Chapter 24: The Qingming Festival should worship the ancestors
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Chapter 24 It’s time to worship ancestors during the Qingming Festival [Please collect and recommend]
Around the Qingming Festival, the busiest time comes. Spring is warm, flowers are blooming, and spring plowing is being prepared for planting. Lijiagang is like this. In the fields, buffaloes and farmers are busy sowing seeds.
Li Feng's family is better, with a paddy field on the left and right that has been planted two days ago. Yesterday, during free time, Li Feng followed Li Shan's instructions and went to the street to buy paper and firecrackers, and prepared to go to the mountain to sweep the tomb the next morning. Tomb sweeping during the Qingming Festival is called
To express respect for the ancestors, Lijiagang does not talk about sweeping tombs, but talks more about doing Qingming. What is meant by doing is just preparation in advance. One is to make "standards" and the other is to make "packages". Do it one day in advance and prepare it.
"Biao" is a special paper flower made of four colors of red, yellow, green and white paper, cut into the shape of connected copper coins. It is about ten centimeters in diameter. Legend has it that "Biao" is a kind of flag of the underworld, with one flag corresponding to another.
The identity of the ancestors is like today's ID card. A flag must be present at the banquet in the underworld, just like an identity verification. During the Qingming Festival, the ancestors hope that the descendants will insert a "flag" before they can drink alcohol. Of course, descendants will sacrifice and burn the flag.
In the past, money was claimed by flags.
"Bao" packages are used as postal treasures sent from the Yang world to the "underworld". Lijiagang no longer makes large packages. They use bamboo cards to make thin slices and write the names of ancestors on them. It is much simpler. For example, in the past, the Qingming Festival was early
It took several days to make preparations. After Li Feng bought the paper, Zhang Lan took out the scissors and made paper money. They put the strings on the bamboo and made the paper money. They started making "standards" for more than three generations. Li Feng can be said to be the fourth generation.
For the single pass, six "standard" pieces were made, and only three "bao" pieces were made, one for each family, a couple's sign.
Li Feng watched from the side, rarely getting involved in worshiping ancestors. Nowadays it is not complicated, it is just something simple. On the contrary, Li Feng found it interesting and learned to do it.
Early the next morning, Li Feng carried various items, large and small, and accompanied Li Shanshan to worship his ancestors. Most of Lijiagang's tombs are on Tuofeng Ridge, a hilltop with a very small slope. Lijiagang has few mountains and many mountains, so a special area was set aside.
A mountain is used as a cemetery. In Li Feng's opinion, the ancestors were very wise, so that it would not look messy, otherwise the mountains and plains would be filled with graves, which would look like they were infiltrating people.
Li Feng stopped and walked, picking some wild chrysanthemums. He heard that his grandma liked chrysanthemum tea, but Li Feng kept it in mind. Grandpa Li Feng had a son in his forties, and Li Shan gave birth to Li Feng at the age of 278. At that time, the two old people
He is over seventy years old. Li Feng only remembers his grandfather, who took him to play when he was a child. As for his grandma who went there earlier, Li Feng has no memory. He listened to his mother Zhang Lan telling him some things. He picked a handful of chrysanthemums and picked them.
I picked up a willow branch and tied it up.
It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival, and the weather is a bit gloomy today. Li Feng follows Li Shan closely. Tuofeng Ridge is some distance away from Lijiagang. It looks like Sanwu Road. It is not like other mountains with many canes and trees. It is a bit desolate, with not many trees on the left and right.
, the weeds are just messy, and it seems that someone cleans them up every year. Along the mountain road, Li Feng follows Li Shan, watching Li Shan clean up some saplings from time to time. There are already people in the mountain, including familiar villagers and unfamiliar outsiders.
People have been in the village for many years. Some of them don’t even know each other, or they live outside the country. Li Shan knows a lot of them. He comes to say hello from time to time. Li Feng follows behind and calls uncle or uncle.
The land allocated to his family was not much, less than two acres. Li Feng took a look and found that the feng shui was not bad, but he was just doing it blindly, looking at the river in the distance with the mountains at his back. Li Feng took out the sacrifices and placed them on the ceramic plate in front of him.
, there are fish, meat, rice, and a pot of home-brewed peach blossom wine.
"Don't pour the wine, don't be too cheap." Li Shan watched Li Feng pour the wine and immediately stopped him. He took out the tool and handed it to Li Feng. The two began to clean up the weeds and saplings on the grave. After cleaning up
He started to dig some soil and wrap the grave. The strangest thing was to make something like an official hat and put it on the grave. Of course, only grandpa, great grandpa, and grandpa were placed there. Li Shan looked at Li Feng's puzzled look and said,
He chuckled and said that the Li family lineage was passed down more than 300 years ago. At that time, there were wars and disasters, and the ancestors were high officials. These are traditions left over for hundreds of years.
Li Feng really doesn't know much about these things. I wonder if there is something like a genealogy. Li Feng thought as he looked at the weeds and branches on the left and right and cleaned them up. Insert the "mark" in advance to mark his identity. Li Shan, let's start.
Burn incense and offer two bunches of incense to the mountain god and earth god to bless the peace of the ancestors' homes.
The incense in Li Feng's hand was for his old man's use. He burned incense, poured wine, and burned paper money. He put two stacks of paper money on each grave. Li Feng followed Li Shan's example and drew a circle to indicate where this place was.
If there are people, the ancestors go to the underworld to collect money with the "bill", but the "bao" has been burned.
Another meaning of the circle is to protect money from being leaked, so as not to be missed by wild ghosts in lonely graves. This is also one of the reasons why mountain people attach great importance to the continuation of incense. Without descendants to worship, making a "mark" or "guarantee" will not be enough for you in the underworld.
He's a wild ghost in a lonely grave, he doesn't even have an identity.
At this moment, Li Feng somewhat understood the sad look on his second wife's face every time she talked about her ancestors. People, I feel uneasy. Maybe I seem a bit superstitious today, but if I can find peace of mind, why not? Li Feng's expression became more and more intense at this moment.
If you take it seriously, the cultural traditions left by the ancients actually have such good and beneficial aspects.
Li Feng picked up the wild chrysanthemums he picked and placed them gently in front of his grandma's grave. Although he could no longer remember his grandma, from what Zhang Lan said, he could tell how much the old man loved him during his lifetime. What passed away was not only the deep feeling but also the deep sadness.
There is also the memory of family members.
After lighting the incense and talking about the paper, Li Feng helped Li Shan untie the firecrackers and set off the firecrackers. The people in the mountains were originally in high spirits. Now that the year was old and there were few forests in Tuofeng Ridge, they didn't care about it.
Li Feng formed a circle along his grandfather's grave, kept food and wine, and lit firecrackers.
The green smoke rose, and the birds started to fly on the mountains. There was a burst of crackling, and it turned into calm. Li Feng respectfully followed his father Li Shan and kowtowed three times, patted the dust on his body. After the Qingming Festival was completed, he split the branches and opened the way.
Insert the mark, make offerings, burn incense, change paper money, set off firecrackers, and kowtow. Li Shan takes his son and the Li family's incense to continue the Qingming Festival. Back, Zhang Lan has come early
I made breakfast, rice porridge, steamed buns, vegetables, and stuffed beans. It was simple and refreshing. I finished my breakfast.
Zhang Lan is busy again. Tomorrow is the Qingming Festival, also known as the Cold Food Festival. According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period, when Jin Wen Gong was in exile in another country, he once starved. The minister Jie Zitui cut off the meat from his leg and roasted it for Chong'er to eat. After going through all the hardships, Jin Wen Gong was in exile in another country.
Duke Wen of Jin rewarded the ministers who were in exile with him, but forgot about Jie Zitui. When others mentioned it, Duke Wen of Jin felt very uneasy and sent someone to invite him. However, Jie Zitui had already hidden in Mianshan with his old mother on his back. Duke Wen of Jin searched for the mountain to no avail.
I heard a bad idea: set fire to the mountain. Unexpectedly, the fire burned for three days and three nights, but Jie Zitui did not escape. When the fire went out and went up the mountain, I was surprised to find Jie Zitui and his mother under a big willow tree, hugging the tree and burning them to death.
The next year, Duke Wen of Jin paid tribute to Jie Zitui, and the burnt willow tree came back to life. Duke Wen of Jin designated this day as the "Cold Food Festival".
The actual "Cold Food Festival" originated from the ancient people who used different trees to make fires due to different seasons. There was a custom of changing fires from season to season. When a new fire was replaced, people were prohibited from lighting fires before the new fire arrived. In short, the main purpose of this festival is The festival custom prohibits fire, and people can only eat prepared cooked food and cold food. As time goes by, later generations gradually moved the custom of cold food to the Qingming Festival. What should you eat on the Cold Food Festival? Most of the foods in history have profound meanings and types. It is also very rich, including cold food porridge, cold food noodles, cold food pulp, green rice and sugar, etc.; cold food offerings include noodle swallow, snake plate rabbit, jujube cake, fine barley, etc.; drinks include spring wine, new tea, clear spring sweet water, etc. There are so many kinds of food. Most of the cold food festival foods have been lost to now, but some are still passed down to this day.
Today, Zhang Lan is making the local Qingtuanzi, a must-eat Qingming Festival. Qingtuanzi is not complicated to make, but it takes a lot of effort. Qingtuanzi is also called moxa dumpling, and mugwort is also known as green in common parlance. All are made with mugwort. The dumplings are called Qingtuan'er or Ciba'er. Li Feng helped take out the young mugwort leaves that had been soaked for several days, washed them and chopped them into pieces. Zhang Lan boiled water, put the chopped mugwort leaves in, and added brown sugar to cook it into a batter. Status.
Put it into a porcelain basin and prepare it. Add firewood to the pot again, simply add glutinous rice flour, mix well, form a ball, wrap mugwort leaves and steam it in the pot. If you are not satisfied with the taste of such a simple thing, If you are satisfied, you can wrap it with bean paste and jujube paste, depending on your personal taste. Li Feng does not have glutinous rice flour at home, so it is a bit troublesome. He must cook glutinous rice. After cooking these, it still doesn’t work. Li Feng took advantage of the rice cooking time to start cleaning his stone. Bozier, after a while the glutinous rice is cooked, it must be made like a rice cake, and mixed with the mugwort paste prepared earlier, which is a little more troublesome, but the taste is a little different, which is also the characteristic of the regional green dumplings.
After making these, Li Feng waited eagerly. As he watched, it turned out that it was best to make glutinous rice flour from a small mill. It is easy to mix it. You can put it aside and eat it whenever you want, steam it, or bake it. The Li Feng family's mill has been unloaded. It's a bit troublesome to turn it on, and it has to be cleaned. It's better to boil it and beat it into cakes.
Zhang Lan couldn't resist Li Feng, so she tried to make something. No one knows whether it tastes good or not. Li Feng was full of strength, but after a few minutes, he couldn't swing the mallet anymore. Although his physical strength has improved a little these days, it was like beating rice cakes. , It’s really tiring work. Really, I bought some glutinous rice flour in the town yesterday, I regret it.
Li Shan watched from the side, grabbed the mallet from Li Feng's hand, stepped forward, and started to fight. Li Feng was a little speechless. His physical strength was quite good in college, but now he is not even a little bit worse. Although he has recovered a little in the past few days, he is still The fact that I am physically weak has not changed.
At noon, I tried the different kinds of green dumplings that were made. The taste was indeed a little different, but it was still good and a little stronger. It made Li Shan and his wife not busy in vain, and they ate several more.
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