The taste of childhood

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Year after year, the Chinese New Year is coming. The Chinese New Year, the memory from childhood to adulthood, and the passion from childhood to old age, only the taste of childhood is the strongest, the most mellow and the most vivid.

In my childhood memory, the Spring Festival is so worth looking forward to, so warm, so mysterious and so sacred. On the occasion of the reunion of thousands of families, the eternal taste of time is like a string of candied haws, sweeter and more fragrant.

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Three things before the year: killing pigs, drying pits and digging lotus roots. When I was a child, there was a big collective in the countryside. 20 families have a production team, and more than 200 people have been raised on more than 200 acres of land. The team distributes food according to the work place and the head. There is always not enough food to eat every month. Pumpkin stuffing in summer, sweet potato stuffing in autumn, radish in winter and vegetables in spring. However, as long as the twelfth lunar month is another scene, the Shengxin team will start preparing to kill pigs, dry pits and dig lotus roots for the New Year.

The most exciting thing is to kill pigs. The whole bay was watching. Kill the pigs one by one, and divide the meat from one household to another. A person can divide two or three kilograms of meat. These meats are salted into bacon in addition to the Chinese New Year. Bacon can be eaten slowly and kept for half a year. The most spectacular is the dry pit. There is a pit (pond) of four or five acres in the bay. Fish are released at the beginning of the year and dried at the end of the year. At that time, it was a diesel engine, and it was pumped once every three days. Generally, it was pumped in the afternoon before fishing. At this time, men, women and children in the bay stood on the edge of the pit, waiting for the moment when the water dried up and the fish came out. The water is getting shallower and shallower, and more and more fish are exposed, first big fish, then small fish. At this time, the old people began to estimate the fish, 500 Jin 600 Jin, and the children pointed and shouted: There is a big fish there! Young adults volunteered to go down to pick up fish. After the fish are picked up, they are weighed one by one and then divided into households according to their heads. At most, I worked more than 800 kilograms a year, and at least 500 kilograms. At that time, we would have a New Year's Eve dinner and invite New Year's greetings. Steamed fish and fried fish are essential.

The most interesting thing is to dig lotus roots. There is a lotus root pit in the team that is bigger than a fish pit, and it doesn't grow itself every year. In summer, the lotus is full of pits, and in winter, the dried lotus is full of ponds. When the water dries out in the twelfth lunar month, you can dig. Lotus root is not dug for a long time, but it grows longer and longer, so whoever digs it belongs to him. But there are doorways to dig lotus roots. Experienced people will choose a big place to dig lotus roots, while inexperienced people will choose a small place to dig lotus roots. Those who can dig lotus roots dig out the whole lotus root without any damage, and those who can't dig out the lotus root section by section. My father is an expert in digging lotus roots. When I was a child, I often followed my father to dig lotus roots, which was a burden. At that time, during the Spring Festival, every household dug lotus roots, which was the best home-cooked dish for the New Year.

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Three busy things in recent years: buying new year's goods, hiring tailors and dust removal. The closer the Spring Festival is, the busier the family is, and the busier it is, the stronger the taste of the Spring Festival. Enter the twelfth lunar month and start busy with the new year's goods. Every household has to boil sugar, cut hemp leaves, dried lotus leaves, cut magnolia slices and stir-fry jiaozi. Before New Year's Eve, the cauldron for boiling sugar, the kitchen knife for cutting hemp leaves, and the sun shed for drying lotus leaves and magnolia slices were not enough. We had to steal time and borrow from the east and the west. When busy with the new year's goods, ask the tailor to make new clothes. There are only two tailors in the village who are good and fast. Everyone needs to be invited. If they are slow, they can't. They go to their host's house every three days to make an appointment for a good day, otherwise they can't find a good tailor and make new clothes. On the 28th and 9th of the twelfth lunar month, we will be busy cleaning the dust. Clean up the front and back of the house first, then clean the main wing, repair it inside and outside, upstairs and downstairs, and make it clean and tidy to welcome the new year.

There are three kinds of steamed rice: steamed meat, steamed fish and steamed vegetables. Catch up, catch up, New Year's Eve. Rushing home for the New Year means rushing home for a reunion dinner. There must be ten bowls of dishes in our New Year's Eve dinner, and the big "three steaming" is essential. When I was a child, every family used wooden barrels to steam the New Year or treat guests. The bottom layer is rice, the middle layer is steamed vegetables, and the upper layer is half steamed meat and half steamed fish. Meat, fish, vegetables and rice cooked with firewood and steamed in wooden barrels are soft, tender and delicious, which makes people drool and won't get tired of eating for a long time. "Three Steams" is my mother's specialty. My mother's steamed meat, steamed fish and steamed vegetables are delicious. The current "three steaming" always can't eat the rich "steaming" flavor.

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Music on the third day of the first month: New Year greetings, singing operas and visiting relatives. At that time, the production team had only three days off from the second and third days of the first day of junior high school, and it was about to start work on the fourth day. Although the time is short, it is full of fun and rich flavor.

It's early to pay New Year greetings. On the morning of the first day, before dawn, parents will urge their children to get up and pay New Year greetings, thinking that whoever is sensible early is sincere. Before dawn, the children washed their faces, put on new clothes and jumped in front of the people who opened the door to pay New Year's greetings. As soon as the door is opened, the children come into the room to shout New Year greetings, and the worshiped people will also give their children delicious new year's goods. At dawn, the adults were smiling and smoking cigarettes. People from East Bay go to West Bay, and people from West Bay go door to door to pay New Year greetings. After the worship, men, women and children gathered in the middle of the bay. Adults worshipped each other, handed out cigarettes and asked questions. The children whipped, shot and chased. The whole bay is full of celebration, joy and peace.

Farmers sing big plays. At that time, every year, the brigade called the whole brigade of young people who could sing and dance and play to form a opera troupe for rehearsal, and "The Red Lantern", "Shajiabang" and "Taking Tiger Mountain Outside" took turns to sing. In the evening, the brigade department is brightly lit, full of people, gongs and drums are loud, flutes are ringing, and the modern Peking Opera, which is directed and performed on stage and off stage, brings together rural elites and concentrates the wisdom and passion of farmers. It is really full of praise and amazing. A special era is accompanied by a special atmosphere of poverty, happiness and hope, which makes people memorable and unforgettable.

Happy family visit. On the second day of the first day, I began to worship my loved ones. The happiest thing when I was a child was to visit relatives with adults during the Spring Festival. Food, fun and good friends. I especially like to go to every household (grandma's house). I am very happy to be loved by my mother-in-law (local dialect), to play with my cousins, and to be cared for, tolerant, humble and respected. That kind of simple and strong human touch, that kind of family flavor, that kind of Chinese New Year flavor, has so far made my heart fragrant and grateful.

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? The 13th Five-Year Plan: playing dragon lanterns, dancing lions and stepping on lotus boats.

Playing with dragon lanterns is good luck. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the dragon lanterns made by each team and the selected dragon lantern players appeared. First of all, I play in my own team, from the west side of the bay to the east side. Every time I go to a door, I play for a while, and every family greets me with a whip. When players from their own team play, they will go to the neighboring team. When they meet the dragon lantern players of the neighboring team on the road, the brave wins the narrow road. The two dragon lantern teams will start a battle to see who plays the dragon lantern for a long time. If a team stops first because of exhaustion or mistakes, it is considered a failure. But it doesn't matter, it's all for a lively and festive occasion. It doesn't matter who wins or loses. After nodding congratulations to each other, they moved on.

Lion dancing is safe. Not all teams have lion dance events. When I was a child, only the neighboring Jingou Brigade and Zengtai Brigade had it. The lion dance of Jingou Brigade is the most famous. On the fifteenth day of the first month of each year, square tables will be built into a stage with more than ten floors in the square of the brigade. The lion jumped from the first floor to the highest floor to collect colored balls. Some elderly people said that one year, 18 square tables were used to set up the stage of 18 floor, and the lion dance team composed of two brothers successfully reached the top to win colored balls, which became a beautiful talk for many years. Single-table lion dance is very risky, and it will fall off if you are not careful. Some elderly people said that one year, when the lion climbed the eighth floor, he accidentally slipped and the lion dancer fell from the air. Just when people exclaimed, they only heard a sound of "open". The lion skin in the air was big, and the lion dancer floated to the ground like a parachute, and made two rolling movements at the moment of landing. People were dumbfounded and cheered. Although the lion dancer is defeated, he is still glorious. ?

Spreading the gospel on the lotus boat. Walking the lotus boat is a traditional folk custom with simple production, rich content and free performance. Three farmers put on a play, and every household preached the gospel everywhere. At that time, each village team would have several teams, playing the role of stepping on the lotus boat. They adapted some local legends into funny jokes, ugly makeup, humorous rap and exaggerated movements, which made people laugh. Walking on the Lotus Boat highlights the unique regional customs and charm of my hometown in the hinterland of Jianghan Plain.

The taste of childhood, long memory. Although I am over half a year old, whenever the Spring Festival comes, I always think of the strong flavor of childhood, the happy and wonderful time. (2065438+ 1410,65438, 200218 February, slightly modified)

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