1. Ye Shengtao's Festival
offered incense, poured wine, and then bowed down. I usually do too little exercise. I am only over forty years old, and my knee joint has hardened. I only feel stiff when I kneel down, and I have nothing else to think about.
In the past, when my father and uncle were in Japan, their worship was different. The appearance is very solemn. After kneeling for three times, he kowtows gently for dozens of times, as if he were praying silently there, then stands up and respectfully leaves the worship position. The so-called "offering sacrifices as if they were present" and "respecting things in the face" have become a habit since childhood.
Some children sometimes follow me to worship; Sometimes they say they are not happy, so let them go. Incinerating paper ingots is what they like to do. They slowly add the paper ingots into an enamel basin, watch it be swallowed by the flame, and then turn into white ashes, as if it were like fiddling with a charcoal brazier in winter.
The first thing children know about festivals is that they can have better and more dishes when eating. Second, this is a special game in the family, and it must be performed several times a year. As for the ancestors, they will come to help the old and bring the young, sit quietly with Zuo Zhao and You Mu, eat and drink, and then go back with money: this is unimaginable for children.
2. Feng Zikai's Tomb Sweeping at Qingming Festival
When we arrived at the grave, everyone rested. Uncle Mao Sheng went to a nearby farmhouse to borrow a table and two stools, so he arranged sacrifices and bowed down in turn. After the worship, play freely. Some eat sweet wheat cakes, some eat zongzi, and some pull broad bean stalks to make flutes.
The broad bean stalk is square, and several holes are picked on it as flute holes. Then pick a pea stalk and put it at one end of the flute, and the flute will be made. Pointing at the flute hole and blowing pea stalks, the pronunciation is melodious and audible. Unfortunately, this kind of flute has a short life. Take it home, and it will dry up the next day, and it won't blow.
After the sacrificial sweeping, Uncle Mao Sheng returned the table and stool, and as usual, presented two sweet wheat cakes and a string of zongzi as a reward. Then everyone went back together in the sunset. There is only one big pine tree on the grave of Yangzhuang, and it faces a pond. Father said it was called "beauty looking in the mirror". Now, if I don't go for decades, I wonder if the beauty is still looking in the mirror. Close your eyes, the scene is now.
3. Wild Vegetables in My Hometown by Zhou Zuoren
When sweeping graves around the Qingming Festival, some families-probably those who preserved the ancient style-used yellow flowers and maiguo as their offerings, but they didn't make cakes, made them into small pieces as big as the top of their fingers, or thin strips as little fingers, and made five or six pieces as a collection, which was called cocoon fruit. I don't know what it means, or they also used it for offering sacrifices when silkworms went up the mountain.
I haven't seen cocoon fruit since I went out to visit my grandparents' grave when I was 12 or 13, and I have lived in Beijing recently, and I have never seen the shadow of yellow flowers and wheat fruit again. Japan is called "Imperial Shape", which is one of seven grass in spring together with shepherd's purse. It is also used as a snack, shaped like Ai Jiao, and is called "Straw Cake". It is eaten before and after the vernal equinox, and it is also found in Beijing, but it is always Japanese, and it is no longer a childhood yellow flower and wheat cake.
There is also a kind of wild vegetable, commonly known as Caozi, commonly known as Chinese milk vetch, which is often eaten when sweeping graves. After harvesting, farmers sow in the fields and use them as fertilizer. It is a kind of plant that is despised, but it tastes delicious like pea seedlings when it is cooked with tender stems.
The flowers are purplish red, and dozens of acres are continuous. They are beautiful, such as covered with gorgeous carpets. Moreover, the flowers are like butterflies, like chicks, which are especially popular with children. It is said that there are white flowers in between, which can cure dysentery. It is very precious, but it is not easy to get.
4. Yu Dan's Qingming Festival: Attachment in Blood
The anxiety and sorrow of Qingming Festival are not idle worries, but real sadness for a reason, because we are going to pay homage to our ancestors on this festival. In ancient times, there were many customs in Qingming Festival, besides banning fire, cold food and sweeping graves because of mesons, there were also hiking, planting trees, swinging, playing polo and inserting willow sticks.
This festival is full of vitality, so you can comfort the deep grief and sustenance in your heart. Qingming is a clear and bright day, but there is also a deep attachment in this day.
I always think of many people consciously or unconsciously during the Qingming Festival. Sometimes it's a name, sometimes it's a detail, sometimes I even think of a phone number, or a clear and distant melody of a song.
My memories are related to some dead people and some living people, but those involved in the past have also passed away. Qingming Day gives us a reason to indulge our feelings, and we can fly to the horizon with our thoughts. Just like those kites that tie strings, no matter how near or far they are, there will always be a line called Qingming.
5. Xiao Fuxing's "Remembering Father at Qingming Festival"?
After so many years, many childhood events still seem to be in front of me, and even some details are particularly clear. I remember the first flute my father bought for me, which was 1 cents. The first book I bought, Youth Literature and Art, was 1.7 cents; The first jinghu I bought was 2 cents from 2 yuan ...
At that time, my family was not rich, and a family of five depended on my father's meager salary. In order to buy these things for me, my father took out the money and gritted his teeth. Because at that time, it was only a few cents to buy a catty of stick noodles, it seemed a bit extravagant to spend so much money on these things, especially to spend more than two yuan on a handful of jinghu.
In the second year of junior high school, I fell in love with reading, especially after I borrowed a book "Poems of a Thousand Families" from my classmates, I was even more fascinated by ancient poems. At that time, my family lived in Qianmen, not far from Dashilan Road. There was a big Xinhua Bookstore in the north of Dashilan Road. I often went there to read books after school.
after looking through it many times, I found four of the dazzling poems of Tang and Song on the bookshelf, and I always loved them. I picked them up and put them down, and I was reluctant to part with them. One is Selected Poems of Li Bai edited by Chinese Department of Fudan University, the other is Selected Poems of Du Fu edited by Feng Zhi, the other is Selected Poems of Lu You edited by You Guoen and the other is Selected Poems of Song Dynasty edited by Hu Yunyi.
Every time, after reading these four books, I can't help but look at the pricing at the back of the book. The price of Selected Poems of Li Bai is 5 points for 1 yuan, 7.5 points for Selected Poems of Du Fu, 8 cents for Selected Poems of Lu You and 3 cents for 1 yuan. Four books together, always * * * to small 5 yuan money?
At that time, 5 yuan's money was just the cost of my lunch at school for one month. Every time I read the pricing at the back of the book, I sighed vaguely. With so much money, my father would not agree. Therefore, every time I turn over the book, I say to myself in my heart, forget it, don't buy it, borrow it from school.
However, every time I come to Xinhua Bookstore, I can't help but stand on tiptoe and take these four books off the shelf. I can't help but look at the pricing at the back after turning over the books. It seems that I hope that the pricing I saw this time will be cheaper than the one I saw last time.
At that time, in order to help my father share the burden of the family, my sister went to Baotou before she was 18 and worked in the newly-built beijing-baotou railway Online. She took most of her salary and began to send 2 yuan money to her family every month.
On that day, after school, my mother just retrieved the 2 yuan money from my sister in the post office. I clearly saw my mother put the four tickets for 5 yuan money in my small box with "delicate gold and silver". After my mother went out, I immediately opened the small box, took out one of the four tickets, put it in my pocket, flew out of the house, ran to Dashilan and ran into Xinhua Bookstore.
Without saying anything, almost more skillfully than the salesman, he pulled out the four books from the shelf, handed them to the counter, then took out the 5 yuan money ticket from his pocket and proudly bought the four books. Finally, Li Bai, Du Fu and Lu You, as well as so many famous poets in the Song Dynasty, all belong to me, and they can accompany me every day to talk about mountains and rivers.
when I got home, I put down those four books. I was very happy and ran out to play with my friends in the alley. At dusk, I saw my father coming to me after work with a livid face, and then he took me home. When he got home, he pressed me on the bed board and gave me a spanking with the sole.
I didn't resist, didn't cry, and didn't say anything, because when I saw the four books lying on the bedside, I knew that my father must know what a ticket with 5 yuan money was missing from the small box. I know, I was wrong. I shouldn't take money to buy books on a whim.
5 yuan money is a lot for a poor family.
after the beating, I didn't eat, so I took those four books and ran back to Xinhua Bookstore in Dashilan, telling stories and begging people to return them. I put the money back in front of my father, who looked up at me and said nothing.
the next night, my father came back late and it was completely dark. Mother has put the food on the table, and our family is waiting for him to eat. My father sat at the dinner table without a job, but took out some books from his broken bag. I saw them at first sight, namely, Selected Poems of Li Bai, Selected Poems of Du Fu, Selected Poems of Lu You and Selected Poems of Song Dynasty.
My father said to me, "It's a good thing to love reading. I'm not telling you not to buy books, I'm telling you not to take money from your family."
Nearly 5 years have passed, and I still remember what my father said and how he said it. Those four books followed me from Beijing to the Great Northern Wilderness, and from the Great Northern Wilderness to Beijing. After many bumps and moves, they are still by my side. The Xinhua Bookstore in Dashilan is still there miraculously. Everything seems to be the same as when I was a child, but my father has been dead for 38 years.