Chinese New Year Zhang Baotong 2018.2.15

For more than 10 years, I always went back to my hometown in Hunan during the Chinese New Year, because my mother was old and lonely, and I hoped that the whole family could be reunited during the Chinese New Year. However, this year, my mother's house was too old and the unit was renovated, so my mother lived in my sister's house, and I couldn't go home for the Chinese New Year.

The feeling of celebrating the New Year at home and celebrating the New Year in Hunan's hometown can be said to be two heavens and two days, and the atmosphere alone is far from the same. During the Chinese New Year in my hometown, we had six brothers and sisters, and then we had to put two tables for dinner, and my mother's three bungalows were always full, and if some neighbors and guests came, the house would be full. But in Xi'an, today is the Chinese New Year's Eve, and I still sit alone in the room and write. I felt a sense of loneliness not only in the house, but also in my heart.

When I wake up in the morning, I eat breakfast and watch the news. After reading the news, breakfast was over. That's when I started writing. However, I didn't feel any emotion today, and I didn't know what to write. At this time, someone sent me a message to congratulate me on the New Year. I think I'm not going to write today, and it's time to send a message to some friends and family, but I think it's a bit too early to post now, and it's better to send it in the afternoon or evening. So, I just wanted to keep writing. I sat at the computer desk for a while, my mind was empty and troubled, and after a while, I settled down and decided to write about how I felt about the Chinese New Year this year.

Firecrackers are strictly prohibited in Xi'an urban area this year, and the whole community is quiet, and it is difficult to see even a pedestrian outside the window. The road behind the house, which is usually full of traffic, also became empty. It seems that the people in the city have returned to their hometowns for the New Year. This year's Chinese New Year is in the middle of February, when the weather is already a little warmer and the sun is shining, but there is still a cold wind blowing silently. If it weren't for the busy shopping and cleaning these days, it really didn't feel a little bit of the New Year's atmosphere.

The atmosphere of the New Year in my hometown is very different, not to mention the non-stop sound of firecrackers in the past two days, that is, since the twenty-third day of the lunar month of the New Year, the sound of firecrackers in the day and night has hardly stopped. In the past few days before the New Year, the sound of firecrackers is like fighting the Huaihai War, with large cannons and small cannons one after another, so that you can't even watch TV. The sky in the city and suburbs was filled with thick smoke, and the streets and the ground in front of and behind the houses were covered with a layer of red scraps of paper.

If you go out on the street these days, no matter which street or alley it is, it is crowded with people and traffic. The distance of tens of meters sometimes takes one or two minutes. The market is overcrowded, and there are long queues of people buying vegetables, meat, fruits, and gifts. There are so many people in the gold shops, shoe stores, clothing stores, mobile phone stores and supermarkets on the streets that you are not afraid to go inside. This kind of scene is not seen in Xi'an at all. Although Xi'an people are also shopping during the New Year, they are very geographical and limited in their purchases, so they can buy some vegetables and a few catties of meat to prepare for the New Year. Unlike the Hunan people, who have to buy dozens of catties of fish and meat, all kinds of vegetables are piled up in most of the house. I don't know about other people's homes, but there is a world of difference between our hometown and my own. Our own family has always made two meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes, and one person has a bucket of Lulu again, and the New Year has passed. Because people's living standards have improved, there is not much difference between ordinary and Chinese New Year, and the more Chinese New Year, the more you have no appetite, and the more you buy things, the more you don't want to eat.

However, in the hometown for the New Year, not only pork, sausages, smoked fish and fresh fish, but also soft-shelled turtle, eel, cuttlefish, bullfrog, beef, snail meat and duck meat are served. There are even more names of vegetables and dried vegetables, such as bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, bracken, etc., and some rare and expensive dishes that I have never heard of. In short, the more rare, the more precious, the more popular. Not only are there many people eating, but they are all very able to eat, everyone drinks and talks, and the effort of more than 20 dishes in one meal is almost eaten. I really admire the Hunan people, not only can they do it, they love to do it, but they can also eat and love to eat. Otherwise, I withdrew money from Miluo Bank several times during the Chinese New Year, and there would be no money in the bank. The money has already been withdrawn.

I don't like to celebrate the New Year in Xi'an, as soon as the Chinese New Year arrives, the activity room of the community will be closed for seven or eight days, some of the golfers have returned to their hometowns for the New Year, and some have received relatives at home and cannot come out to play. I can only stay at home and watch TV, and there are no good programs on TV, except for the Spring Festival Gala, which is singing and dancing. Therefore, the Chinese New Year is the most boring time for me.

In my hometown, in addition to eating, I played cards. Because there are many people and few children, everyone is scrambling to play. Those who didn't play sat on the side and watched. Sometimes everyone started the war from eight or nine o'clock in the morning until one or two o'clock in the evening. With a little time, you have to go out to pay New Year's greetings or visit old classmates, and you are so busy all day that you don't even have time to go to the bathroom.

But there are inconveniences to go home for the New Year, the New Year home is the peak of the Spring Festival, the ticket is particularly difficult to buy, although it only takes six hours to take the high-speed rail, much faster than in the past, but, every New Year, the high-speed rail will cancel the stop at Miluo East Station, so you have to transfer in Yueyang or Changsha back and forth. However, the more difficult it is to go home, the more precious it is to go home. Otherwise, hundreds of millions of people go home for the New Year every year, and they will return after staying at home for a few days.

At noon, my son did not come back, and my wife and I had dinner together. My wife fried a green bamboo shoot, mixed a fungus onion, and a plate of smoked fish, which was made of rice. In order to make the New Year a little more atmospheric, my wife took out a bucket of Lulu and asked me to drink it. I didn't want to drink it, but my wife had overheated.

After eating, I slept for a while, and I wanted to sleep for a while if I was fine, but after sleeping for a while, I felt uncomfortable and sat up. When my wife saw me sitting on the edge of the bed yawning incessantly, she told me to go out and play ball. I said that the New Year is over, and the activity room is not open. When my wife went to her mother's house, I turned on the computer and watched the news again, after watching Tencent, watching Sohu, watching Sohu, watching Phoenix, and then watching Sina. After reading all of this, I really had nothing to do, so I had to write. If you don't write, you can only sleep and watch TV. However, I don't like sleeping or watching TV very much, so I might as well write.

The sun outside the window was shining, and the whole neighborhood was surprisingly quiet. Looking further away, it seems that the whole city of Xi'an is very quiet. This is the first time I have spent the Chinese New Year in Xi'an in more than 10 years. I really didn't feel comfortable, very bored and boring. I wanted to go out and walk around, but at this time, I couldn't see anyone anywhere else except the mahjong parlor. However, I haven't played mahjong in years, and I already have an aversion to playing mahjong.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, my wife came back, and when she saw that I was still writing, she said that it was the New Year, so I would stop writing. I thought it would be good to sit in front of the computer all the time, so I came to the sofa in the living room and wanted to watch TV. My wife wants me to eat. I looked at the watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, peanuts, pistachios, chocolates, and all kinds of sweets, as well as apples, pears, and oranges on the coffee table for a long time, and I didn't know what to eat, so I didn't do anything. I searched for programs on the FM board, but after searching for a while, I didn't see any good programs, so I went into the hut again and continued writing.

At five o'clock, the wife began to make dumplings. The dumplings are beef because no one in our house eats pork. I don't like dumplings, but after the New Year, I have to eat dumplings for dinner and the morning of the Chinese New Year's Eve in Xi'an. The dumplings were wrapped, and the son came back, sitting on the sofa and playing with his phone. After eating the dumplings, he said that he wanted to go back to his home. So, we packed up the dishes and chopsticks and waited to watch the Spring Festival Gala. Actually, I'm not very interested in the Spring Festival Gala, and the current Spring Festival Gala is getting more and more unseemly, but what else can I do if I don't watch the Spring Festival Gala?

In the past, we always looked forward to the Chinese New Year, when we could eat good food, wear new clothes, and get some pocket money. But is there any temptation for us now? Our living conditions have long exceeded the material needs of the past Chinese New Year. Therefore, the meaning of the Chinese New Year now lies more in the reunion of relatives and the joy of family members. If you don't have this atmosphere, then the New Year won't be interesting.