The taste of the Spring Festival undoubtedly occupies a pivotal position in the ups and downs that people have experienced.

In Liu Zheng's memory, the Spring Festival has always been a distant and vague dream: the sound of firecrackers when he was a child, the fragrant Chinese New Year's Eve dinner on the table, and the money given by adults. His impression of his parents is very weak, and he can't even remember their faces, only the kind smiles of his grandparents accompany him to grow up. Later, the two elders passed away one after another, Liu Zheng became completely alone, and never had a decent Spring Festival again, and later, even he was used to this kind of life, and any festival had no meaning to him.

But this year is different, and when I think about it, this should be the first serious Spring Festival he has had since he grew up.

Because of the reconciliation between father and son, Fu Shenzhou decided to take time to go home for the New Year, which was great news for the island in the middle of the lake, and the housekeeper Huang Paw was so excited that he began to prepare all kinds of New Year's goods on the fifteenth day of the lunar month, vowing to make this year's Spring Festival the most grand.

So Ding Luo and Liu Zheng were naturally arrested, but this was also what Liu Zheng couldn't ask for, because in this way, they could be freed from the painful physical training.

At the beginning of the new year, Hunan people pay attention to "removing the old year and welcoming the new year", so before the Chinese New Year's Eve, they will definitely clean the house and give the new year a good meaning. In addition, in order to celebrate the return of the old island owner, Shangqi decided to open Huxin Island on the 30th Chinese New Year's Eve of the lunar month, allowing villagers from neighboring villages to visit the island. Therefore, the pressure of cleaning has become extraordinarily great, Yellow Paw hired more than a dozen village women to be responsible for cleaning, plus the three of them are masters, the eaves and walls are not a problem, and the cleaning of the high places is completed by them, and it finally took two days to clean the courtyard inside and out.

In addition to cleaning up the house, you should also post New Year's pictures at home. In the old town of Qiantang, New Year's paintings were also pasted during the New Year, but later this custom gradually disappeared with the development of the city.

If you really want to talk about it, the New Year's flavor in most areas of Zhijiang is already very light, people only think about making money, and they don't pay much attention to the inheritance of traditional culture. So in preparing for the New Year, Liu Zheng is very active, and any task is a new experience for him.

The Spring Festival couplets on the door of the house are personally penned by Huang Claw, the old man does have a brush, don't look at his hands because of the practice of claw skills as thick as steel claws, but unexpectedly learned a beautiful hand, brush a few strokes to write a couplet:

Book [Sanyang Kaitai people Yingwufu go in spring]

The next book [Ten Thousand Monkeys Restoration, the Great Fortune of Heaven Coming Day by Day]

Horizontal batch [good time and year]

The pen is strong, the edge penetrates the back of the paper, and the momentum of the simple and desolate is rushing to the face.

When all the preparations are done, the time has come to the 24th day of the lunar month, which is the "small year" of Hunan, and the most important custom is to worship the king of the stove. It is said that on the 24th of the stove, the prince of the stove will return to heaven to report on his work, and talk about the good and evil in the world, so on the day of the sacrificial stove, each family must clean the stove, several cases, pots and pans, and paste the couplet next to the statue of the god of the stove: "God says good things, and the lower world keeps peace." After the sacrifice begins, people put candy, water, beans, and straw on the table in front of the statue of the king of the stove; Among them, the last three are prepared for the mount of the king of the stove to ascend to heaven. When sacrificing to the stove, the whole family makes a salute and makes a wish, and also smears honey on the lips of the king of the stove in the portrait, hoping that after the god of the stove eats, he will not say bad things about people, which is called "sending the stove". It is not until the end of the stove that the entire sacrificial activity is completed.

After the 24th year of the lunar month, Hunan has officially entered the Spring Festival mode, even on the island, you can hear the sound of firecrackers coming from the villages and towns by the lake. The days were approaching Chinese New Year's Eve day by day, and the taste of the year was getting stronger and stronger, and finally on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, they waited for Fu Shenzhou, the old island owner who had been away from his hometown for a long time.

Huang Claw personally went to the shore of the lake to pick up people, Shang Qi, Liu Zheng, and Ding Luo were waiting on the island, and after a while, they saw dozens of boats rowing towards the island in the middle of the lake, and the front boats were Fu Shenzhou and Huang Claw.

Waiting for the boat to dock, the three of them hurriedly saluted Fu Shenzhou, after the incident in Jingci Temple, Shangqi's estrangement from Fu Shenzhou has been completely eliminated, and the word "father" has become more and more proficient, and there is no longer the embarrassment earlier.

Fu Shenzhou patted Shangqi's shoulder, nodded to Liu Zheng and Ding Luo, and walked towards the courtyard first.

It hasn't been back for decades. This mansion has a pivotal significance in Fu Shenzhou's heart, from the moment he walked into the door, those memories of the past came flooding back, and the picture of the year seemed to be reproduced in front of him...

Under the pear tree full of small white flowers in the courtyard, there is a chaise longue, and a woman in a goose-yellow dress is half-lying in the chair, reading a book intently.

The soft spring breeze blew through, ruffling the green silk on her forehead. The woman reached out to deal with it, only to find Fu Shenzhou standing beside her.

She smiled, her warm eyes rippled with happiness, and the little tiger teeth in her mouth were slightly playful.

"Brother Fu, you're back."

When he was angry, he saw that his father in front of him suddenly stood still, and then his body shook slightly. He hurriedly stepped forward and stretched out his hand to support Fu Shenzhou, and asked with concern, "Father, are you okay?" Isn't it too tiring. ”

Fu Shenzhou waved his hand, indicating that he was fine.

After drinking the tea offered by Shangqi, bathing and changing clothes, and washing away the dust, Fu Shenzhou worshiped the ancestral tablet and officially announced that he had gone home.

Now all the people on Huxin Island have arrived, just waiting for the arrival of Chinese New Year's Eve.

The thirtieth day of the lunar month, Chinese New Year's Eve.

During the day, the island in the middle of the lake is full of tourists, and the people who have received the blessing of Shangqi over the years have come to visit with gifts today, and the old people in the surrounding villages and towns who still remember the owner of the island, Fu Shenzhou, also came to the island to meet accompanied by their families, and talked about the development and changes of the past few decades, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion. After the New Year, the chefs and helpers on the island all went home, so the task of receiving guests could only be done by Liu Zheng, and Huang Paw went to the back kitchen to take charge, Ding Luo went to help, and the army had to make dumplings during the New Year's holidays, and he was ready to show his hand to everyone to taste it today.

Some fellows sent them TVs, because Shangqi has been living an ascetic-like life for many years, in addition to water and electricity on the island, there is no network TV signal, even if you want to watch TV, you can only rely on antennas to receive signals, but fortunately, the villagers are fully prepared, after a while of their trouble, they really received CCTV1 programs.

At 6 o'clock in the evening, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was all ready, and as soon as more than a dozen dishes were served, Liu Zheng's mouth immediately hooked his mouth.

Hunan people are very particular about the food they eat during the Spring Festival, requiring chicken, meat, and fish. The chicken is a rooster, stew it whole, and put it on a plate with its head raised; The fish should be made of silver carp, called "Tuannian fish", and then sprinkled with red chili powder on it after steaming, symbolizing that there is more than enough every year, and the five grains are abundant, and there is also a pork knuckle of about 3 kilograms, called "Tuannian elbow". At the same time, there are many interesting dishes on the table, such as fish balls (balls), meat balls symbolize reunion, radish means good luck, whole chicken means "chicken food", Hunan people also love to eat fried food, because after frying and frying, it means "family fortune is prosperous".

In the sound of festive music from the TV stereo, a table of people raised their wine glasses, and Fu Shenzhou, the head of the old family, spoke, said a few words of blessing, and everyone shouted "Happy New Year!" He raised his head and drank the liquor in his glass. The amount of sparkling alcohol was the worst, because the first sip was too violent, choking on snot and tears. In the laughter of everyone, the Chinese New Year's Eve banquet on Huxin Island was officially opened.

Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve, why is it called Chinese New Year's Eve?

The last day of the lunar year is called "the year of removal", and that night is called "Chinese New Year's Eve". On this night, every family cooks a sumptuous dinner, even for the poorest, and this tradition was first used to reward everyone for their "New Year's Celebration". Then why is it called Shou Sui, this word also has a lot to do with Chinese New Year's Eve.

There is a legend about the origin of "Chinese New Year's Eve": in ancient times, there was an infinitely powerful and short-tempered monster called "Xi", which would come out to harm people when the snow closed the mountains and there was nowhere to feed at the end of the year. Later, it was discovered that there were three kinds of things that Xi was afraid of, red color, firelight, and sound. So people decided to hang red mahogany boards on their doors, and to burn a fire at the door, and to stay up all night, sometimes making loud noises to drive it away. In the winter of this year, "Xi" broke into the village again, but as far as the eye could see, there was a red fire, and there was a loud sound that frightened him and ran back to the mountains, never daring to come out again. When the night passed, people congratulated each other, and everyone put up lanterns, drank and feasted, and celebrated the victory of "keeping the New Year". With this experience, people will stick red spring couplets and set off firecrackers on the night of the next Chinese New Year's Eve to drive away the Chinese New Year's Eve beast in order to seek peace in the new year. This custom has been passed down since then, and the night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve is called Chinese New Year's Eve.

Everyone drank wine and ate food, while watching the Spring Festival Gala, the time soon reached 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, the sound of fireworks outside the island sounded on time, and everyone also left the table to go out to watch. When they got outside, the sound of the flowers was even more deafening, and the sky was dyed purple and red. Yellow Claw had already prepared fireworks on the shore of the lake, and Huang Claw, Liu Zheng, Ding Luo, and Shangqi started to ignite it, and 12 36-shot salutes were fired at the same time, and soon the sky above the island in the middle of the lake was illuminated as bright as day.

Liu Zheng, who was sitting by the lake watching the fireworks, was a little distracted at this time.

When he tried to get rid of the smiling faces in front of him and peeked at the panorama of the "Spring Festival" in a jubilant ocean, Liu Zheng found that every minute of the festival showed the desire, hope and passion precipitated in the past.

In the journey of Chinese people's life, although people have different pursuits and choices for their own lives, the Spring Festival has always been a glass of alcohol that can never be drunk, allowing many people to taste another meaning of life.

Therefore, Liu Zheng thought, I am afraid that no one in this world can truly and profoundly understand the meaning of the Spring Festival. Every detail of it is displayed in front of the eyes of the Chinese people in different forms such as making dumplings, eating Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, keeping the New Year, setting off fireworks, and watching the Spring Festival Gala. We play with these details, chew on the humanistic significance and cultural heritage behind these details, and what we can experience is always sweetness and family affection.

The Spring Festival has long become an indispensable spirit in people's lives. Walking in the years of the Spring Festival and the change of the Spring Festival, in the face of the idea that the line is about to pass and the coming thoughts, people are always so eager to use the symbol of the Spring Festival to omit all kinds of unhappiness or sadness that have passed a year, and then, raise their hands to welcome the new sun.

Although with the development of society and the change of people's concepts, the Spring Festival may no longer be everyone's expectation for the new year. However, the lights of the Spring Festival, the celebration of the Spring Festival, and the taste of the Spring Festival have indeed resolved the hearts and minds of yesterday and today, and intoxicated everyone who had worked hard around the dinner table for a year in the thirties of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and Liu Zheng, who watched the fireworks by the lake.

In a trance, he felt as if there was a person sitting beside him, with a petite body, a yellow shirt, and warm little hands on the back of his hand. He hurriedly turned his head to look, but he didn't see anything, his side was empty, but the two gentle gazes and the touch on his hands were still vaguely there.

Liu Zheng clenched his hands, looked at the sky in the distance with a smile, and said in his heart: "Although I don't know why I forgot about you, we will definitely meet again." Happy New Year, girl. ”