Why is the Chinese New Year becoming more and more deserted now? How did rural areas celebrate the New Year 30 years ago?

Time is like a wild horse running wild, and despite all the efforts to retain us, those born in the 1980s are about to run away. I have always had a question, is it true that as we grow older, our childlike innocence is completely lost? Celebrating the New Year is simply a matter for children, and the flavor of the New Year is only occasionally brought up in memory and slowly savored. I walked around the streets in the morning, and there was no sign of the Chinese New Year approaching. The low temperature of minus 6 degrees made the streets and supermarkets particularly deserted. Except for three or five adults and aunts wrapped tightly in down jackets carrying plastic bags to buy groceries, the rest were riding bicycles. Electric three-wheel delivery vendors shuttle through the streets and alleys. Are these people celebrating the New Year? The cold makes people feel particularly homesick. The depressed and deserted streets are not suitable for staying. It is more attractive to have a stove with a kettle in the house. No one is crowded for the New Year anymore. Cross your legs, make a cup of chrysanthemum tea, light a cigarette, and relive your childhood New Year memories.

Thirty years ago at this time, I must have been almost seven years old. I followed the adults around and blocked busy people who suddenly turned around from time to time. I was yelled at or pushed. Don't cry or make trouble, just keep following. The New Year is after Laba, and the countryside must be very busy at that time. Every household is packing up and making preparations, just to celebrate the New Year lively for a few days. People at that time were poor but loved to be lively. They would not deal with major festivals and festivals of the year casually. They had to have very strict rituals. Even if it was a bowl of pickled vegetables and a bowl of fried bacon, the table must be set up for the whole family to enjoy. Everyone sat together according to seniority. Regardless of whether we are rich or poor, we are all Chinese. We must celebrate the festival in a festive manner. This is to respect traditional festivals, interpret life, and pass on culture to our children.

The first thing after the Laba Festival is to drink wine. Home-brewed pure grain wine is a must-have sacred item on the New Year table to respect heaven and earth and ancestors. After peeling open the wine cellar covered with layers of plastic sheets, a fragrant and slightly pungent smell hit my face. I added some straw corn cobs to the bubbling wine cellar and stirred it evenly with a strong wooden stick. Well, I was so tired that I was sweating. Set up a large earth pot, then set up a wooden vat with the same bottom, shovel in the wine grains and spread them in fluffy layers, put a special chute for catching the wine, then set up a clean sky pot, add cold water, and turn on the fire . The newly minted wine boss will have one cup to offer to the sky to wish for good weather in the coming year, two to the ground to wish for a bountiful harvest, three to Dukang to turn the grain into mellow wine, and four to the ancestors to keep the family safe and healthy. Basically, every household with elderly people makes wine. It is a slow job, and it doesn't take two or three days for a pond of lees to be turned into several large jars of wine. Children like to make fires, use shovels to dig out the charcoal fire and bury it in the soil. They have to go to school after the Chinese New Year. This was a good material for heating in our era.

After brewing the wine, it’s time to prepare to kill the pig, which is also something children like. We boil a pot of hot water early and wait for the butcher and the neighbors to arrive. We eat two bowls of dry corn porridge first. Catching big pigs is a physical job, so it’s boring to be hungry. With a shout, the bold and experienced ones were the first to jump into the pig pen, seize the opportunity, grab the pig's tail, and lift it up hard. The pig's hind legs couldn't touch the ground and ran away, and then tied it with a rope and lifted it out. It's strange. In the past, pigs, chickens, etc. were all very afraid of people. It was not easy to catch them. Nowadays, chickens dare to jump up and peck in your bowl. Pigs are very obedient and open the pen. Open the door and walk out on your own. When you kill a pig, you eat pig-killing rice. The table is filled with bowls full of fresh meat, and the mouths of those who eat it are full of oil. To be honest, at that time and age, you could feel full after eating meat without feeling bored. Children can also play with pig urine bubbles by first opening them with water, then blowing them up with a ballpoint pen holder, and clapping them like balloons.

The next step is to prepare firewood. Because you cannot use knives or axes during the Chinese New Year, the firewood must be able to be managed until at least the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. During the New Year, dry firewood is burned, and the smoke is small and the fire is strong, which means prosperity. The adults are responsible for carrying firewood back from the mountain. I think carrying firewood and picking firewood are just a joke on TV. In reality, it is easiest to tie them up and carry them on the shoulders. If you are strong, you can carry a bundle of two to three hundred kilograms. When you are tired, you can put it on the ground. It’s very convenient to rest as soon as you hit the pestle, so why do you have to pick or carry it? In reality, I haven’t seen anyone carrying firewood on their back, it’s not practical. We children were responsible for chopping firewood, and the three brothers took turns coming in bundles. It took three or two days from morning to night to finish the work. These were the least fun days. My wrists were sore and my palms were blistered.

This is what should be done. Parents will not feel heartbroken. In an age without pampering, children are helpers in housework. During the New Year, you are already busy. No one will play with you. At the same time, you have to work. Which parent has children who can do the work? My face is bright and my heart is at ease. Even if I fail to pass the exam and go to school, I can still do farm work when I come back and won't starve to death.

Then it’s time to prepare food for the New Year. You must prepare enough cornmeal, wheat flour and rice. My family lives in the mountains. There is only broken ground in the mountains and there are no machines for grinding flour. We have to carry it down the mountain to the river to grind it. This is an opportunity to see the world. You must go with me and carry some food, five or ten pounds is fine. Anyway, you can't go empty-handed. Since this time period is quite busy and we have a long way to go, we eat before dawn and prepare to leave. It takes more than an hour to reach the destination, and we are rushing to say good things to others to be the first in line. What you look forward to most at this time is to meet relatives or friends. Needless to say, they will let you go first, because the mountains are high and the roads are far away. , I was hungry and couldn’t see the road clearly. I felt that celebrating the New Year was a very hard task.

After working like this for a while, it’s already the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month in the twelfth lunar month. Long-term and short-term work, and full work on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. This is the latest time to be busy during the New Year. It takes a whole day to boil the sugar, another day to make the tofu, and another day to make the croquettes and pastries. Then it’s time to visit the ancestors’ graves, which will take at least half a day. To bury the tombs in the mountains, you need to ask a Feng Shui master to inspect the ground. As the New Year approaches, I still have to say goodbye to my uncle and aunt, which takes another whole day. The twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the last gathering for the poor. They have to go around and buy some couplet firecrackers, soy sauce and MSG. It takes a day to go back and forth on the dozens of miles of mountain roads, and at night they have to sweep the cobwebs and rat droppings in the house. The 29th is already the New Year for rural people. They kill chickens and cook meat, wake up a large pot of dough, fill the water tank, make dozens of candles with oil pressed from sumac trees, and wash their clothes.

New Year's Eve is very busy. In the morning, we all make buns uniformly. Yesterday's dough should be ready. Eating buns symbolizes the group members. We must make more buns. After the meal, lanterns should be made of red paper and couplets should be pasted on them. In the afternoon, the family reunion dinner would be held. The fish would be picked up and killed, and two pieces of bacon would be cooked. Then you have to cook a meal for the cow. As the old saying goes, you can beat a thousand and scold ten thousand. If you have a meal at thirty, you can't lose the cow who plows the land. The New Year's Eve dinner has officially started, and the children can set off firecrackers and play. Once the couplets are posted, the family can no longer go out. They can only play in the yard at most. They are not allowed to go far until the fifth day of the first lunar month, except to pay New Year greetings.

There are certain things to pay attention to when eating New Year's Eve dinner. After the food is served, you must first respect your ancestors. After the ancestors have eaten, your family can eat. Big fish and meat are put on the table. Green spices cannot be added to the dishes at this time. The ancestors do not eat meat. They burn paper outside the door to invite the ancestors to the dinner table. In some places, they go to the cemetery to carry the ancestors back. There are only three chairs on the table. A candle is lit on the side facing the door and a stick of incense is burned. Why is it called New Year’s Eve dinner? Because the ancestors wanted to come back for dinner, they would not dare to come back until it was dark. They had to wait until the night when the chickens did not crow and the dogs did not bite. At that time, our family would not have the New Year’s Eve dinner until almost 12 o’clock.

Early in the morning of the first lunar month, those who set up incense tables to worship the gods must also look at the direction to welcome the God of Wealth, and set off firecrackers all at once. Then there is the making of dumplings. A few kilograms of fresh meat was left from the pig slaughter years ago, and a few coins were also wrapped in the dumplings. Whoever eats them will get rich. The adults put on clean clothes, and the children wear new clothes. This is the happiest time, because usually you can’t buy a new set of clothes all year round. After eating the dumplings, it’s time to get busy with the banquet. Neighbors are called over to sit down together, have a drink, and have fun together. Today I’ll be at your house, and tomorrow I’ll be at his house. They’ll drink until the seventh or eighth day of the lunar month. This is called inviting spring. guest.

Although people were poor at that time, they took the Chinese New Year very seriously and would work for half a month just for a few days of leisure. No matter how far you go, you have to come back for the New Year. If you don't make it back in time, you have to save a seat for the New Year and put a bowl of rice there. It can be regarded as a family reunion. The food was not sumptuous, but the family had a lively and New Year-like meal. Nowadays, people only have a banquet table at every turn, and they are too lazy to move during the Chinese New Year. They simply book a table in a hotel, and people they don’t know are crowded together in a hotel. What’s the point of celebrating the New Year? People in the city don't visit their ancestors' graves to pay homage to their ancestors, nor do they set off firecrackers to make people lively. There is no busy scene of carrying water, chopping firewood, killing pigs and making tofu. No wonder the streets and shopping malls are so deserted. I really miss the previous New Year’s Eve scenes. It’s not that we can’t go back, but our children can’t understand the scenes of our original New Year’s Eve. What made us lose the lively New Year’s Eve?