Li Liang said goodbye to his sister and came out of the hospital with a basket. Along the way, the noisy sound of firecrackers came and went, mixed with the laughter and chasing of children!

When I got home, my father Li Shuangzhu had already prepared all the things for the New Year's sacrifice to my ancestors.

The Chinese people have a tradition of chasing after the end of the day, and they will never forget to worship the dead ancestors during the festival, and the Spring Festival is no exception. Offering food to express one's heart is a common ritual in China, and the form of ancestor worship may vary depending on religious beliefs, but the significance of commemorating ancestors is the same.

According to the folk concept, one's ancestors, like heaven, earth, gods, and Buddhas, should be worshiped seriously. Because the "spirits in heaven" of the ancestors are always caring for and watching the descendants of future generations, earthly people should pray and repay their protection and blessings through sacrifices.

During the Spring Festival, you must worship your ancestors, remember your ancestors, and inspire future generations. However, due to the differences in local customs, some places worship before the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner; some places worship around the time of Chinese New Year's Eve; some places worship before opening the door of the house on the morning of the first day of the new year; and some places go to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors after worshipping at home on the first day of the new year. There are also those who go to the grave to worship their ancestors, commonly known as tomb sacrifices, mainly to burn incense, make offerings, and bow down in the cemetery.

The custom of ancestor worship in Hek County is generally on the afternoon of Chinese New Year's Eve, and after every family has lunch, they will carry out the last grand ancestor worship activity of the year.

In villages where there is an ancestral hall, people will bring chickens, fish, meat, freshly cooked rice, wine, incense, candles, firecrackers and other things to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors.

Li Liang's hometown is in the early township, there is a Li clan ancestral hall in the village, when he was a child, Li Liang and his sister often spent the New Year at his grandfather's house, and followed his grandfather to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors. When he grew up, his father Li Shuangzhu worshipped his ancestors at home in the city.

Li Shuangzhu put the scalded steer on the plate in the shape of kneeling, and very skillfully cut out a strand of shredded paper with red paper and stuffed it into the chicken's mouth.

The meat used to worship the ancestors is a strip of pork belly, and the pork belly used to worship the ancestors pays attention to the belt meat with bones, and it must also be scalded in boiling water in a pot.

As for the fish, Li Liang's family uses fresh red carp. This fish was lucky because it didn't have to go in to sacrifice the internal organs of Li Liang's family. Today, when the ancestors are used up, they will put it back in the bucket and raise it until the second day of the Lunar New Year, and when the second day of the new year is finished, some people will kill and eat it; Li Liang's family will usually bring the fish to the river to release it.

My sister didn't get off work until half past five in the afternoon, so she didn't wait for her to worship her ancestors. Li Shuangzhu used a large tray to put the chicken, fish, meat, tribute rice, and wine, and with the tray, he first bowed three times in the direction of the spiritual position in the living room, and then came to the courtyard with the tray, and bowed three times to the sky of the courtyard.

Then light a pair of candles, make incense and salute, and insert three incense sticks in the incense burner in the living room, the incense burner of the king of the kitchen stove and the entrance of the courtyard. Finally, there are firecrackers, which must be large and loud for the ancestors on Chinese New Year's Eve, which is different from usual.

Li Shuangzhu lit firecrackers outside the courtyard, and the sound of firecrackers shook the sky, conveying people's respect for their ancestors and their beautiful yearning for life in the coming year.

At this moment, it is the time when the children around are most excited. Often, as soon as the noisy firecrackers stop, a group of children will rush into the pile of freshly lit firecrackers, carefully looking for and picking up those unburned firecrackers.

In previous years, Li Liang was one of them, but this year, he was a man in two lives, and he smiled happily when he watched Zhang Junjie lead a group of children to happily check in the embers of firecrackers.

The New Year is a "new" life, when everything can start again, from the inside out, each of us is full of hope for the future like a new life.

Wear new clothes every year, celebrate the New Year every year, people in later generations, some people say that they are tired of the New Year when they grow up, maybe the annoyance is not that they are getting older, that they are tired of it, but that they have no expectations.

In the previous life, Li Liang belonged to this kind of person who was too tired during the New Year, and every time the New Year came, his mother Wang Xiulan would think of the deceased Li Meng, so that the family's longing for the New Year was lingering in the memory and memories of their relatives.

After returning from rebirth, Li Liang found that although he had no expectations for a new dress. But the anticipation of the new year, in the joyful sound of a group of children picking up firecrackers, he smiled like a happy child.

It's good to be reborn! This new year, there is really new hope.

After worshipping their ancestors, many families have already started preparing dinner early, and Li Liang's family is not in a hurry because Li Meng will get off work late today. Wang Xiulan chopped the steer into pieces after performing the mission of worshipping ancestors, added dried shiitake mushrooms, codonopsis, red ginseng, gastrodia and other nourishing Chinese medicinal materials, and boiled chicken soup in the kitchen. At the same time, according to Li Liang's guidance, make some fish balls and meatballs in advance.

Li Liang accompanied his father Li Shuangzhu to watch TV in the living room, and the TV was playing the Henan opera "Chaoyanggou".

"Chaoyanggou" is an outstanding work of modern Henan opera, and later generations of Henan people, regardless of men, women and children, will more or less sing some of them.

Li Shuangzhu is a native of Jiangxi Province, and his favorite dramas are Gan opera, tea-picking opera, Huangmei opera and other southern dramas, but this does not prevent him from watching "Chaoyanggou" with relish. In fact, people in this era, as long as they can watch TV, no matter what program it is, even if it is an advertisement, they will forget to watch it.

"Dear mother

Grandma

Who told me to come here?

Pick in the morning

Lift in the afternoon

I'm tired

I'm so tired that my back hurts and my neck is crooked

Until now

I just understood

It's a bit of a talent to do agriculture all my life."

Li Shuangzhu was fascinated, and Li Haoqi, who was also watching on the side, asked, "Dad, can you understand Yu Province's dialect?"

"Why don't you understand, isn't there subtitles? Dad also went on a business trip to HN, and the people there speak very well. It's not like the vernacular of Guangdong Province, it sounds like listening to a book from heaven!" Li Shuangzhu said with a smile.

Non-Cantonese people listen to the vernacular, and they really can't understand it. However, Li Liang knows that with the popularity of Hong Kong martial arts dramas in China in the 80s, especially Cantonese songs in the mainland, more and more mainlanders are learning to sing in the vernacular.

The father and son watched the show and talked, time flew by, and when Li Meng returned home, it was almost dark.

As soon as her daughter came home, Wang Xiulan added the hot pot base with the boiled chicken soup, and then added various side dishes such as fish balls, meatballs, mushrooms, kelp, yuba, tofu, Chinese cabbage, etc., filled a large bowl of hot pot and brought it to the living room.

Li Shuangzhu opened a bottle of Site Laojiao and a bottle of champagne soda. He drank his own wine and poured soda for his wife and two children.

In previous years Chinese New Year's Eve Wang Xiulan had to make a table of nine dishes, one soup and Chinese New Year's Eve rice, but this year, the family ate hot pot in the Chinese New Year's Eve for the first time, which saved a lot of things.

The family happily toasted and celebrated the gratifying changes in the family this year.