The twenty-third day of the lunar month, called Chinese New Year's Eve, today is the day when Lord Vesta's ascension to heaven and debriefing, so it is necessary to send Vesta.

After lunch at noon, Old Man Chen took out the two knives of paper that he had bought a few days ago, put them on the big table, and prepared to print.

And with them, the paper money that was burned for God and the dead was to be folded by themselves.

This kind of white paper is seventy or eighty centimeters wide and more than a hundred centimeters long, and there are a hundred pieces of paper with a knife, and four or five sheets are folded, and Xiaoxi helps to count them beside it.

Folding paper is a job that cannot be done by women, it must be a man, even if there is no man in the family, you have to ask someone else to help print it. I guess I think a woman's yin qi is too heavy or something.

A stack of paper is folded several times to the width of a hundred-dollar bill. In fact, Mr. Chen has to fold a few knives of white paper every year, so he is very familiar with it, and after a while, the two knives of paper are folded.

In their dislike of paper-cutting, they have to use a hundred-dollar bill on the folded white paper, pat, use a fingernail along the edge of the banknote to lightly scratch, cover the banknote on the white paper against the scratch and pat it again, and scratch it along the edge, a stack of paper is about five times, this is the printing paper.

Only the white paper printed with 100 yuan bills can be burned for the ancestors, otherwise it will be counterfeit money in the underworld, and it will not be used.

Old Man Chen put the printed white paper back in the cabinet where the grain was kept, and put it together with the cannon he bought.

Burning paper for the dead is to set off a cannon, saying that it is to greet them and let them come to receive the money. Generally, people will buy some one or two hundred rings, which are used to sacrifice to the god of the stove and burn for the deceased relatives who are a little far away, and will also buy some five hundred rings and a few cakes with thousands of rings, which are put for their ancestors.

In the evening, after dinner, the family sat on the bed and watched TV. At about ten o'clock, Mr. Chen went out, and after a while, he heard the sound of "crackling" firecrackers, which came from the stove room. Chen Yubin and Xiaoxi put on their shoes and ran out to see.

After the sound of firecrackers came from Xiaoxi's house, the sound of firecrackers was also heard intermittently from other places. This is when I heard that someone was sending the god of the stove, and the others knew that the time was up, so they began to send the god of the stove.

I saw that where the stove was next to the wall, there was a pile of burned paper ashes, three incense sticks were inserted in the soil, and there were red confetti of firecrackers everywhere on the stove, on the lid of the water tank, and on the board. On the stove, the earthen wall next to it was brushed with a layer of cement by Mr. Chen, this is to prevent ash, the stove has been burned for so many years, and now it is blackened by smoke.

In the corner of the stove, there was an earthen bowl, filled with a bowl of rapeseed oil, and a cotton core was placed in it, which had been lit by Old Man Chen at this time, which was ordered overnight.

One night means to point until dawn the next day.

The earthen bowl, also called the tuba bowl, as the name suggests, is fired from clay. It is slightly earthy black, and the mouth of the bowl is large, but not deep. This kind of bowl is now obsolete, and basically no one uses it for eating, but it is still used for mats. One is that every house has two bowls, and the other is that this kind of bowl is heat-resistant, and it is best to make steamed vegetables.

After the Chinese New Year's Eve, every household will start preparing for the New Year.

Early in the morning, Xiaoxi prepared a pen and paper, wrote down all the things in her space, and planned what she wanted to make with these ingredients. It's a chattering morning, and I'm not keen on doing my homework anymore.

"Xiaojuan, you will come over after lunch, and I will tie your hair. After writing down the things to be prepared, carefully folding them, and putting them in the pen case, Xiaoxi said to Zhao Juan.

"Uh-huh. "They said yes, they wanted to tie their pigtails, which was the hairstyle that the two of them said they were going to do when they were watching TV two days ago.

After lunch and resting for a while, Zhao Juan came over, the creek was basking in the sun dam, there was a comb on the table, and a small pile of rubber rings.

This rubber ring, which is thin, can be used to tie hair. In the past, when Xiaoxi's father planted mushrooms at home, he used them to tie his pockets, but later he stopped planting them, and there were a lot left.

"Finished eating? Hurry up and sit down. Xiaoxi got up and pressed Zhao Juan to the chair she was sitting on just now.

picked up the comb on the table, untied Zhao Juan's headband, and began to comb her hair. Her hair was slightly yellow, very fine, very soft, and the slightest exertion, she cried out in pain, so the stream had to be carefully combed one by one.

Finally, they were all combed, and the path was divided in the middle, and then they began to divide a small strand with their hands without a comb, and began to braid. Xiaoxi's dexterity has braided many people in his previous life. In half an hour, she braided a small braid, and because of her lack of hair, she braided more than 20 of them.

The two exchanged positions and asked Zhao Juan to braid Xiaoxi, but no matter how she got it, she couldn't meet her requirements, so she had to do it herself, braided two centipede braids on the left and right, hung down from behind her ears, and quietly put them on her chest, showing a bit of elegance.

After the two of them cleaned up, they started to write their homework again, no way, it will be the New Year in a few days, will it be written at that time?

Granny Chen saw that the time was almost up, so she asked her grandchildren to go back to the house to change their clothes, and asked Zhao Juan to pack up her homework and hurry home to change her clothes.

"Creek...... Creek ......"

The brook ran two steps to the vegetable garden of the old house, and shouted at the old yard, "Eh, grandmother." ”

"Have you packed up? It's time to go. The grandmother patted the non-existent ash on her sleeve and urged the stream.

"Let's change it, we'll be here right away. Then he hurried to the house.

"Mother, hurry up, mother-in-law, they're urging. Xiaoxi ran to the door of the bedroom and shouted at Granny Chen, who was still shining her shoes.

When Granny Chen heard this, she was anxious, threw the rag in her hand on the shoe rack under the bed, beckoned the sister and brother to go out, and locked the door by the way.

"Oh, why are you here? The days are short this winter, and if you go late, it will be dark. Seeing that the mother-in-law and grandson had just come over, the grandmother complained.

"Okay, okay, we're not here, it's close, we can catch up now, and when we get there, it won't be dark. Granny Chen hurriedly defended, "By the way, it's all cleaned up, right?"

"It's all packed, and I'm waiting for you. The uncle on the side said.

Granny Chen looked around and saw that everyone was all together, so she said, "Okay, let's go." ”

Only then did my uncle take Zhao Bo and Zhao Juan, my cousin and my aunt, my mother-in-law, and my mother-in-law Chen took Chen Yubin and Xiaoxi, and a large number of passers-by set off.

Today, their group of people went to eat and drink, and Old Man Chen was at home to watch the door.

Whether it's a white thing or a red thing, they have to leave the guest the night before. Eat two meals in a serious manner, one the night one and one the next morning, and that's it. However, every time there is a banquet, the leftovers and soup will be collected a lot, and the host will heat these up, and then cook a few large pots of bean curd porridge, and invite the neighbors, helpers and those relatives who are closer to them to have lunch.

Getting off the guest has the meaning of making a banquet and doing red and white things.

Because they can't make much money doing land, all the young laborers in the family generally work outside the home, and they don't come back until the New Year, so they are generally set in the lunar month and the first month of the new year. First, there are many lively and festive people, and secondly, relatives take this opportunity to make love and affection.

To be land means to plant land and crops.

The place they were going to was not far away, only forty or fifty minutes away. After crossing the river, we crossed the hill of the six teams, and then left the village and entered the Zanjia River, which was the village where we had a happy wine this time, and it took more than 20 minutes to walk.

When they arrived at the creek, it was neither early nor late, just right, and there were not many guests from the main family. There were three fires burning in the courtyard, two of which were already crowded, and one of them was sitting sparsely.

A group of people caught up with the courtyard dam, and they were seen by a few sharp-eyed old ladies on the fire, and they took away Granny Chen, mother-in-law and cousin, and cousin and father were also taken away by familiar ones. Before they left, they repeatedly told the children not to run around and to play in the yard.

It just so happened that there were some unknown people around, and it was slowly getting dark, and the temperature had dropped, and the brook was too lazy to move, so he took the lead and sat down by the fire where there were not many people. Take a seat first, lest everyone come later, and there will be no place to sit.

Seeing that Xiaoxi was going to roast the fire, Chen Yubin and Zhao Juan also followed closely. Zhao Bo was a bold man, and the adults didn't worry about him, and felt bored sitting on the fire, so they ran with a group of children to pick up cannons.

When the bride was brought in, firecrackers were going to be set off, and some of them fell to the ground without lighting them, so they were picked up by those naughty boys and put them in their pockets. They didn't dare to throw it into the fire at this time, so they put it in their pockets and went home to play slowly.

It's like lighting it in the water and sticking it in cow dung, which are their favorites. When they heard the sound of "bang", the water was blown up and the flowers were blown up or the cow dung was blown up and scattered all over the sky, they covered their mouths and laughed, very happy. Actually, happiness is simple.

It was slowly getting dark, and I turned on the lamp in the courtyard, and I was busy spreading the plastic paper on the table, placing a bottle of liquor, four bottles of beer, two large bottles of soy milk, a plate of melon seeds with hard candy and a pack of cigarettes, a plate of ten fruits, ten pairs of chopsticks, ten paper cups, ten plastic bowls, ten boxes of yogurt, and a roll of napkins.

Plastic paper is a much larger tablecloth-like thing than a tabletop, and its function is similar to that of a tablecloth. On the table, there is a lot of oil and water, and it is sprinkled inadvertently, covered with plastic paper, and it is over after eating, and there is no need for a rag or anything. And now the seats generally have two wheels, which is quick and trouble-free.

The two wheels, the general peasant population is relatively large, and the more than 20 tables set up in the courtyard dam cannot sit down, so the first batch eats, and the rest of the people eat after eating, and the second batch of people on the table is called sitting on the second wheel.

There are only ten people at a table, and of course those cubs who can't run yet or are just running don't count.

Seeing that it was time to eat, several people hurried to find the adults who were still chatting. Of course, the seat is to sit on the head wheel, eat early and go to rest early, in the middle of the night.