The leisurely life of farmers in mountain villages

Chapter 101

The annual collection in the countryside is a kind of belief and a kind of culture.

Sitting on the hardened concrete weir by the river, Wang Shaodong felt like a spectator wandering in the world, admiring and sighing all this.

The cold weather couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the folks who went to the New Year's Fair, and everyone's faces were filled with happy smiles.

Maybe most people don't have much money in their pockets. After working hard for a year, they start to pay their wages at the end of the year, and save part of it for future use, and the rest will be used to buy new year's goods.

For Chinese New Year, we must pay attention to it. If other people’s houses have carp on the table, we must also have them. If other people’s houses have chickens, we must also have them.Anyway, the whole year is just to celebrate the New Year.

Things are not too expensive these days, and most vegetables in the market are still at the level of a few cents.The price of meat has already risen. Raw pork costs six to seven yuan, raw mutton costs six to seven yuan, live chicken costs six to seven yuan, and raw beef is a bit more expensive, at 15 yuan a catty.So at the end of the year, take out 500 yuan, and you can buy all the things you need to buy.

The annual collection in the countryside revolves around the offerings on the table in the family hall.

During the New Year in the surrounding areas of Central Shandong, the biggest custom is to invite the family hall, offer sacrifices to the family hall and send the family hall away.

What is a family hall refers to the table of the Eight Immortals that enshrines the tablets of the ancestors.

In the central Shandong area, every household, poor and rich, hardworking and lazy, all have a family table, which is placed in the main hall facing the door.

The table in the family hall is against the wall, and a fan table is placed between the table and the wall in the family hall. There is a large nave on the wall with pictures of cranes, birthday stars, etc., and on both sides are written "home" and "wanshixing".

Below the middle hall is the table of the family hall, and inside the table is a booklet with ancestral tablets written on it.In front of Zuzu Zhezi are tea bowls, wine cups, and chopsticks.Further forward is the fruit plate, oranges, apples, bananas, pineapples and other fruits that can be bought in the market must be placed on a plate.Of course, Wang Shaodong's favorite drunken dates must be indispensable.Wang Shaodong loves to drink, which probably has something to do with the fact that he often ate drunk dates when he was a child.

Going forward, it's fried goods.

Fried lotus root, fried tofu rolls, fried toon sprouts, fried lotus rolls, etc., all on one plate and in a row.

In front of the fried goods are green vegetables, celery, beans and so on. You can buy them with nice names on the market.

Then there are carp tied with red strings, big roosters in a plate, pork head meat, pork liver and so on.

At the front is the incense basket, with a stick of incense inserted in it, and after burning, another stick will be inserted.

The center of the New Year is around this family table, the living stand aside first, and the ancestors have to enjoy it first.

The table in the family hall is ready, then start thinking about the children and the elderly, it is necessary for each person to have a suit of clothes.

After the clothes are ready, the next thing is to eat and play.

During the two days of the first and second day of the new year, all families have to pay New Year’s greetings to each other. When someone comes to your house, you must prepare melons, fruits, pears, and jujubes. If you have children, you have to give them some grass knots and firecrackers to play with. If there is a fireworks display, it is a big money.

Sitting on the river weir, Wang Shaodong was full of thoughts. In his previous life, he had been poor all his life since he was a child, and he was reluctant to buy things for Chinese New Year every year. Thinking about it now is really sad.

Now it's all right, this year, it's no problem to earn 60 yuan from two batches of chickens. At the market, I only need to buy what I want.

Tomorrow is a new year, and you need to quit the stove, and you must buy Tanggua.

Wang Shaodong touched the money in his pocket, and took two hundred from today's chicken sale, plus the change left before, he now has a total of two hundred and thirty forty yuan.

Although the annual collection is good, you must be careful of pickpockets.

Wang Shaodong knew this very well. When it came to the annual market, all the thieves were out in unison. There were at least a dozen thieves at the annual market on the East-West Sanli Road in Dazhai Village.

"Come on, let's go buy firecrackers."

Wang Shaodong jumped off the weir and landed on the river beach.

Zheng Hui and Zheng Tao threw down the oil-wrapped stinky tofu and followed Wang Shaodong to jump down.

The firecracker market on the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month is already very lively.

However, for the sake of safety, adults seldom let children join the firecracker market full of carloads of firecrackers.

Every year on the 22nd and 27th of the twelfth lunar month, there will always be one or two unlucky firecracker dealers who accidentally ignite the whole truckload of firecrackers. With a loud bang, the whole truckload of firecrackers will be burned within a few minutes. Everything is spotless, and even that car will become a pile of scrap copper and iron if it is not done well.

This is a very dangerous occupation, but it was indeed very profitable at the time. After a truckload of firecrackers was sold out, you could almost buy a farm firewood. This risk was worth taking.

Wang Shaodong bought five large firecrackers and five small ones, and Zheng Hui and Zheng Tao also bought the same number of firecrackers.The money was paid by Wang Shaodong, and he said that it would be considered as a New Year's welfare for the two of them.

After coming out of the firecracker market, they went to the dry goods and roasted seeds and nuts market again, and bought some drunken dates, candied melons, melon seeds, raisins and so on. Each of them carried a big bag, and finally left the market.

In the usual Dazhai village fair, there are no people after noon, but this year's fair, there are still many people until four o'clock in the afternoon.

Nianji sells things, and anyone who sells dim sum can sell goods worth 4000 yuan per annianji.

Wang Shaodong carried firecrackers on his shoulders, and Zheng Hui and Zheng Tao also had large and small bags in their hands.This trip down, only spent a total of more than 160 yuan.

In 2002, the total amount of national currency was 18 trillion yuan, but by the end of 2016, this number had become 155 trillion yuan, an increase of more than eight and a half times.In other words, Wang Shaodong spent 160 yuan, which may be equivalent to 2016 yuan in 300.

For a young man of eighteen or nineteen, this is a lot of money.

Although this is not accurate, it can basically reflect some things.

In 2002, green vegetables worth two or three cents were everywhere in the market, and vegetables worth more than one yuan per catty were very expensive, but by the end of 2016, there were not many vegetables that cost less than one yuan in the market. up.

After buying the things, they carried them out for 200 meters and got into the car. Everyone was so happy that they wanted to go home.

The road at the market was blocked, Wang Shaodong and the others had to go back to Songjiazhuang Village first and then go home by another road.

In this way, the way home is a little farther.

On the way home, passing by the station in the county seat, Wang Shaodong suddenly saw a familiar figure on the side of the road, and next to her were two large travel bags. It was Ma Lili, who had returned from vacation.

(End of this chapter)