"Children, children, don't be greedy, it's the New Year after Laba. Laba porridge is drunk for a few days, and it is twenty-three miles; Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky; Twenty-four, the day of house sweeping; Twenty-five, frozen tofu; Twenty-six, go buy meat; Twenty-seven, slaughter the rooster; Twenty-eighth, put the face hair; Twenty-nine, steamed steamed buns; Thirty children stay up all night and walk the streets on the first day of the new year. ”

Cultivators don't remember when they learned this ballad, but in their family, Laba Festival is more valued than New Year's Day, and father-in-law Ye Shifang said that Laba is the enlightenment day of Buddha Shakyamuni. Except for his grandfather Niu Chuanqing, everyone else in the family seems to have been taught by Ye Shifang, and they are more or less interested in Buddhism.

The parents who work hard are those who fasted all the year round, and kowtowed three incense sticks in the morning and evening in the Buddhist hall every day. If it falls on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year and the special day of the birth or enlightenment of the Buddha and Bodhisattva, the three sticks of incense have to be replaced with a bundle of incense, and the prostration will be longer.

The Buddha hall is located in the front of the hall against the wall, and there is a large picture of the three saints of Buddhism hanging in the center of the wall, and couplets are attached on both sides, "worship the Buddha and worship the sins to reduce the river sand, and the Buddha is recited with immeasurable merit." Immediately in front of the painting, there is a red-lacquered desk table, with a square chair on each side of the table, on which are placed some futons and cushions, which are used to cushion the knees when burning incense and worshipping the Buddha.

On the red-lacquered table, an incense burner is placed in the center and a little forward; Some of the back was a lampstand with a sesame oil lamp on it; In the middle of the incense burner and the oil lamp, there is a cup holder, and a three-cai bowl is placed on the cup holder, which is the tea offered to the Buddha and Bodhisattva. On both sides of the table against the wall, there are some books on one side, usually carefully wrapped in red silk cloth, and I heard my father-in-law Ye Shifang say that those are Buddhist scriptures, which are very precious, and children cannot move around; There are also a few thick books on the other side, and the words on the red cover are the anthologies of Grandpa Mao, which naturally can't be moved.

In addition to boiling Laba porridge during the Laba Festival, the family of the cultivator is to eat a meal of rice, Ye Shifang and Niu Chuanqing are both ancestral homes in the south, and the cultivator heard that his father Niu Yonghou grew up in Jiujiang, Jiangxi when he was a child, and after reading junior high school, he came to Shaanxi.

Grandma Wang Ying and mother Tian E worked hard all morning, made rice, and fried a large table of vegetarian dishes. Vegetarian dishes should be offered one by one on the offering table in the Buddha hall for a while, and then placed on the large round table in the hall. Grandpa Niu Chuanqing's food was brought to his room early, because he ate meat dishes, so he usually didn't come to eat in the hall.

The two younger brothers who worked hard had already fed them millet porridge and milk, and the two little ones slept when they were full, and they were asleep at this time. In this way, others are more relaxed and can have a comfortable meal.

There are many kinds of vegetarian dishes on the round table, five cold dishes: cold cucumber, cold bean sprouts and carrots, cold cold powder, cold spinach vermicelli, and a plate of sugar peanuts. Five hot dishes: stir-fried cauliflower, stir-fried cabbage vermicelli, stir-fried shredded potatoes, stir-fried green peppers and tomatoes, and a bowl of green vegetable and tofu soup.

In those days, for cultivating their family, this table of dishes could be described as sumptuous. It's not a bit meaty, but it's just as delicious. What's more, he followed the elders and got used to being a vegetarian, and his grandfather Niu Chuanqing's meat dishes were occasionally given to him to eat one or two bites, and the taste was not as good as vegetarian dishes.

Laba porridge is boiled from morning to evening, and a bowl is respectfully presented to the Buddha hall offering table, at this time a plate of apples and a plate of oranges will be placed on the offering table as an offering fruit. The oil lamps were lit as soon as it was dark, and the smell of burning sesame oil slowly wafted through the hall, carrying a warm feeling.

When I went to worship the Buddha, it was my grandmother Wang Ying who took the whole family together. Since his father-in-law Ye Shifang came, he has led it throughout the year. Cultivator sometimes looks by the door while taking care of his two younger brothers. Sometimes they will follow the adults and kneel down and kowtow a few times. He is young, he doesn't know anything, he just imitates his elders, and his heart is empty without desires.

The tea offered to the Buddha hall needs to be the first pot of boiling water that is freshly boiled in the evening. Wash the bowl, add a little tea leaves, and pour in an appropriate amount of water, and you're good to go.

Father-in-law Ye Shifang stood respectfully in front of the offering table, with grandmother Wang Ying beside him, followed by Niu Yonghou and Tian E. The two younger brothers were playing on the kang, and the cultivator wanted to watch them, but he did not participate, only watched through the gap in the curtain.

The gaiwan filled with tea was raised higher than his forehead, Ye Shifang bent down and bowed, holding the gaiwan with both hands and placing it on the cup holder in the middle of the table. He bowed again, and the whole family saluted. Across the incense burner lay a bundle of incense tied with strings, an ordinary incense stick, about a foot long and slightly thicker than the awl needle used for the sole of a shoe. Usually this kind of incense is one board at a time, ten pieces of a board, five plates of a box, when using the fingernails of two fingers, from the bond between one stick of incense and another stick.

Cultivating will help the family carefully cut the incense, although there is no skill, but the emphasis is on patience and carefulness, otherwise the incense will be broken. The broken incense cannot be dedicated to the Buddha hall, nor can it be discarded at will, but will be specially collected and finally burned together with the incense sticks picked up from the incense burner.

Father-in-law Ye Shifang held the middle of the incense with his left hand, protected one end of the incense head with his right hand, and put the other end on the flame of the oil lamp to light it, and he gently turned it so that each incense could be lit.

A bundle of incense is the easiest to light and carry a flame when it is picked up, but with the action of bowing again and again, the flame is extinguished, and the red incense head rises with bursts of green smoke.

Father-in-law Ye Shifang knelt down with his family, and he gently inserted the bundle of incense in the incense burner with both hands, and then bowed down.

When he saw this, his heart seemed to be bowing to him, looking at the smoke clouds rising under the light of the oil lamp, it seemed that a warm feeling also rose to his heart, and there was a little blur in front of him, and he wiped a handful, and it turned out to be moist tears.

Sure enough, as sung in the children's rhyme, after Laba is the New Year, it seems that the days before this year are much faster than before, and in a few days, the calendar will be on the twenty-third day of the lunar month.

Tian E, the mother who worked hard, got up early in the morning and baked sugar cakes and oil cakes, and offered incense to Grandpa Zaojun. His father also led him to cut his hair early in the morning, and came back with a little flat head. The family, young and old, began to tidy up the house and sweep the courtyard.

At this time, Niu Geng and Niu Geng and Mu were already able to hold on to the wall or be ploughed and walked slowly. In addition to calling him this brother or "Dodo" and "Guoguo", the titles like father-in-law, grandfather, grandma, father, and mother are very clear.

Dad Niu Yonghou moved the wooden rocker to the yard, laid the bedding inside, and carried the two small ones inside and let them play by themselves. The sky was clear, and the winter sun was just right, shining warmly on my body.

There was another square table in the courtyard, and inkstones, ink, and brushes were all prepared. Ye Shifang cut out the red paper and prepared to write the couplet. After the cultivation was counted, there were a total of six doors in the house, plus one pair each of the eldest uncle and aunt in the city, a total of eight couplets. In addition to these, there are also four-character New Year's stickers on the kang head wall, the courtyard wall, the dog kennel pigsty, the trees in the yard, and the shelf car.

Standing at the square table, while watching his father-in-law write, he helped take the writing to the side and cool it.