Someone once said,"When your parents are here, you should not travel far." This is especially true for the Spring Festival and the New Year. Everything is based on the wishes of your parents. Before the Year of the Ox, we invited our parents who lived in our hometown in Xiangyun rural areas to celebrate the New Year in Dali. They meant to celebrate the New Year with our eldest brother and others in their hometown, so we followed their wishes and returned to our hometown in Xiangyun to celebrate the New Year.

Spring Festival: It is the beginning of the lunar calendar, also called the New Year. It is the largest, most lively and important ancient traditional festival in China. It is a festival unique to the Chinese people. Since the Western Han Dynasty, the custom of Spring Festival has continued to this day. Spring Festival generally refers to New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month. The Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, is a "New Year" in the traditional sense. It is commonly known as New Year, etc. It is also known as celebrating the New Year, and celebrating the New Year.

On the second day of the Spring Festival every year, there is a custom to return to your mother's family, which gives rise to two sumptuous New Year meals. Return to Xiangyun's hometown during the Spring Festival in 2021, and have two sumptuous New Year meals, making the whole family happy! Before the New Year, I communicated with my eldest brother and the others and prepared various New Year's goods, including Er silk and Er cake specially booked on Longwei Street in Laoguan. It is said that the Er silk taste there is the most authentic, as well as drinks, candies, drinks, pre-wrapped red envelopes for children and the elderly, etc.

On the morning of New Year's Eve, put up the couplet at the door and entry door of "Wish Not Violating B & B". After packing up the New Year's goods, stuffing the trunk, we returned to Xiangyun's hometown. On the way back to Xiangyun Meichang Village from Xiaguan, we took a detour to Xiangyun Cunde Village to visit my great-uncle and pick up the New Year goods specially prepared for us-"Xian Ji".

It is said that the "line chicken" has delicious meat and high nutritional value. My great-uncle was a veteran. After changing jobs, he worked as a veterinarian in villages and towns. Relatives in his hometown often invite him to raise pigs or chickens. This is an old craft that has been passed down for a long time. Line chicken: Also known as castrate cock, qiao cock, etc., the cock's testicles are removed surgically. It is commonly known as "line chicken" in Xiangyun rural areas.

It is understood that castrated cocks lose their reproductive functions, become no longer fierce, aggressive, very docile, and no longer crow to announce the morning. At the same time, the comb and feathers will be smaller and dimmer than normal cocks. The craft of castration has been passed down for thousands of years. It is believed that castration cocks have more delicious meat and higher nutritional value than ordinary big cocks.

Back at Xiangyun's "Meichang Village", the hard-working and kind sister-in-law had already made lunch and waited for us to have dinner when we got home. After lunch, the whole family began to prepare for the most grand New Year's Eve dinner. There are many customs and habits to celebrate the Spring Festival in rural areas. Parents who are nearly 80 years old have continued and passed down the festival customs.

Meichang Village:It belongs to Meichang Administrative Village, Xiangcheng Town, belonging to Shangchuan Dam District, Xiangyun County, about 2 kilometers away from the county seat. The village has jurisdiction over 3 villager groups. Meichang Village is located in the northeast of Xiangcheng Town. The temperature is suitable and suitable for growing rice, flue-cured tobacco, broad beans, vegetables and other crops.

On New Year's Eve, the process of slaughtering chickens in Meichang Village's hometown:

1. Every year during the Spring Festival, I kill a chicken I raise as the most important dish in the New Year's Eve dinner.

2. On New Year's Eve, the cock to be killed was fed with rice. The old father held the cock and washed the chicken feet and beak with clean water. The old mother prepared some supplies for killing chickens and worshiping, such as Xiao Xiang, paper money, tea, wine, a bowl of rice, a piece of bacon, etc.

3. My eldest brother walked in front with the sacrifice on a tray. My father followed closely with the rooster in his arms. My mother was slow to walk. We asked her not to go out. She was worried that we wouldn't know how to do it, so she still followed us to hold a chicken ritual.

4. Follow the original old road at the gate of your hometown to the place at the entrance of the village where chickens are dedicated to worship. After the worship, the parents knelt in four directions and piously prayed for the smooth and well-being of the whole family. My parents are getting old. Let's ask them to stop kneeling down. The simple and kind old people still complete some due etiquette according to custom. We quickly helped them up. The entire process of slaughtering chickens during the New Year is also called "leading students", which is a rural dialect.

5. After killing the chicken, go home and boil the chicken with boiling water, pluck the chicken feathers, and cook the whole chicken together after cleaning it.

On New Year's Eve, Meichang Village has New Year's Eve dinner in my hometown:

1. While my sister-in-law and her friends were making New Year's meals, I walked around and visited the old yard. The sky of the courtyard house is blue and spotless. At noon, a white cloud shot straight into the sky, indicating a smooth and bullish good luck in the Year of the Ox. My eldest brother lives in the old courtyard when we were young. The other three sides of the courtyard house belong to other families in the family. Now they have all moved out, leaving behind a century-old house and beautiful memories of my childhood.

In front of the ancient gate of the courtyard house, an unknown seed has grown into a small tree through the cracks in the stone after a long period of thick accumulation, truly becoming a unique tree! The ancient well in front of the gate is still there. I ran into an old man who came to fetch water. After asking, I learned that the well water is now used to wash vegetables. Think about when we were young, the well water from this well was the domestic water of a dozen people nearby.

2. During the production of New Year's dinner, the old father and his great-granddaughter played together, while the old mother sat on one side of the yard and watched us. Sister-in-law is a multi-expert, and cooking is her strong point. She still doesn't let us help or help.

3. In a short while, a large table of sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner was ready. Before dinner, my mother went to the ancestral hall to worship as usual. The children were busy "spreading loose wool" and set off firecrackers after everything was ready. The New Year's Eve dinner officially began.

I remember when I was a child, on the night of the New Year's Eve, thick fresh pine wool would be sprinkled on the floor where I ate (in fact, fresh pine needles, that is, New Year goods from the mountain "pinching pine wool"), and the food would be placed on the pine wool. Everyone sat on the ground and had fun. The children were rolling and playing on the ground. It was a happy and happy time. "Lay loose wool": Lay fresh loose wool in front of the door or on the floor of your home. The fresh atmosphere fills the room, symbolizing the peace and security of the new year. Pine needles spread the floor for New Year's Eve dinner, wishing my family to be as everlasting and happy as pines and cypresses, a symbol of good luck and happiness.

"Pinch loosening": Regarding collecting fresh pine needles, Xiangyun is also called "Pinch loosening" in local dialect. I remember when I was a child, every winter vacation before the New Year, the happiest thing for the guys was to meet with three or five friends to walk to the mountains to "clamp and loosen the hair." While walking and playing for a long time, they could "clamp" a basket home.

The New Year's Eve dinner was held in a cheerful and peaceful atmosphere. During the meal break, red envelopes are issued. First, red envelopes are issued to elders and wish parents a long, healthy life and peaceful old age; secondly, red envelopes are issued to children and wish them happy growth and progress in learning. After New Year's Eve dinner, I accompanied my father to go for walks in the fields to exercise as usual. Under my guidance, my old father would go for a walk in the fields every day after breakfast, and after dinner was no exception. After years of persistence, I am now accustomed to this good lifestyle.

On New Year's Day, my hometown in Meichang Village appreciates rapeseed flowers:

In rural areas, there is a custom not to go out on New Year's Day. So I went to the rapeseed field on the east side of Meichang Village to enjoy the pastoral scenery. There were not many rapeseed flowers in the farmland. I returned home in about 2 hours and chatted with my parents.

On the second day of the New Year's Eve, the "Zhongyousuo" hometown has New Year's Eve dinner:

According to rural customs, the second day of New Year's Eve is the time to return to my mother's family. The daughter-in-law's family has many brothers and sisters, and they all ate New Year's Eve dinner in Shalon Town. After discussion this year, several sisters decided to go to the eldest sister's "Zhongyousuo" village for New Year's Eve dinner. Returning to her mother's home: On the second day of the first lunar month, this day is the day when my daughter-in-law "returns to her mother's home". Returning to her mother's home, also known as "walking to her mother's home", is a very unique folk custom. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, married daughters must return to her mother's home and travel with their husbands, so this day is also called "Welcome to the son-in-law day" or "Aunt's Day". According to the appointed time, everyone gathered in Xiangyun's "Zhongyousuo" village.

After all the staff arrived, the four "grandfathers" chatted and drank tea together. The children gathered together to chat and study and connected to play games together. The daughter-in-law invited some sisters and mother-in-law to go to Hedian Township Middle School where they used to work. In this era of abundant supplies, what you eat doesn't seem to be very important. The key is that it is a good choice to chat or play together, and it is good for a family to have fun. The sisters worked together, and in a short time, a table of sumptuous New Year meals was ready.

There was a table for children and a table for adults, and the New Year's meal back to her parents 'parents began. We still give red envelopes to elders and children, wishing the elderly health and longevity and the children's learning progress.

When I return to Xiangyun's hometown during the Spring Festival in 2021, I have a few experiences:

1. When a large family is reunited, what you eat is really not important. It's good to be happy.

2. Go back to Xiangyun's hometown during the Spring Festival in 2021 and have two sumptuous New Year meals. The family will be happy and healthy.

3. Being with my family, the process of making and eating New Year's meals is a wonderful slow time. I hope this life will be more and more.

Special thanks to the family! Your brilliance will be worth remembering! It is not easy to organize pictures and texts. If you reprint this article, please indicate the source, otherwise you will be investigated!

Thanks for reading! I wish you all the best! Tourism in Dali, small groups play. Pay attention to non-illegal travel, and more exciting travel awaits you!