205.   Celebrate the Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is coming, and the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the traditional Chinese festival Lantern Festival.

The first month is the first month, and the ancients called the night "Xiao", and the fifteenth day is the first full moon night of the year, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival. Also known as the "Shangyuan Festival".

According to Chinese folk tradition, on the festival night when the year begins and the earth rejuvenates, the bright moon hangs high in the sky, and thousands of colorful lanterns on the ground are watched, guessed riddles, and ate Lantern Festival to reunite with the family, and have fun.

The topic of eating glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival also unfolded. The origin of eating glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival: There is a custom of eating glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival in my country.

According to folk sayings, the Lantern Festival originated from King Zhao of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, King Zhao of Chu passed by the Yangtze River and saw floating objects on the river, which was a sweet food that was white on the outside and red on the inside. King Zhao of Chu asked Confucius for advice, and Confucius said, "This duckweed fruit is a sign of revival."

The Lantern Festival is like the rice cakes for the Spring Festival and the rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival, and they are all holiday foods.

Eating Lantern Festival symbolizes family reunion like the full moon, and expresses people's good wishes for future life.

Lantern Festival is commonly known as "glutinous rice balls", "roof springs", "floating rice balls", and "water rounds". It is made of glutinous rice, either solid or filled with filling. The fillings include bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, etc., which can be cooked, fried, steamed, and fryed.

I believe that the purpose of everyone choosing to eat dumplings on the Lantern Festival is very clear. The homophonic meaning of "glutinous rice balls" is "reunion".

Eating dumplings on the Lantern Festival means that family reunion in the new year. In the past, eating dumplings on the Lantern Festival was like a family sitting around the table and eating dumplings. But today under the market economy, how many families are reunited all year round?

Especially it is difficult to go home during the Spring Festival, and the spring break holiday is short. Many people who work outside cannot stay until after the Lantern Festival before going out to work. If you eat dumplings on the Lantern Festival, it will further arouse the desolation of not having family reunited. If you eat dumplings alone in a foreign land and eat dumplings on the Lantern Festival, it will be more of a longing and more of a desolation in your heart.

However, Sun Gang would still feel a little desolate in these problems in two years. Now he stays at home and stays with his parents, and he can't feel the same way he used to be.

When he thought of the Lantern Festival, he accidentally pulled Sun Gang into the sweet childhood memories, making him fascinated.

During the Lantern Festival in childhood, the village is a world for children.

Children always yell at the busy time that adults are asking them to buy lanterns.

In the countryside at that time, every household was relatively poor.

The lanterns sold by vendors on the street are not as diverse as they are now, with only paper lanterns or folded ones.

Families with poor conditions cannot afford lanterns. They always use sorghum poles as brackets and paste a simple lantern with paper when the children are noisy.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, friends will walk out of their own doors happily with their own lanterns, show off and compete to see who has the most beautiful lanterns, and who has more small candles in their hands, and clamor until late at night.

I remember that during the Lantern Festival in my childhood, Sun's father could not withstand the hard work of Sun Gang's brothers, and had to ride his old "permanent" bicycle to the town on the night of the Lantern Festival, or take the old ox cart from someone in the village to watch the lanterns on the street.

The lamp exhibition at that time was always extremely exciting in Sun Gang's memory. Unlike the lanterns on the streets now, there was no newness in the past few years.

Dad Sun was holding Sun Gang while pulling Sun Yang and walking on the crowded street.

While walking, he kept reminding Sun Yang not to run around, so as not to get lost.

For every lantern, they always watch it and are reluctant to leave.

From time to time, yangko teams, dry ships, and lion dance teams from various villages are coming from the crowded streets. This makes the already crowded streets look even more crowded, but those wonderful performances will always push the festival towns to a happy ** again and again.

During the Lantern Festival in my childhood, I made my own dumplings at home.

On the eve of the Lantern Festival, Sun's father would go to the street to grind the glutinous rice at home into "glutinous rice noodle".

After grinding the dumpling noodles, after taking them home, Sun's mother would add water to the dumpling noodles to make it work. Under the command of her mother, Sun Gang brothers dipped the round dumplings into some water and rolled around in the dustpan of the dumpling noodles. The dumplings rolled farther and wider like snowballs.

Nowadays, every Lantern Festival, you only need to go to the supermarket in the town to buy a few kilograms of frozen Lantern Festival and go home to cook. Children have lost their due interest in lanterns because they never lack toys in their lives, and the lantern festival is always without new ideas. The Lantern Festival seems to have become a symbol of the festival and no longer have the joy of childhood.

The Sun Gang family has always maintained the tradition of "doing it yourself and having enough food and clothing". Because Sun's parents like to eat solid dumplings, that is, the kind that doesn't contain any fillings.

On the 14th day of the first lunar month, Sun Gang went to the street to grind the dumpling noodles. Now they are all machines and they are ready soon. Unlike before, they used to use stone mills, which were slow and not fine.

As I remember, when I was grinding dumplings in my childhood, I was on the big millstone in the village. Sun Gang and his brother were always rushing to push the big stone mill, and while pushing, they were salivating at the sweet Lantern Festival, telling jokes and talking about learning, and their silver bell-like laughter always sprinkled beside the stone millstone.

My mother in my memory always takes a small brush handle made of sorghum shoots, and from time to time pushes the rice and flour on the edge of the millstone plate into the middle of the millstone plate. After the milling is almost done, she uses a fine-porous sieve to screen the dumpling noodles.

On the morning of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Sun's mother got up and kneaded the noodles and dumplings. Since she did not pack the filling, she quickly rolled a pot of lid.

The pot lids in rural areas are usually made of sorghum stalks, so they are often used to put dumplings, dumplings, steamed buns, etc., which is very convenient.

When Sun Gang stepped into the yard, Sun's mother started to put dumplings into the boiling water pot. This thing is like dumplings and needs to be eaten now.

After the pot is released, add sugar to the bowl, which is as sweet as it is, and it is much better than the dumplings with many fillings sold in supermarkets, giving it a special freshness.

At night, naturally, several families gathered together again, and this time they ate at Uncle Sun Gang's house.

After dinner, it was past six o'clock and it was not completely dark, so Sun Xiaoyu took out the fireworks she bought.

My uncle bought a lot of fireworks, but it was hard to see when standing in the yard. It was the best place to be in an open place. Sun Gang took them to the road outside the gate and set them off one by one.

Finally, it was the turn of the highest and largest one. It was indeed extraordinary. It was so high and loud that it was sprinkled. The fireworks were sprinkled with beautiful flowers, blooming with all kinds of patterns, sprinkling the night sky, arousing everyone's appreciation.

I didn't stop halfway and kept putting it all over. Everyone talked and said that this was better.

In this way, everyone was talking and laughing and enjoying it. In the yard, they also saw the fireworks set out in other yards, some of which were tall and some flashing in the yard. Each house was covered with smoke, the sound of firecrackers, and the silver flowers, which were very beautiful.

……
Chapter completed!