After Laba, in the middle of the New Year, there is a small year, in fact, the day of the small year is mainly for the New Year of the Stove God, legend has it that on this day, the Lord of the Stove wants to ascend to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor the merits of the family, and the resignation of the stove is to send the Lord of the Stove to set off.

Everyone lit a stick of incense to the god of the stove on the stove, and put some delicious food, especially sweet, which means that after eating sweet, say more sweet words to the Jade Emperor.

As soon as the New Year passes, the New Year will be celebrated in a few days, and every household will begin to clean, clean furniture, buy New Year's goods, etc., and the three dogs are the most impressive, and they are naturally killing pigs.

The three dogs will catch a piglet every year to raise, to the New Year, just out of the slaughter, invited to kill the pig farmer (butcher) to kill, leaving the pig's head and tail, water (internal organs), and a little pork.

Most of the rest have to be sold to the pig slaughterers, who in turn sell them to the pork stalls in the market or pull them along the road to sell. If nothing is given to the pig farmer, he will be given money.

In Sangou's house, the money from selling pork is the bulk of the household expenses in a year, such as buying salt, clothes, children's education, etc., as well as the little pig book (the money to buy the little pig); Some people specialize in raising sows, come to give birth to piglets, raise them until weaning, and then sell them.

Before killing the pig, the mother of the three dogs will generally prepare something delicious for the pig, or at least let it eat enough, this guy who came out of the hungry prison mountain, eat more at the last meal, and will not be hungry on the road, and choose a good person in the next life, be a good man, don't be a bad person anymore, otherwise you will have to be reincarnated as a beast.

The family and a few men in the neighborhood grabbed the big fat pig out of the pigpen, and one person grabbed a pig's ear with one hand, and pulled out the pig that was screaming in pain.

If the pig is still dead and does not leave, there is still someone behind him with a stick and beats its buttocks, and the pig can't stand the pain, so it has to be pulled out.

The pig killer had already set up a big stool (a stool made of wide and thick wooden planks) in the open space, and there were large wooden plates and pig-killing knives hidden underneath, waiting for everyone to catch the pig's trotters, carry it onto the big stool, and hold it still.

The pig killer picked up the pig killing knife and stabbed it into the pig's throat, the long tip of the knife went straight to the pig's heart, and the pig screamed desperately, but after a while, the sound gradually became quieter, until there was no sound to die.

The big wooden plate below put a little salt and starch water in advance, and then a full plate of pig blood, stir a few times, bring it into the kitchen, the winter weather is cold, the pig blood quickly solidifies, use a kitchen knife to cut a few pieces, put it in a pot of hot water, and cook it for a while.

At this time, three dogs and four dogs and several children gather around the stove, waiting for their mother to give each person a bowl of fresh pig blood, sprinkle some salt flowers and green onions, which are tender and delicious.

Before killing the pig, the mother of the three dogs had to boil a large pot of hot water to prepare, and when the pig died, everyone pulled the dead pig and threw it into a high wooden barrel and poured it with the boiled hot water.

The pig killer hurriedly picked up the razor, shaved the pig hair with a rustling sound, and when it was about time to shave, he carried the pig to the big stool, took a water scoop, and poured the pig hair that had not yet been shaved with hot water, and continued to scrape.

The weather is cold, you have to hurry, otherwise, as soon as the water is cold, the pig hair will be very strong, and it will be difficult to scrape it off. After a while, a pig seemed to have been stripped naked and became a naked white pig.

Next, kill the pig to disembowel the pig, remove the internal organs, turn the pork belly and pig intestines, stinky to death, wash it a little, sort and put it away.

Then the body of the pig is decomposed, the head and tail of the pig are cut to the owner, four pork legs are cut off, and then along the backbone bone, cut with a boning knife, and it becomes two large pieces of pork.

Sangou Mom and Sangou Grandma are anxious to deal with some pig offal, also cut some meat, and make pig killing wine at night, invite relatives and friends from the neighborhood to come together, eat meat and drink wine.

The pig's head and pig tail are cooked in a large pot, dried first, can not be eaten, to stay on the day of the New Year to worship the ancestors, the ancestors need three animals, there is also a lack of chickens and fish, the chickens are raised at home, and they can be killed at any time.

Fish either to buy, or their own fish pond, before the Chinese New Year, put the fish pond water, find a fish net to fish, the fish pond is generally not dry water, there will still be a little water below.

Or people don't want to drain the water, so they want to leave some water for some small fish to live and wait until they grow up next year. Relatively large fish ponds can allow others to go down to catch some trash fish and small fish after fishing.

Sangou often holds a small basket, takes off his shoes and socks, goes down to the cold pond mud, catches some small fish and miscellaneous fish loaches or something, his hands are numb, and he may not be able to catch it when he sees a small fish.

But it seems that the fish is also frozen numb, or not much in winter, the three dogs endured the freezing, caught some and took it home, fried it with oil, fried it with chili, and it was ready to eat.

The family bought a large grass carp from the dry pond, took out the gills, hollowed the belly, folded a few small branches, stretched the belly of the fish, took a few straws through the gills of the fish's mouth, tied it and hung it to dry, waiting for the New Year.

At night, you have to put on a big hat or something on the rope of hanging fish, otherwise, the fish will be stolen by mice, and the rats will slip down along the rope of hanging fish and burrow into the belly of the fish to eat.

Even if there are many cats in the village, they can't stand more and more powerful mice, they steal everything, steal eggs, one mouse can't take away an egg, so two mice cooperate, one holds, and the other bites its tail and drags it away.

Some mice are very big and fat, and they are not afraid of cats, and some cats see it, but they don't see it, it's too big, bigger than cats.

Such a big mouse, its belly is dragged to the ground, and it can't walk, what should I do? Just jumping and walking, in the middle of the night, jumping and jumping, the sound is the same as a person walking slowly step by step.

Sangou listened to it in the middle of the night when he was a child, and he always thought it was a ghost, so he was so scared that he hid in the bed and didn't dare to come out, but then he grew up and felt strange.

I couldn't help but hide a flint one night, and when I heard that sound, I immediately lit up the flint, which is really what people call a big fat mouse.

When the big mouse saw the fire, he was not afraid, nor was he in a hurry, but he jumped away step by step, and the three dogs were so stunned that they forgot to fight it; What a miracle.

……

It's the New Year, although everyone is frozen like a dog by the cold weather, but they also get up early with joy, and their mother and grandmother are preparing New Year's dishes.

In the morning, each family moved out a small table, put it in the open space in front of the door, put the pig's head, the whole fish, the whole chicken (killed and processed), lit three incense, and thanked the New Year.

Thank God for giving yourself a bite to eat in this year, and pray for blessings in the coming year, peace every year, more than one year, and so on......

In the past, the living conditions were poor, and it was not easy for people to live, so they revered the heavens and gods, worshiped some supernatural forces that they could not control, as gods, and prayed for blessings from them.

Perhaps, to some extent, or in a certain respect, these are true, at least in terms of faith, and these customs cannot all be classified as superstition.

People with faith are better than people who have no faith and no bottom line, at least they can live with strength, know where they come from and where they return, and not be so anxious and imitating.

……

(End of chapter)