Tomb-Sweeping Day commemorates the dead.
My father is from Zhenyuan and my mother is from Pingba County. During the Republic of China, my father met my mother in Pingba and took her back to Zhenyuan to get married. In the following decades, due to inconvenient transportation and poor family, my mother never returned to Pingba's hometown. Later, through the efforts of my eldest brother who worked in Pingba, my mother finally returned to her hometown in Pingba, reunited with her long-lost sister, and went to the graves of her grandparents who had already passed away to burn incense and kowtow and cry, thus giving up decades of yearning for her hometown and family.
When parents are alive, every Spring Festival, the eldest brother and the third brother who work in Pingba will return to Kaili to reunite with their parents. After my parents died, the four of us got together in Tomb-Sweeping Day every year. No matter how busy our eldest brother and third brother are at work, they have to go back to Kaili to mix.
My mother left us for forty years and my father died for twenty-seven years. However, I still see my parents in my dreams from time to time. My father was born in 19 1 1 year of the Xinhai Revolution. He leads a hard life. As a child, he learned to fish in Yanghe, and young people traveled all over the country to learn cooking. He met my mother when he was studying cooking in Pingba County. After liberation, my father was assigned to work in Zhenyuan Administrative Office Normal School and worked as a chef in the canteen. 1956, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture was established, and soon the state capital moved from Zhenyuan to Kaili, and his father was transferred to Kaili Normal School as a chef. Our family also moved from Zhenyuan County to Kaili.
My father is a famous cook in Kaili. He loved and respected cooking all his life. He regards the profession of chef as his lifelong pursuit and strives for perfection. Only tofu can make dozens of delicious dishes. My father once told my eldest brother a little-known legendary story: When Zunyi was captured by the Red Army's Long March, my father worked as a chef in the home of a warlord in Guiyang, and one of his fellow chefs was from underground party member. He was instructed by the underground party organization to secretly raise food for the Red Army. Seeing his father's integrity and loyalty, he mobilized his father to help him secretly raise food for the Red Army. Later, the underground party member followed the Red Army northward to resist Japan. After the founding of New China, my father knew that this cook's hometown was underground party member.
In the 1960s and 1970s, whenever a large conference was held in the state, my father was transferred to the post of chef. At that time, materials were scarce and there were few varieties of cooking. However, no matter what ingredients are processed and cooked by my father, they are all good in color, smell and taste. After eating, guests often praise and ask which chef made it. In that glorious era of working people, my father was respected by people. When the headmaster, teachers and students saw my father, they all greeted him politely: "Master Yang, your skills are high, and your cooking is really delicious."
After liberation, my mother was assigned to work in Zhenyuan Chengguan collective tofu society. After my father was transferred to work in Kaili, my mother quit her job to take care of our four brothers and became a housewife in Kaili. Because the father's salary is low, the mother will take care of the children at home and subsidize the family life with a little reward. Later, Kaili Normal School set up a nursery, and my mother went to the nursery as a temporary worker.
I remember two things that impressed me when I was a child, which had a great influence on my life's behavior habits. Once, after school, I ran to the school cafeteria. One of my father's colleagues saw that I was starving, so he picked up a white, big and delicious steamed bread for me. I'm glad my father saw me as soon as I took over. I slapped him and took the steamed bread from me. I reprimanded him at the same time. "You are an ignorant child. You can't just eat public steamed bread." I feel pain and injustice. My colleague explained: "I think the child is hungry, and it will be put on my account later." Father said, "Thank you for your kindness! But children should not be spoiled. He succeeded this time and will come again next time. " Since then, I have been afraid to go to the school cafeteria, and I know that I can't take public things.
Another time, my father's sworn brother came from his hometown, and my father cooked a delicious meal. I haven't smelled pork for a long time, so I swallowed. I can't wait for my father to announce dinner. I couldn't wait to reach for the meat and eat it. My father took the meat back from my bowl and was slapped: "You unruly child, the guests haven't eaten yet. How can I move chopsticks first? " I was wronged and cried. The guest advised, "Don't blame the child for being young, let him go." The father said, "This won't do. I am spoiled. I don't know the rules when I grow up. " Later, I know that there are guests at home, and I have to wait for the guests to eat first before the children can move chopsticks.
I dare not say how good my tutor is, but our four brothers and family are all conscientious, ordinary, healthy and happy. This is inseparable from his father's words and deeds.
Parents' graves are buried in the pine forest on the hillside not far from the suburb of Kaili. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, our four brothers and four families, under the leadership of our eldest brother, come to their parents' graves with hoes, sickles and shovels, cut off the graves and the dense weeds around them, tidy up the drainage ditches, clean up the surrounding graves and scrub the tombstones with handkerchiefs; Cut a thumb-thick branch, tie four hanging white floating papers bought by four brothers to the head of the branch and insert them on the grave. Then, according to the custom, four brothers and one family bowed down in front of their parents' tombstones, pinning our homesickness.
After hanging green, four brothers and four families get together for dinner, which is also a beautiful moment for warm family communication.