The happy holiday is short for Li Liang, and in a blink of an eye, it is the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, and after the Lantern Festival, it is the day when Li Liang starts to register.

The fifteenth night of the first lunar month in Hek County is very lively, and people have eaten the Lantern Festival reunion dinner early in the evening. Immediately after that, firecrackers rang out one after another, and adults and children went out of their homes to wait for the arrival of the long-awaited dragon dance team. The women in charge of the house prepared red envelopes, incense candles and other items early at home to welcome the dragon lantern procession.

In ancient times, people regarded the "dragon" as the embodiment of good luck, representing the wish for good weather and good weather, so they used the dragon dance to pray for the blessing of the dragon in order to get good weather and a good harvest in all seasons.

Most of the dragon dance teams in Hek County are farmers in the countryside, and they take advantage of the slack time in the past year to tie up the dragon's head, dragon body and dragon tail with bamboo strips, iron wires, straw, etc., and then cover them with colored silk or cloth to make exquisite colored dragons.

Common dragons include grass dragons, bamboo leaf dragons, paper dragons, cloth dragons, fire dragons, lotus dragons, etc. The number of dragons is auspicious in singular numbers, the dragons within nine sections focus on tricks, the eleventh and thirteenth dragons focus on action performances, and the dragons with more than fifteen sections are mainly used for viewing.

The dragon dance team is often composed of more than a dozen masters, and the dragon head and dragon tail masters are the most critical, and they have to come out of various shapes. After thousands of years of interpretation and optimization, "playing dragon lanterns" has developed into a folk dance art with perfect form, considerable performance skills and romanticism.

Li Liang and his sister dropped the dishes and chopsticks and walked out of the house, the alley was already crowded with neighbors, everyone walked towards the street, according to the habit of the years, the dragon lantern team will come from east to west, there will be many large and small dragon lantern teams along the way.

"Brother Liang, wait for us!" Suddenly Zhang Junjie's voice sounded behind him.

Li Liang looked back, it turned out to be Zhang Junjie and Chenchen, followed by Zhang Xin, Zhang Jia and others.

So the two families got together, mixed in the crowd, and joined the procession to watch the dragon lantern dance.

In the small county town of Hek, there are several active dragon dance teams, each with its own unique skills. Some dragon dance masters are highly skilled and can skillfully dance all kinds of tricks, while some dragon lanterns are beautiful and realistic, and they can often win people's full house as soon as they are on the stage.

At this time, it is also a good time for dragon dance masters to make money. Although life is not rich, people who have worked hard for a year and pray for good luck in the new year have prepared a lot of red envelopes and invited the dragon dance team to go around their yards and halls. According to the current market, the red envelopes are at least two yuan, and the wealthier ones are more likely to seal five yuan, Li Liang knows that his mother Wang Xiulan is preparing a brand new ten-yuan unity this year.

A good dragon lantern team often earns hundreds of dollars in one night, and more than ten people can get dozens of dollars each, which is a huge amount of money in the salary of only a few dozen yuan. So at this time of year, the dragon dance masters work hard, and the more applause they get, the more likely they are to be invited to their homes by people praying for good luck.

Generally, the male owner waits at the door of the house in advance, and as soon as he sees the dragon dance team entering the village or the street where he is located, he must hurry to welcome the dragon head master in, and the hostess must quickly light the incense and candles that have been prepared in the hall to worship heaven and earth.

At this time, the master of the dragon head will hold the head of the dragon, and he will enter the courtyard with the head of the dragon head under the accompaniment of drum music. Then the dragon body and tail behind it should be guided to go around the yard to complete the actions of swimming, wearing, soaring, jumping, rolling, playing, winding, and group modeling. Then the dragon head master has to enter the hall of the master's house, and in the small hall he has to complete a complete set of dragon dance movements, and finally continue in the courtyard when he comes out. The whole process should be vivid, smooth, coordinated, and fast, otherwise there will be no dancing on a Lantern Festival.

Finally, when the dragon head goes out, the man will hand over the prepared red envelope, and the master of the dragon dance will go to the next house regardless of the size of the red envelope.

And the people who watch the excitement will follow the dragon dance procession, often in the middle of the night. Li Liang followed his sister and the Zhang family brothers and sisters, chose the best-looking team to dance, and followed him from the east of the city to the west of the city. This team is the most popular with people, and every time they enter the alley, they are greeted by enthusiastic people at their doorstep.

Li Liang watched the novelty, in later generations, such a lively and festive dragon dance scene is rare. By the time my son's generation grew up in the 21st century, the Lantern Festival had become dull, and there were even few dragon dances.

And at that time, the dragon dance team was more about making money, and they often no longer went from house to house to house dragon dance, but only chose to be on the commercial street. Whenever the owner of a shop invites them to come in and dance, they often charge hundreds or thousands. At that time, the taste of the New Year became weaker and weaker, and I could no longer find the feeling of celebrating the New Year when I was a child.

followed this dragon dance team all over the county, and Li Liangcai and his sister reluctantly went home.

"Brother Liang, when I grow up, I will also be a dragon dance master, I want to dance the dragon head!" Zhang Junjie shouted unsatisfied.

"Aren't you afraid of being tired?" Li Liang said with a smile.

"Don't be afraid!"

"Then you have to exercise hard, how can a faucet have more than a dozen pounds, and you can't dance if you have little strength. Chenchen said on the side.

After walking with the dragon dance team for most of the night, he broke up with Chenchen's sisters and brothers, Li Liang fell down on his small bed and was unwilling to get up, and he didn't even hear the sound of his sister calling him to wash his face and feet.

Li Meng made hot water for his younger brother to wash his face, and when he saw that his younger brother did not respond, he walked into his hut and saw that Li Liang had already snored, and he fell asleep without taking off his coat.

"This kid!" Li Meng shook his head with a smile, and then helped Li Liang take off his cotton clothes and cover the quilt. rubbed a warm wet towel again and helped Li Liang wash his face.

Early in the morning of the next day, Li Liang was shouted by his sister Li Meng, today is the day of school registration. His parents had already gone to work, and Li Meng was about to go to work, and when he saw that his younger brother hadn't woken up yet, he quickly woke him up.

"Liangzi, get up quickly, today is the day for you to sign up, go early!" Li Meng advised, "Do you still have pocket money on you?" remember to bring some later, and you will have to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees today." ”

"I know, sister!" Li Liang replied with his still sleepy eyes.

"Okay, I'm going to work, I didn't make breakfast at home today, you can go to the stall at the corner of the street to eat later!" Li Meng said.

"Okay!"