Although the importance of various traditional customs in the city is declining year by year, and the taste of the Spring Festival is becoming less and less, people are still following many traditional customs in the mountain villages.

In the eyes of many people, this kind of conservative power is undoubtedly a kind of regression of social civilization, but it has well preserved the unique charm that cannot be purchased in the commodity society.

A few years ago, when the Laba Festival was celebrated, Kang Mingsong either worked in the research institute or accompanied Lu Xiaofang in the city, so the task of boiling Laba porridge naturally would not fall on his head.

But this year is different, he has returned to his hometown, so it is inevitable that he will be responsible for this work again.

Fortunately, the second sister Kang Minghui is also at home and can help.

The ingredients used in the preparation of laba congee vary depending on the product from place to place, but rice, carrots and vegetables are the essential three treasures.

As early as the night before, the siblings had prepared peanuts, ginkgo seeds, soybeans, lotus seeds, fried tofu and other materials, and on the eighth day of the lunar month, they only needed to add them to the cauldron in order according to the characteristics of different ingredients and boil them over slow heat.

From a certain point of view, the method of making laba porridge is not difficult, it is more symbolic. People try to express people's joy at a good harvest and their hopes for the future by bringing together various ingredients.

There are many activities to be carried out on this day, but the most important is to worship the ancestors, and then worship the gods such as the door god and the stove god in the fixed place of the old house.

For Kang Mingsong, he does not feel that this is a feudal superstition, on the contrary, he feels that this slightly cumbersome ritual can better enhance the cohesion and centripetal force of the family.

The festival ends before 6 p.m., after all, it gets dark early in the winter in the mountains, and night begins to fall after 6 p.m.

Almost at the same time, the village is buzzing with the aroma of a variety of rich, charming delicacies, and the villagers are celebrating the past year's harvest in this way.

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After eating Laba porridge, it means that it has officially entered the preparatory stage of the Spring Festival, and every household begins to prepare New Year's goods to welcome the arrival of the new year.

Compared with the all-weather and dazzling supermarkets in the city, due to the inconvenience of transportation and material exchanges, it is not easy for the villagers to prepare all kinds of New Year's goods.

Even many mountain people with financial difficulties still need to take all kinds of mountain goods accumulated at home to sell in the market town in order to buy back the New Year's goods that they do not have at home.

Of course, today, although there are such families, there are not many. That is, some elderly people who are widowed and live alone may face such a situation.

Those families with young and strong laborers, as long as they are not too lazy to eat, are not too difficult in this day and age.

In the continuous preparation of New Year's goods, Kang Mingsong also ushered in his 29th birthday.

As a young man, naturally there is no possibility of doing a big deal, that is, the second sister Kang Minghui fried two more dishes when cooking, and the second brother-in-law gave him a red envelope in the morning, not much money, one hundred and eighty-eight yuan, that is, just the mind.

The eldest sister Kang Mingmin was busy with the business of the restaurant, so she just sent him a birthday red envelope through prestige, which was one hundred and eighty-eight yuan.

However, Yuan Bingya, who was far away in Tianfu City, Xichuan, actually sent him a big red envelope of 520 yuan in the prestige, which caught Kang Mingsong off guard.

What does this woman mean?

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The real peak period for preparing for New Year's goods will not be until Chinese New Year's Eve, that is, after the twenty-third day of the lunar month.

Today is the twenty-third day of the lunar month, which happens to be the first day of February, and it also happens to be the day of the gathering in the mountain township.

Although there is still a day to catch the market on the 28th day of the lunar month five days later, because the next day is the New Year, more families set the day of the New Year's goods purchase on the 23rd day of the lunar month.

The Kang Mingsong family also had to go to the market to buy all kinds of New Year's goods, so after breakfast that morning, the yard was busy.

The second sister and her family have been living in the Kang family's old house during this time, but as the Spring Festival is approaching, Kang Mingsong also plans to give them a holiday from tomorrow. Then they have to wait until the second day of the Lunar New Year, when they come to their homes to pay New Year's greetings, and then start to work.

The reason why Kang Mingsong decided to give the second sister and his family a holiday the next day was naturally to use their labor for free today.

The family made a lot of money this year, and Xiu Chengyan and Kang Dazhi decided to have a good fat year, and drew up a long purchase list for New Year's goods early.

Although I have bought some in the past half a month, most of them are today.

Kang Mingsong was already stunned when he looked at the things on the list. There are so many things, if you have a car, it's not a big problem, but the problem is that you don't have a car at home now.

Kang Mingsong really felt that there was a need to buy a car at home.

I didn't buy a car before, mainly because of Hong Zhengli's requirements. Now that my family has been successfully lifted out of poverty, it is no problem to buy a car.

It's just that that's a later thing, and now I still have to ask the second sister and the second brother-in-law to help me move the New Year's goods home.

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With the departure of the second sister's family, the Kang family has officially entered the rhythm of the New Year.

But this is also the beginning of hard times.

Why do you say that, because since the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, a family of three began to carry out a comprehensive cleaning of the entire old house.

This is a truly difficult task, after all, the area of the house to be cleaned is almost 700 square meters, and it is two floors upstairs and downstairs, which is terrifying to think about.

It took three days of busy work for the grandfather to complete this task.

But Kang Mingsong still can't rest, because he still has a task: to paste Spring Festival couplets!

Dozens of rooms, all pasted down, not a whole day, can't be done.

Fortunately, in this job, the technology is not exquisite, the upper link is on the right, the lower link is on the left, and the door is pasted with horizontal batches. Judging the upper and lower couplets is also very simple, generally the upper couplets are the sound of the voice, and the lower couplets are flat sounds, even if the Spring Festival couplets are misplaced, they will not be wrong.

And the current Spring Festival couplets are very rare, even if they are wrongly pasted in the countryside, no one will laugh at you. As long as you don't stick "livestock prosperity" on the head of your own bed, you can basically get by.

But because there are too many rooms, dozens of Spring Festival couplets are pasted down, and it is also a tired Kang Mingsong's back pain.

At this time, he was very annoyed, because Mao's old house was so big, such as buying a small set in the city, pasting Spring Festival couplets and other things could be done in minutes.