around their waist in their left hand and a flower fan in their right hand. With the rhythm of suona, they twisted their graceful posture and danced, colorful silks and flower fans danced, just like butterflies dancing in the sea of flowers swinging with the wind.
Finally, there is a small program group, where one person plays Duke Zhou, Tang Priest and his disciples go to the Western Heaven to learn Buddhist scriptures, immortals go to the Eight Caves, people take a dry boat, and people pull donkeys to call their in-laws. They were so naive and made a fool of themselves, which led to bursts of laughter.
After receiving the venue, the Yangko team held a meeting first, that is, all the people danced Yangko everywhere in the venue, the umbrella heads swished with umbrellas, the tiger skins or whistles kept ringing, and the gongs and drums team was playing in full swing. All the players are full of energy, and their fans are flying up and down. This link is called picking a big row.
There are many patterns in the big row, such as the bottom four doors, the inner four doors and the outer eight doors; A snake dish with moderate difficulty and nine eggs in the octagonal building; There are twelve groups of difficult octagons. The big platoon can best test the overall level of the Yangko team, whether the umbrella head can pick out the appropriate pattern according to the characteristics of the venue, and whether the players can implement the meaning of the umbrella head well to ensure that the Yangko dance remains unchanged.
Next is the mat. All members of the Yangko team form a circle, with the same head and tail. A pair of people enter the stadium at one time, one playing waist drum and the other pulling flowers. According to the number of people in the circle, they twisted out different patterns, a pair of garlic braids, two pairs of scissors pants, three pairs of three-ring sets, four pairs of four doors and five pairs of five-pointed stars ... until they entered eight pairs, and then gradually walked into two small circles inside and outside, they began to sing yangko, almost one for each person. Most of the content is to praise the village's wealth, superior conditions, enthusiasm and happy life.
It's time for dinner. The village Committee cadres in this village will distribute all the members of the Yangko team to the villagers' homes for dinner. Before distributing, an umbrella head will sing the etiquette that should be paid attention to when eating, including swatting off the dirty things on the body before entering the door, greeting the host after entering the door, not choosing bowls and chopsticks when eating, and coming over quickly after eating.
After dinner, the team members lined up again to set up a venue, then held an umbrella and performed a small program. When the moon rises, the village lights lanterns and prepares to send the yangko team home.
The delivery procedure is similar to receiving goods, but both are "three receipts and two deliveries". The person who sent the main umbrella song for the first time thanked the Yangko team for passing on the scriptures and sending treasures, and apologized for the poor hospitality; Hakka umbrella singers appreciate the hospitality, but the yangko team is limited in level. The second time (outside the village entrance), the host family sang that it was difficult to travel safely, and lanterns escorted them home safely; Hakkas sing harassment and make trouble all day, looking forward to coming early next year. Then the Hakka umbrella head sang two yangko songs of thanks to the lantern-bearer on the spot, and the host and guest broke up and went back to their villages.
Playing yangko in the village can strengthen the communication between villages, enhance the friendship between the two villages, and even promote the marriage of young people in the two villages and establish a permanent relationship.
Under normal circumstances, go out for a day, go to the township government to visit various government schools, and then come back to make trouble in the village for a day or two. Because some people are going to visit relatives, some people are going to work, and many people are too tired to suffocate. But there are exceptions One year, the yangko team in our village went out to make trouble until the fifteenth night of the first month came back to worship the land of mountain gods.
In those days, when playing yangko, except for one pack of cigarettes a day on the umbrella head, others could only smoke a few cigarettes when giving cigarettes to all the players. But everyone worked hard and had no complaints.
A few days later, when the yangko was lively, the old people were all smiling. Not only did they watch the excitement without leaving the village, but they also felt their faces greatly increased when they saw the wonderful performances of their children and even their grandchildren. The children are extremely happy. Whenever there is a Yangko in the village, their relatives will come to see it, pay for it as soon as they come, and come to play with food vendors.
Boys and girls are happy in their hearts. They have the opportunity to meet people and be seen, and the chances of meeting their sweetheart are greatly increased. Middle-aged people, especially middle-aged women, are happier. The one who took 1000 yuan at home went to play cards as soon as he ate, and sometimes he didn't go back at night. Angry. It's just the Spring Festival. Don't be angry. He also lost his children's tuition. Now go to the activity venue as soon as you eat, save your breath and be happier.
The simple yangko activities enriched the cultural life of the villagers, enlivened the atmosphere in the village, harmonized the relations between all parties, emerged various talents, condensed the spirit of the village and left many good memories.