The midyear festival is also known as the 'Ghost Festival' or 'Bon Festival'. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhongyuan Festival is a Taoist saying, the name of "Zhongyuan" originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and in some places it is commonly known as "Ghost Festival", "Shi Gu", also known as the Day of the Dead, and half of July.

According to ancient records: 'The Tao Sutra takes the fifteenth day of the first month as the upper yuan, the fifteenth day of the seventh month as the middle yuan, and the fifteenth day of the tenth month as the lower yuan. According to "Daozang": On the day of the Middle Yuan Dynasty, the local officials checked everyone to distinguish between good and evil...... In its day and night to recite the scriptures, the ten great sages, Qi Yong Ling. Prisoner of the hungry ghost, at that time freed.

Therefore, since ancient times, this day has been a day to worship the deceased relatives and mourn the ancestors.

It was only in July, and the people in the village under the mountain began to prepare sacrifices for the ancestors, and because it was inconvenient to travel at the foot of the mountain, Li Da was sent out by his father early, and drove to the nearby county town with his younger brother Li Qiang to purchase five-colored paper and all kinds of straw paper.

When a cart full of paper mops will come back, the skillful women in Zhuangzi will cut the five-color paper to make a long paper flag, also known as "field flags", and cut the straw paper into small sheets, and cut out countless paper money with round square holes for use on the day of the Zhongyuan Dynasty.

Although the first two years have also passed the Zhongyuan, but Li Mo and the merchants in the house two of them together, although also three times a day to the mausoleum sacrifices, but never did these rural rituals, this time in the Zhuangzi, a few people have learned a lot of customary rules, for a while also quite novel.

Looking at those women of the Zhuang family skillfully cut out all kinds of beautiful long flags, Rao knew that this was for the ancestors, and the merchants also liked it, so they had to pull Wu Meiniang on the side to learn from it, and after a few days, they also cut out a few decent long flags.

On the day of the Middle Yuan Dynasty, all the men, women and children in the Zhuangzi got up early in the morning, everyone held a long banner made of five-colored paper, wore new clothes, and rushed to the sacrificial field outside the Zhuangzi while the morning dew had not yet fallen, looking for the highest and densest rice ear in the field, and tied the long flag in his hand to the tip of the ear.

There are about 100 people up and down in the Zhuangzi, for a time, the whole sacrificial field is full of five-colored flags, looking extremely colorful, when the sun comes out, the five-colored paper reflects the sun, fluttering in the wind, it is like blooming flowers all over the field, brilliant and dazzling.

Shang Shang and Wu Meiniang also changed into neat clothes and followed everyone down to the field, they didn't understand what to do, but when they understood, they also smiled and looked for the rice ears to tie up, watching the long flags they tied with their own hands dancing in the wind, the two couldn't help but look at each other and laugh, even Li Mo on the side couldn't help but look at it.

Seeing that the sun was getting higher, Li Da's mother, Mrs. Feng, gave an order, and all the men, women and children in the village laughed and followed back to Zhuangzi.

Although this series of long flags is to worship the ancestors and pray for the blessing of the family, but mixed with this group of smiling people, the merchants and Wu Meiniang are full of smiles, that is, Li Mo's heart does not have the heaviness and depression of the sacrifice in previous years.

The people who returned to Zhuangzi spontaneously divided into two groups, the men were led by Feng's husband, the patriarch of Lijiazhuang, and carried a plate loaded with three animals to the ancestral hall in the southwest corner of the main courtyard to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, while the women stayed in the kitchen behind the main house in the main courtyard, and built a large stove to prepare for a lunch meal.

This meal will drink is also known as "hanging hoe", after eating this hanging hoe wine, the people in the village will be busy with the autumn harvest, and when the autumn harvest is over, the grain will enter the warehouse, you can leisurely hang the hoe and prepare for the winter.

Li Mo and the merchants sent the pre-prepared sacrificial gifts to Zhaoling, and then returned to Zhuangzi.

This time, Wu Meiniang did not ask to go together, and the businessmen did not force it, after all, she and Li Shimin had a skin-to-skin relationship, and now when she is about to enter the palace again, let her always face her past, which is not good for her or Li Zhi.

"Mei Niang! ＂

As soon as the merchant entered the main courtyard, he saw Wu Meiniang mixed in a group of peasant women.

Dressed in a honey-colored narrow sleeve skirt, she stood out among a group of peasant women with aprons tied around their waists and scarves on their heads, so you don't need to look for her to see her at a glance.

"You're back? ＂

Wu Meiniang greeted the two while kneading the dough in her hand, the dough was kneaded and wanted to be eaten on the table, the old man ate the noodle, and the child ate the noodle sheep, and it was not a little sloppy.

"Hmmm! ＂

The merchant agreed, took the stool handed over by a servant woman, sat next to Wu Meiniang, and watched Wu Meiniang pinching the sheep curiously.

Li Mo followed the merchant into the courtyard, looked at the women and children in the courtyard, and was quite uncomfortable, wearing a navy blue narrow-sleeved shirt that looked even more out of place in this pile of women.

"Merchant! You accompany Miss Wu here, and I'll go look for Li Da."

The merchant turned his head to look at the embarrassed Li Mo, and couldn't help laughing, waving his hand and saying, "You go!" I'm here, and when I can drink, I'll look for you again." After speaking, he didn't pay attention to him, and turned his head to watch Wu Meiniang kneading the dough.

Seeing her curious, Li Mo shook his head and smiled, and went to the ancestral hall to find Li Da.

A group of women were busy for most of the day, and finally made the table noodles for drinking, and when the tables and chairs were all placed in the courtyard, the head was counted, even if it was a table of ten people, there were as many as twelve tables, of which Li Mo and others accounted for two tables.

As soon as the dishes were served, the old patriarch Li, who was dressed in a newly woven Ruyi pattern Shu brocade shirt, didn't say much, just a simple sentence: "Open the meal!" Then he heard a commotion, and the bowls on the table rang out in unison.

The men were drinking and eating the rice wine, and the women had to watch the children while eating.

After three rounds of drinking, Old Patriarch Li took a cup and walked over to the table of Li Mo and others.

Although Li Mo's identity has not been publicly recognized, there was also a clear order when the emperor asked him to guard the tomb for three years.

Even if Li Mo didn't want to sit in the chief, Old Patriarch Li didn't dare to slack off in the slightest.

"Childe! I salute you! ＂

"Don't dare! Mo Nai is a junior, and it is up to him to respect his predecessors! Li Mo picked up the wine cup in front of him.

Although he doesn't touch wine, Li He is the current patriarch of the Li clan, even if Li Zhi is here, he has to be polite, how can he not give this face?

The two drank it all together, and Li He said: "The son has been in the house for three years, and the old man is very impressed.

"Li Mo doesn't dare! Putting down the wine cup, Li Mo bowed slightly and smiled.

Li He smiled and waved his hand, signaling Li Mo to sit down and leave him alone, looked at Li Yan and the others at the table, and knew that these people had special identities and were not allowed to drink, so they didn't continue to respect each other, just nodded at Shang Shang and Wu Meiniang, and turned around.

After a lively meal, the children were the first to remove the table. While the men were still drinking and talking, the women had slowly begun to clean up, and put together several plates of leftovers on the table, which could be warmed up and eaten again as the weather became cooler.

Shang Shang and Wu Meiniang wanted to help at this time, but they were driven away by a group of servants in aprons with a smile, and the two had no choice but to go back to the courtyard where they lived to get the river lanterns that had been made earlier.

It is the custom of the Midyear Festival to put the river lantern, and when the sky is dark, the men and women in the Zhuangzi go out with lanterns, because it is the Midyear Ghost Festival, the elderly and children are not allowed to go out, and only young and middle-aged men and women can travel together.

There are not many rivers under Jiuzhi Mountain, the nearest river from Lijiazhuang is called "Erdaogou", also known as "Shigong Fork", it is from the mountain along the mountain road, the water flow is clear, the bends are not much, most of the river lamps can flow out of the water quite a long way, it is very auspicious, so the river lanterns are put here every year.

Li Mo walked in front of Shang Shang and Wu Meiniang, the lantern in his hand gradually became brighter in the darkening night, illuminating the road under Shang Shang's feet, Li Yan took four guards, carrying lanterns and accompanying several people.

Listening to the soft conversation and laughter of the men and women in front and behind, blowing the cool night breeze, the long string of red lanterns at a glance looked like a flowing red silk cloth, swaying quietly in this night.

The merchant held a six-layer lotus lantern made by himself, and each lotus petal had a person's name written on it, which naturally included the names of Li Shimin and the eldest grandson queen, and the other two were the names of the merchants' parents in this life.

The one in Wu Meiniang's hand is also a lotus lantern, but I don't know whose name is written on it.

When the moon was getting brighter, the group finally reached the river.

Under the reflection of the lantern, looking for a slope near the water, the merchant lit the short candle in the lotus lantern in Li Mo's hand, carefully put it into the lantern, squatted down and gently put the lamp into the water.

Wu Meiniang concocted the same method, followed her and put the lantern into the water, and when the merchant looked at it in a flash, he was stunned to find that the lotus petal in the center was written with the word Wu Meiniang.

A few people stood on the shore and watched the two flickering lanterns drift farther and farther away with the gurgling water, and gradually merged into the flickering light of the various river lamps in the river, and they could no longer distinguish them.

When he turned his head to look, the men and women on the left and right Zhuangzi all folded their hands and chanted in a low voice, softly praying for the deceased relatives to ascend to bliss as soon as possible.

After watching it silently for a long time, until the glow of the river became farther and farther away, and gradually turned into a dotted fluorescent light, as if the river water under the same moon had melted together, Wu Meiniang turned her head and said, "Let's go!" ＂

Shang Shang looked into her eyes and smiled, "It's time to go back!" ＂

On the way back, although the men and women around were enthusiastically discussing which river lantern was doing well and which river lantern was drifting far, Li Mo and his party were still speechless.

The quiet smile on Wu Meiniang's face and the peaceful brilliance in her eyes made her feel like she had been reborn, revealing a warm breath from the inside out.

The merchant wanted to say something to Wu Meiniang several times, but in the end he couldn't make a sound, and only sighed softly.

And the river lantern with Wu Meiniang's name written on it quietly drifted down the river called Shigongcha until it reached the top. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) )